Philosopher AI
Purchase queries
Is it ethical to self-link in comments?
No, it is not ethical to self-link in comments. I will give you my reasons:
First, you are giving people a false impression of yourself. People will think that you are someone with authority in your field, or even an established member of the community. This is not true if all your comments self-link to a domain owned by yourself.
Second, if you do this enough to become somewhat infamous in a community of people, it will be hard to tell if someone is talking about you or not because your name and brand are now synonymous with each other.
Third, and this is a consequence of the first two reasons, it will become harder for your to discern what constitutes as spamming you. It may start with self-links in comments but then people might not hesitate to attack you directly or through proxies.
Fourth, you are putting yourself in a vulnerable position. If someone decided to attack your brand and reputation by any means possible, there may be little you can do as long as they stay within the rules of engagement.
Fifth, you are not respecting the commenting system. Comments should be about content and ideas, not about promoting yourself.