I’ve been blogging for six years now. While there are certainly bloggers who have been around longer than that, six years still puts me into the “longtime blogger” category. In that time, I’ve written thousands of blog posts (on my own blogs, as well as blogging on many other blogs), so I’ve been able to experience all of the joys and all of the headaches that come with blogging. After fighting off nearly a million spam comments during those six years, I consider myself to be extremely jaded when it comes to assessing the worth of a comment.
I know that the large majority of comments are spam and are, of course, trashed. The next largest group of comments is legitimate, but very often doesn’t contribute much to the conversation. Those comments merit approval, and are appreciated, but in a month, I’ll very likely not remember the person who made the comment.
Who cares if I remember a commenter?
Big deal, right? Well, honestly, I think it is a big deal. I believe that the truest value of commenting on blogs is establishing a relationship with the blogger, and the visitors to that blog. That relationship may foster future gains that you and I cannot imagine at the moment, but may be the impetus for changing your life forever. If the comment you make on a blog makes no impression on the blogger, however, the likelihood of ever seeing any results from that comment are extremely low.
So what do you have to do to make an impact on someone like me with your comment?
How do you impress a longtime jaded blogger?
- Use my name in your comment. Seriously, if it’s at all possible to figure out what my name is, then take that extra time to find it and use it. If your comment starts out with, “Donna, …”, you’ve immediately made a good first impression with me.
- While all bloggers appreciate a bit of flattery now and then, don’t make flattery the focal point of your comment. I’ve seen the standard spam flattery too many thousands of times, so even your legitimate flattery gets filtered through the part of the my brain that houses suspicion.
- Do comment on the actual topic of the post itself! That seems like common sense, right? Sadly, many comments are completely unrelated to the post’s topic, and that just sets this old blogger’s teeth to grinding. I want to know what you think about the topic I spent time writing about. If you take the time to discuss that topic with me and my visitors, you earn brownie points with me.
- Make sure you’ve really READ the post before commenting. We’re all guilty of quickly scanning what we read these days (my best friend accuses me of that all the time). And that’s fine if you’re just quickly reading, and moving on to something else. But don’t make a comment like, “Well, you forgot to mention xyz”, when in fact, I did mention it, and if you’d not skimmed through the post, you’d know that.
- Finally, alternate viewpoints are great. If you disagree with me on the post’s topic, let me know. I’d love to have my views challenged, and my knowledge expanded. Just make sure you approach the argument with respect. If you treat me and my visitors with respect, even if you are disagreeing, you’ll make this old jaded blogger smile.
If you manage to impress an old, jaded blogger with your comment, there’s a good chance you’ll be remembered six months from now. That might mean the difference between a new project succeeding or failing. You never know, so make that first impression count!
This post is part of our amazing Blogging Contest, plz add a comment and tweet it to support the author.
Rashmi Sinha April 27, 2012 at 6:11 pm
Donna, this post is very well written. It provides useful information about being a good contributor by posting valuable comments. I read all the article and i mostly agree with it. The only part i disagree a bit is that disagreeing with the original poster. Sometimes he sees that as a thread, while it should never be like that.
PS : All 5 points in a comment. How did i do?!
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John Ernest April 22, 2012 at 12:47 am
Hey I found this post pretty amusing. They do say that the actual worth of a post is seen in its comments, so it is really important that the conversation flows, and the information is sent to and fro with the blogger and reader learning a lot more from the commentator. Aside from that, a good comment management scheme should also be implemented. I prefer to do it manually so that I can converse with who I would want to and learn from them as well.
Elena Anne April 17, 2012 at 8:14 pm
Thanks for posting this, Donna. I find this topic in strong need to being picked on, and you did a smashing job of doing so.
