The reality, of course, is that is the only, or rather, the most popular, tool for the job. The “follow wars,” as I’ll call them, were originally seen as progress for the service as a whole. Government posters should be proud if their tweets attract a few thousand followers — it means that they’re doing something right.

On the other hand, we’ve already discussed the outcomes of only following other institutions.

It may be an imperfect union — government and Twitter — but a wrench can be used as a hammer in a pinch. As government learns more about the concept of Twitter (not to mention the rest social media), and its advantages and limitations, there is a possibility that it will be moved to create a social media service of its own.

We learn a number of things here. Not surpisingly, most posts are edited through the the public affairs office “for policy and legal issues; other editing will be very light, essentially only to correct spelling or grammatical mistakes.”

Other smart ideas:

• A posting minimum for supervisors (at least two posts a month)
• Word count requirement (200-400 words)
• No ghostwriting allowed!
• Informal, personal tone is recommended
• No mimicking news releases!
• The legalese area, here known as “Cautionary Areas”
• A checklist for blog entries
• A requirement to have at least one image per post

We also get a behind the scenes look at the EPA’s business hours commenting policy. This clear policy is laid out in a way that prevents deviations.

This document clearly sets an example for other federal agencies. Hopefully agencies will be able use and expand on this document to create their own blogs. Greenversations is an oft-cited example of a properly done federal blog here, and now we know why: these guidelines are what make it so good. Of course, it’s also an interesting blog.

Many people who would need to blog don’t come from a blogging background, and this is what will bring them up to speed. So kudos to the EPA. And keep up the good work with Greenversations, too!

While both Greenversations and Dipnote do allow comments, there are some other notable blogs, like the White House blog that do not. Why is that?

Take a look at an excerpt of Dipnote’s blog commenting policy for a potential hint:

Any references to commercial entities, products, services, or other nongovernmental organizations or individuals that remain on the site are provided solely for the information of individuals using this blog. These references are not intended to reflect the opinion of U.S. Department of State, the United States, or its officers or employees concerning the significance, priority, or importance to be given the referenced entity, product, service, or organization.

Greenversations also has important information in their commenting policy:

However, given the need to manage federal resources, moderating and posting of comments will generally occur during regular business hours Monday through Friday. Comments submitted after hours or on weekends will be read and posted as early as possible the next business day.

So it appears that the commenting issue can be narrowed to two issues: concerns about third party postings on a government Web server and strict comment moderation policies to ensure that these third party postings are approrpriate.

Looking at the bigger issue, many agencies cannot afford to dedicate someone to moderate comments, especially for a high-profile blog like that of the White House that would presumably receive lots of comments.

This is an unfortunate reality. A blog that does not allow for commenting is really a press release for the agency. Government is supposed to be inclusive of its constitutents, yet these “blogs” merely try to mimic press releases in an informal setting that is more easier for constituents to read.

So, on that note, I will now list a selection of government blogs which do not allow comments, in addition to the White House blog. Please use the comments section of this post to add any more I leave out.

• The Big Read Blog (National Endowment for the Arts)
• Director’s View (CDC Injury Center — Comments via E-Mail Only)
• Director’s Blog (Congressional Budget Office)
• Our Marines (U.S. Marine Corps)
• OMB Blog (Office of Management and Budget)

Seven posts out of 33 for the month were tagged with “inauguration.” Other popular tags dealt with the salmonella peanut scare, government resources for kids on the Web, the IRS and multilingual signs.

Gov Gab is a great resource. Problem is not many people know it even exists, and its focus is too broad for it to be effective. Individual agencies should be blogging more!