How 2 Blog?

I am quite comfortable in the milieu of forum warriors and internet trolls. I'd like to think I have a black best in internet posting, but I'm probably just like the rest of them.

Anyway, if I am to do this, I have to be careful about my first concern in my First! post.

-Can I manage to not get myself in trouble and avoid negative and scathing reviews?

I've never seen a negative review on HowChow. I've made my own disparaging comments in the comments section, and they weren't deleted or anything, but I've never seen an article come close to that. I figure there are only a few ways this is possible: the blogger lies about the bad things and makes them sounds good, the blogger simply doesn't write about places in which he or she had a bad experience, or the blogger simply only writes the positive. I think the last one must be the best route to take.

I suppose this is giving things away, but I know of a certain restaurant in Howard County of which, utilizing the 'only write the positive' policy, I would say it is a very cool locale, and I very much enjoy their drinks. In this blog format, you wouldn't see me mention their food, because I have nothing nice to say about it.

Or, maybe I should mention the food and still only mention the good, or at least the neutral, about it. I always knew that if I were ever to review beer, it wouldn't serve well to give it a rating. There is a large amount of liking the taste of a brew which is, not surprisingly, up to a person's taste. I would be a horrible review of Belgian whites, because I just can't stand their taste. I would also skew the malty stouts because that's exactly what I love. It seems to me that the best way to review beer is to give a careful description of the drink to the point that readers would know if it appealed to them.

Giving a full enough description of the experience, while leaving out my own personal disgust, would give readers the best review possible. If I gag due to heavy amounts of cilantro in my pho noodles, I should simply state that a soup is heavy on the cilantro, as ample cilantro could be positive or negative, depending on the eater.

It's also important to note that such a policy wouldn't prevent me from picking favorites.

And, then there are comments. This is where negative reviews could come into the blog, and I wouldn't interfere with that, given some ground rules:
-If you want to comment on a bad experience, you must describe what made it bad. Comments such as, "this place sucks," "the food was horrible," or "the service was bad," will be deleted unless you give some reasons. They'll need to at least be backed up by, "our food tasted stale," "our server was inattentive," or "there was too much cilantro for our liking." I'd rather you just start out with that and avoid the visceral displays of disgust, but some reasons will keep the comment from being deleted for negativity.
-No personal attacks to other commenters.
-No threats to anyone.
-Try to keep names out of negative reviewing. I'm not sure exactly how important this is. I should maybe read up on the legality and ethics of blogging.

I'll put these comment rules in a place where they can be found when they're needed, and will revise them as appropriate.