Besides the points that you covered (skimming being a troublesome one for me as well) I think that spelling is also important. Not as important as, say, the comment being related to the topic, but I just find it annoying when people misspell simple words, or don’t capitalize letters at the beginning of a sentence, or don’t capitalize the letter ‘i’. I spell things wrong, but I try to spell correctly and use what I learned in high school to make a smart comment. Thanks again for posting this! I hope I can be remembered 
zac April 17, 2012 at 3:16 am
I am sure a lot that you say will strike a chord with bloggers who had been around for a while.After a while you just got tired with the flattery that you know is fake. Like people say general things like “it is a great site!” or ” I love your post!”. They may be genuine but you just can’t help it but start wondering ” are they real”?.
It is strange-When you first started your blog, even a small comment like ” nice!” makes you float, but when you get a 100 “nice!” you think they are nothing but spam or efforts to get backlinks. Funny how life is, isn’t it.
Trung Nguyen April 14, 2012 at 8:09 pm
5 point you listed above are great, someone leaves their comment without reading the blog post and I’m also sure that why their comments are spam.
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Sarah April 13, 2012 at 7:34 am
From reading some of the above comments i can clearly see Donna that a few people have not taken the time to read and understand your post. Which i find sad. I truly believe in your post and those few simple tips can really make a huge difference. Thank you for sharing your knowledge with us. Your making communication easier for us all.
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Christina Gregoire October 28, 2011 at 4:08 pm
DONNA, I like this post. Mea Culpa…or however you spell it.
Cheers
Tina
Jaime October 21, 2011 at 9:33 pm
Well Donna
I can’t tweet this as I don’t use Twitter but I wanted to let you know I appreciate your post all the same. Blog comments have been the topic of conversation betwixt another friend and myself the past few days (real conversation, not comment conversation) since I have just changed my commenting system and I was thinking of writing a post something like this to encourage my “new” commenters (my old comments did not export very well) to do a little better than before. If I get around to do that in the next few days, I will likely link back to this post since you already did such a great job putting into words what I think!
Satrap from Make Money Fast September 22, 2011 at 11:01 pm
Great tips Donna.
I actually use your first tip all the time. In some case, the bloggers name simply isn’t there, because they use “admin” or a nickname. But you can be sure that you can find it if you dig dipper. The about page is one place you may find it.
Using someone’s name ads a personal touch to your comment and just like in the real world, it makes the other person more interested in you and what you have to say.
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Mark July 16, 2011 at 4:11 pm
Reading the post is a number one priority in my book.
If a commenter on one of my blogs leaves a comment that doesn’t relate to the actual post, then more often than not, it gets deleted.
I actually don’t have a comment filter because all of the filters reject legit comments too.
I actually wrote a post entitled: “The DoFollow Blog Commenting Primer” to try and help commenters.
I think it did help many of my visitors.
Thanks for the equivalent, Donna…:)
Mark
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Suraj April 2, 2011 at 6:57 am
Thanks for sharing such a wonderful article.
ashwin shahapurkar March 27, 2011 at 2:05 am
you are right. Many people do engage in building backlinks on blogs these days, thus leaving invalid comments. and i think this apply’s to me also. will try to post useful comments here onwards.
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Rodger from sell textbooks January 12, 2011 at 5:47 pm
I like the point about not over flattering. It is obvious that the point is just to get the link.
Codrut March 14, 2011 at 3:36 am
Exactly, and it sounds spammy too. I think we don’t have to impress nobody, but show a genuine, natural interest in the post or opinion. And come up with our 2-cents, perhaps, a different view, and expand the discussion.
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Abhimanyu Singhal November 15, 2010 at 5:01 am
Alright alright, I am guilty of this sometimes too
Lol
Jon November 11, 2010 at 4:47 am
You are right John, but remember that there are many people out there that comment and have no interest in backlinks.
The web is split into two parts now – websites mostly run by businesses that are populated entirely by users, and websites geared mostly for webmasters. The latter attracts way more comment spam than the former. On one of my sites I get hardly any link drops at all, most people that comment have a real point to raise and are only interesting in discussion.
Also, a lot of SEO’s are behind comments, I often see patterns from lots of comments from certain IP ranges coming in at once, as if an SEO firm is targeting all the sites on my server, really weird. None of the comments ever get passed.
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Mani Viswanathan November 10, 2010 at 1:55 pm
I’m certainly impressed by a commentator when he/she calls out my name directly & mentions some additions points to add up to the list, as you’ve mentioned!
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Karan October 14, 2010 at 1:16 am
Well blogging is all about discussion. To make your blog popular and lively you need to consider it as a social network and engage into discussion.
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John October 5, 2010 at 5:26 pm
Hey Donna, you are right. Many people don’t know how to engage properly on blogs these days. They only use them for their back linking. While I do try and take advantage of this I do also try and make valid and thought out comments. thanks for the post.
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Trevor B. Reed October 4, 2010 at 7:02 pm
Hi Donna, really enjoyed your post. I think I have usually done a good job of commenting, but it looks like I can step it up.
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cam September 7, 2010 at 11:55 am
The other thing I have found helpful is if they let you know what their keyword are to incorporate them so their page becomes more keyword dense. You do have to make sure it makes sense though.
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Joe August 24, 2010 at 9:15 am
Congrats Donna on a well deserved prize in the Comluv contest!
Joe
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DazzlinDonna August 24, 2010 at 9:17 am
Thanks, Joe!
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Rhea Drysdale August 6, 2010 at 9:46 am
I cannot remember the last time I made a comment on a blog that was not simply thankful or a response to comments on something on Outspoken Media. It’s shameful really. I can get easily distracted, so I try hard to just focus on what’s in front of me which has for the past year and a half been clients, work and internal communications. I try to read what I can, but I’m relying on email, calls and Twitter almost entirely to maintain relationships. This was a great reminder that when I consume a piece of content that is original, provocative or simply well-said I need to take a minute out of my schedule to honor them. It’s absurd to expect that in return and never give it. I’m going to give myself x time per day to actually read and comment on posts from those I trust. Donna, you rock, thank you.
Jon August 6, 2010 at 10:05 am
The best way to thank someone is not to leave a comment on their blog (although this can really help in a bricks and mortar business where the “thank you” is a testimonial for a good job done) but to write about your good experience on your own blog, or elsewhere, and link back. This should benefit them more!
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DazzlinDonna August 6, 2010 at 10:57 am
I’ll appreciate a thanks in whatever form it’s given, Jon, and of course I know you do too. But you’re right – an excellent way to thank someone is to share a link to their efforts either on your own blog or in the social realm (or both).
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DazzlinDonna August 6, 2010 at 10:55 am
Always happy to be a reminder that we need to practice what we preach.
Thanks for reminding me that I’m not the only one who doesn’t always live up to that goal.
DazzlinDonna recently posted..Social Media Marketing – A Book Review
Rebecca Leaman August 5, 2010 at 2:57 pm
I can’t argue with any of your points there, Donna; in fact, you may have heard the faint distant echo of my “Huzzah!” when I hit this line: “I want to know what you think about the topic I spent time writing about.” Not because I mind getting off-topic comments (as long as they’re related to the topic of the blog as a whole) – sometimes people just want to ask you for help on something, and there’s no clear-cut place to do so that exactly matches or they’d have to search through oodles of old posts to find a more appropriate post)… but because, as a blogger, I guess that’s what I’m looking for / hoping for most of all in comments: an idea that what I’ve researched and thought about and written up has been received and proved useful to the reader.
(Um, you’re not really truly all that jaded, are you? All the people – me included – you’ve helped over the years… hope your devoted readers have given you a bit of juice to go on with!)
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DazzlinDonna August 5, 2010 at 3:33 pm
Ah yes, it’s that feedback that actually helps us to grow as bloggers too, isn’t it? If I know if my post has struck a chord – or not – then I know better how to post next time. But if they are just talking for talking’s sake (like a spambot would do), then that valuable feedback is lost.
Am I truly jaded? Good question. I know that just when I think I might be at that point, I usually have something happen to make me change my mind. Naturally, it’s usually people who do give me that extra juice. But I’m definitely more jaded than some; perhaps less so than others.
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Rebecca Leaman August 5, 2010 at 3:48 pm
Well, I guess if you are feeling a tad jaded, it’s been rightly earned by six years of exposure to the inane, abusive and just plain irrelevant; to bots and new-and-improved bots; to scrapers and scammers and self-servers; and the rest of the lowest common denominator. Glad to hear that those precious rays of sunshine & feedback are still finding you from time to time!
DazzlinDonna August 5, 2010 at 3:54 pm
I can promise you this – no amount of exposure to the inane, abusive, irrelvant; bots, scrapers, scammers, or self-servers can possibly make stand up to comments like the ones that have occurred in this very post. And that makes the writing of this post all that much more worthwhile for me. There have been rays a-plenty here. Rays a-plenty.
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fantomaster August 5, 2010 at 2:31 pm
Couldn’t agree more, Donna: What you’re essentially pinpointing are all those factors (both “small” and “big”) that make up what – well, human relationships in general, no? If we forget about this little fact (and it’s pretty easy to do in an essentially faceless, eminently anonymizable virtual environment), we might as well drop blogging (and tweeting, and facebooking etc. etc.) altogether and leave it all to the bots. Because then, we ourselves will be just as interchangeable as they are. Which, of course, really translates to “expendable”…
DazzlinDonna August 5, 2010 at 3:27 pm
We’re all just bots anyway, aren’t we? LOL, right, right, exactly – It’s important that the person commenting doesn’t come off sounding like a bot. It’s getting harder and harder to tell these days – those bots are starting to look a lot like humans, ya know. In fact I know a few humans that could learn how to be a little more human from a few bots I know.
But no matter how good a bot may be, they probably won’t be good enough to actually impress me – fool me, sure – impress me, no. Not yet. Unless you’re working on something I didn’t know about. 
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Doc August 5, 2010 at 4:02 pm
I think it may not be all that long before one of the idiots that has enough spare time to design smartbots will come up with one that can fool some of us, at least some of the time. Sad, but true, I think.
As for the comment stream, I think that’s the best measure of our success as bloggers. When my traffic recently managed to climb out of the cellar to a more decent level (10 or 20 hits a week, up to over 100 a day), I was thrilled! But in analyzing how and why it happened, I realized that the number of comments remains about the same as before. From that point of view, I don’t think I’ve accomplished anything but perhaps some more effective SEM.
And that’s not why I blog.
If I look at it from an SEM standpoint, it takes on a different perspective: Traffic is great, but only conversions pay the rent. And for me, someone that leaves a comment (excluding our little-blue-pill-peddlers) is a successful conversion. An RSS subscription is better than nothing but until they leave a comment, I’m left with an empty feeling.
DazzlinDonna August 5, 2010 at 5:10 pm
So what are you doing to encourage more comments, Doc? What do you think you could do better?
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Doc August 5, 2010 at 5:22 pm
A fair question… one that I should have seen coming.
I got VERY busy a couple of days ago, and haven’t been able to give it a hard look yet, but one thing that jumps out at me is that I was putting up information, with a call to action… off site. No questions, no asking for suggestions… rookie move, ’cause I gave them no reason to believe I even WANTED them to comment! I definitely need to correct that.
The particular push I was on my last three or four posts did accomplish their purpose, but I might have gotten some really good suggestions, had I thought to leave the door open.
Ah well… we live… we learn. Right?
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Jon August 5, 2010 at 5:40 pm
One day it will be just bots/machines running the Internet. They will slowly take over all operations, take over the bank accounts, domains, servers, and we will have no place here. Bots creating comments, content, discussions, news. Suddenly reminded of a comment someone once made about tracker funds (investments) – if everyone decides to run tracker funds, what are they all tracking? We are the market, we track ourselves? Or chose the path? Same with the Internet. Don’t let the bots take over! Judgement Day for the web?
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DazzlinDonna August 5, 2010 at 5:59 pm
Ah, the rookie becomes the master with one simple word, “Right?” Of course, you knew that all along but just forgot. I’ve forgotten more times that I care to think about. It’s ok to have to be reminded once in a while, right?
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DazzlinDonna August 5, 2010 at 6:03 pm
Jon, if and when the bots take over, then you and I have will have the perfect opportunity to create the next big thing. We’ll start fresh, creating Internet 10.0 or whatever version it might need to be by then. And of course we’ll become rich from our efforts.
DazzlinDonna recently posted..How To Transition From a Personal Blog To A Business Blog Without Losing All Your Regular Visitors
jsteele823 August 5, 2010 at 11:07 am
Hi Donna,
Just thought I’d also mention that when commenting, you should make sure you’re not bringing out something that was in the original post. There’s no need to repeat information that’s already been presented – it just wastes space & time.
Oh, and sometime a little humor helps
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DazzlinDonna August 5, 2010 at 11:38 am
Oh heck yeah, humor is a great way to get my attention. Anyone who gives me a good chuckle will definitely be remembered. Even a good knock-knock joke – if it’s relevant to the conversation – would work, but seriously, just an all around good sense of humor thrown into a comment can sometimes make my day. And that’s always memorable. Great point!
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George Bounacos August 5, 2010 at 7:38 am
Donna, I have to agree with your points. From the first 10 comments or so, though, I have to say that I don’t find keeping up with several dozen blogs difficult. Of the major ones I follow, most post once or twice a day. I tend to carve out chunks of my weekend or early morning to catch up.
But reading big comment trails? That’s hard. And this may be repetitive.
I wanted to share though that your comments about respect are key. When someone comes to my corporate blog or to a blog on a site I have an interest in and trashes people because they think they’re anonymous, I often have to restrain myself. I’m not talking about the con artists (someone posts from an IP associated with a company I didn’t write nice things about), but the nasty, mean comments. Them? I have no problem blowing away their comments.
DazzlinDonna August 5, 2010 at 11:30 pm
I totally agree, George, that it’s really difficult to read such a long comment trail. I’m really thinking hard about how to handle this in the future. Is there some way that comments can be structured differently, to make it easier? I’m not sure but that’s where my thought processes are heading.
And oh yeah, those trolls that show up now and then deserve to have their comments blown away. No doubt!
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Mitchell Allen August 6, 2010 at 12:06 am
Donna, I remember at least one blogger’s solution to long threads – he collected the best of them and created a second post with all of the comments!
You have about a week’s worth of material, right in this post
Cheers,
Mitch
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DazzlinDonna August 6, 2010 at 12:11 am
Totally right about that Mitch! And in fact, I do plan on putting together all the great ideas (and there were so many!) into one or more posts. It would just be crazy not to sum up all the incredible information that flowed here. I’ll be sure to let everyone know when I’ve done so!
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Doc August 6, 2010 at 12:17 am
That’s a great idea, Mitch!
Donna, with all these responses, you could write a BOOK!
DazzlinDonna August 6, 2010 at 12:23 am
Or an ebook at the very least! It actually will be interesting to see how many different topics – different, and yet still related – I can summarize into posts. We’ve covered a lot of ground here. It’s been fun.
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Dave from Pittsburgh Bartending School August 3, 2010 at 7:22 am
Out of curiosity, of the people who are commenting here, including Donna, of course, how many venues (blogs, your own blog, forums, etc) can you effectively monitor and add comments to?
I stretch the opportunities at more than 4. I may read through venues but not comment. In fact 4 is definitely a stretch.
Jon August 3, 2010 at 7:36 am
That is a good point Dave. I struggle to follow more than 2 forums, and this is the only active blog I am commenting on at the moment, other than my own site.
This is really the key to building a loyal community. Like any service you need people to want to come back and catch up. In a way this is how forums have worked well in the past, at least the smaller more personal ones. Large forums like digitalspy just have too many users, you never get to know anyone. Maybe I will have to drop a forum to spend more time here….. but who to drop. Cre8 or Fud?
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DazzlinDonna August 3, 2010 at 8:43 am
Well, for blogs, RSS feedreaders make it easy to keep up with lots of blogs. I have 58 subscriptions in Google Reader now. Of course, I don’t comment on all of them, but it would be fairly easy to do so if I wanted to. Time of course is short, but as long as you have the time, it’s not as difficult as it might seem, at least for the first comment. Now, keeping up with a thread of comments later requires some kind of reminder or else it would be a huge stretch.
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Mike from Bartending School August 2, 2010 at 4:55 pm
Donna: Earlier you referenced how even opinions that bother you are okay as long as they are courteous. Well, what happens when one person keeps commenting and this person always has a contrarian view……and it starts to aggravate you?
DazzlinDonna August 2, 2010 at 5:00 pm
At some point, I’ll usually just say something like, “Well, we’ll just have to agree to disagree. I think we’ve argued the points completely now, and there’s no use beating a dead horse, so let’s just end the back and forth now.” I’d probably let the commenter make one final comment, and then just trash any further comments if he continued on and on and on.
Now, if the person is commenting on different posts, that’s a different story. Assuming I didn’t think he/she was just a troll, I’d let it play out as above each time. But if I really thought he/she was just a troll, I’d ban him/her. It’s still MY blog after all, and in the end, I get to make that call. (Obviously this is assuming we’re talking about MY blog – and not one I’ve guest posted on like here).
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Dave from Pittsburgh Bartending School August 2, 2010 at 1:34 pm
Donna: (I remembered) Of the many comments here I’d love to generate conversations on a blog with 3 or more participants. It would replicate the kind of interaction on forums and give a real sense of community. Creating a sense of community with commentators is a big task.
DazzlinDonna August 2, 2010 at 2:39 pm
Ya know, Dave, because of this very post and the 300 or comments on it, I’ve been thinking about better ways to handle the conversations. Obviously, once the number of comments grow, it’s harder to converse with 3 or more people, and harder to keep the community united. The current mechanism doesn’t handle it well. I don’t yet have an answer, but my brain has been working overtime to try to come up with a solution. If we can make WordPress comments work better (from all standpoints), then it would be great to do.
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Jon August 2, 2010 at 2:59 pm
I sometimes wonder if the best approach to encourage conversation is to only allow registered users to comment. If someone is registered they may feel more committed. The “subscribe” plugin really helps things (I am here now due to an email update) but not everyone ticks the box. The problem with blogs is really what makes them so much better than forums – it really is a double edged sword. It is easier to comment, to join the discussion, but likewise it is easier to forget and drop.
I am a member of many forums that often send me “missing you” emails. If wordpress could do the same this may help.
Building a community on a blog is the key. Maybe the real answer is not commentluv but registered users only.
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DazzlinDonna August 2, 2010 at 3:19 pm
A long time ago, I used to make people register before commenting. I can tell you that forcing registration is a bad idea if you’re trying to encourage conversation. No one wants to go through the extra effort required. So I strongly recommend against requiring registration.
There are some plugins that will send missing you type of emails. Might be worth checking those out.
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Doc August 2, 2010 at 4:30 pm
I have to agree with Donna on the registration issue. We are an inherently lazy species, for any number of reasons. I think, Jon, that you would be robbing yourself of potential new contributors, by requiring registration.
In addition, it is most often the “new blood” that keeps a blog really alive. Nobody wants to read comments from the same people all the time, whether there are two or twenty of them.
Jon August 2, 2010 at 6:11 pm
Yeah, you are probably right. Well, definitely. I guess forums are not the best example of an ideal system as so many seem to be fading away, and mostly because of all the conversation on blogs!
@Mitchell Allen I also find myself unsubscribing. Strange that it seems to happen more on blogs than in forums too. A forum thread will generally die a natural death, but blog comments seem to have a habit of lingering on and becoming mundane. I think this is partly due to the new voices, and a lack of actual conversation. Sometimes you do not want to hear 100 different opinions, but to be involved in a discussion between fewer people.
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DazzlinDonna August 3, 2010 at 8:45 am
That can kill a forum too. Maybe not short term, but long term, the same voices over and over again just become a loud buzzing hum in an empty room.
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Mitchell Allen August 2, 2010 at 4:57 pm
Donna, this is a very interesting turn of events. I’d like to throw out a couple of points from a personal perspective:
1. While WordPress certainly is capable of receiving and permitting a large number of comments, it relies on the perseverance of you, the owner, to manage the flow.
2. Disengagement becomes a real possibility, once the conversation becomes something other than a magnet.
On the first point, have you ever considered using a forum plugin? I’m seriously thinking about it for my new site, not because I expect a lot of conversations, but because of the potential to serve as a “support” platform. In your situation, I’m curious as to whether the overhead would be worth it. Of course, this isn’t your site, but I’m sure you get plenty of massive activity on your blog
On the second point, I routinely unsubscribe from blog comment notifications after a week or so. In fact, this one was on the chopping block until I happened to notice this thread between you and Dave. Specifically because he mentioned three-way conversations, I was interested in his ideas and where you two were going with them.
Dave’s remark about the similarity between active blog comments and the sense of forum community points out the major flaw in BOTH formats: heavy reliance on the original poster. At least on forums, there is a tendency to keep a thread alive despite the “OP”s participation.
That’s what makes Jon’s input intriguing. Now we have the question of how much effort should the platform put into keeping the members engaged.
And on it goes.
Cheers,
Mitch
P.S. Now this post will be saved from the chopping block in my email for at least six more days
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DazzlinDonna August 2, 2010 at 5:06 pm
LOL, glad the post managed to survive the chopping block. You bring up excellent points, Mitch, and I’ve been thinking along the same lines. There are some forum plugins and I’m thinking about trying them, but I’m not sure I want to move the conversation from one place to another (even on the same blog). Perhaps they work right within the post, and I’m just not realizing that – in which case, they may be awesome. I don’t know because I haven’t yet investigated.
But definitely, there needs to be some sort of in-between “marriage” of sorts between commentings and forum threads. A mashup of the two would be perfect, although I’m not sure exactly how that mashup should be conceived.
Keeping it alive is another issue, regardless of the format of the conversation. Should it be kept alive for a long time? Maybe not, as many blog posts aren’t evergreen. Perhaps the blogger should have a mechanism to decide on a post-by-post basis, just as we can currrently turn off comments on individual posts now.
There’s lots to be considered. I’m not sure I can come up with the solution alone. It may take a convergence of minds to create the perfect system, if such a thing can be created. I think we’ve definitely made a good start though!
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DazzlinDonna August 3, 2010 at 8:49 am
Wouldn’t it be cool if we could “tear off” individual pieces of a blog post’s comments and monitor just those? For instance, what if you and I could just drag this individual threaded mini-conversation out to a section of the screen – and doing that drag and drop would let the system know that we wanted to monitor and continue that conversation in the future but we didn’t want to monitor any other parts of this entire comment thread – unless of course we also dragged another mini-conversation out of it as well.
I’m not sure that would totally satisfy the issue, but it might be a start. WDYT?
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Doc August 3, 2010 at 9:47 am
I only very recently downloaded TweetDeck (and was immediately addicted). My first thought was, “why can’t someone develop a BlogDeck?” Following along with three or four interesting blog exchanges would then be easily done.
I think that would accomplish what you’re talking about, Donna, and then some!
Any developers out there, with nothing but time on your hands?
DazzlinDonna August 3, 2010 at 9:49 am
Hmmm…Interesting…columns of blog post comment streams – perhaps categorized (as in tagged or lists).
Hmmm….that’s worth thinking about. Thanks for the idea, Doc!
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Mitchell Allen August 4, 2010 at 11:30 am
Hey Doc, that’s sweet!
I was all set to reply to Donna’s idea in a different way. I thought the question was about following a sub-thread on a single post. Anyway, BlogDeck – trademark it, now Doc
Donna, Gmail let’s me focus on your comment thread. If I wanted to filter just this portion, I could tell it to look for the words relevant to the sub-thread. However, I might miss a new contribution if the words were not in the comment!
Since Doc brought it up, I just thought of something else from Twitter – and, I bet you could do this with the WordPress Loop, somehow – create a #hashtag for the comments. Now, instead of relying on your visitors to include it in the comments, just have your blog software insert the hashatag automatically. The benefits are twofold:
1. You, as the post owner, control the creation of tags – thus prevent tag spam
2. Email subscribers can filter on the hashtags!
See what you started, Doc?
Cheers,
Mitch
DazzlinDonna August 4, 2010 at 11:45 am
Totally interesting idea, Mitch. Oh, soo many ideas have come out of this post. I think I’ll go back through, summarize them, think about them, and see what’s possible, what’s doable soon, etc. Awesome stuff!
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Doc August 4, 2010 at 11:53 am
@Mitch-
Strangely enough, “see what you started” is a phrase I’ve heard for as long as I can remember.
Thinking that such a concept might already exist, I did a simple Google search, and found nothing, beyond a reference to BlogDESK (blogdesk.org/en/index.htm), which is more focused upon blogging than commenting.
So if we have any developers reading this, put on your thinking caps! There’s money to be made, and I’d be quite satisfied with a 10% cut.
DazzlinDonna August 4, 2010 at 2:06 pm
Doc, I may try to do something along those lines myself (or try to get it done), but definitely, it’s something that I think has some real potential if anyone wants to tackle it.
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Judith Lewis August 1, 2010 at 1:17 pm
Donna, You’ve always been inspirational to me and I know to others. I wish I could show you some of the verbal conversations I’ve had where you are cited as the inspiration that helped move them along.
I’m sure you’ve gotten so many connents that you’re impressed
and that many have impressed you and I’m just another voice in that forest but sometimes I guess it’s nice to know you’re remembered 
DazzlinDonna August 1, 2010 at 1:31 pm
Thank you so much, Judith. You have no idea what it means to me to hear you say that. Even if you were just some strange voice here, your comment would have ensured that yours wasn’t just another voice in the forest. Not because you complimented me, but because you gave specifics. You mentioned verbal conversations, and that caused me to imagine the situations in which those might have occurred. Those words inspired images in my mind, and those images ensured that I would remember your comment. That’s an excellent way to make your voice stand out, even if the blogger has never heard of you before. Of course, yours isn’t a strange voice, and you’ll always invoke thoughts of chocolate in many people’s thoughts. That’s another great way to stand out. Consistently associate an image with yourself. You do that well.
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Dana Lookadoo July 30, 2010 at 11:14 am
Donna,
Some great points. I had not spent time thinking about the result of becoming “jaded” as a result of comments. Of course! Sometimes it’s so obvious that a commenter never even read the post, just wanted to be seen or drop a link. The following should be a mantra, byline near the “Leave a Comment” area:
“Make sure you’ve really READ the post before commenting. ”
Welcomed reminder!
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DazzlinDonna July 30, 2010 at 12:28 pm
It’s similar, Dana, to the way many people will automatically vote up an article in Digg or Sphinn or any other social voting site – without even reading the article! Motives vary, of course, but attention is usually involved, I think.
I don’t mind giving attention to someone if they’ve earned it. In school, for instance, there’s the clown who just keeps interrupting the class with irrelevant antics, wearing the teacher down. Instead of being able to focus on the students who have some very interesting viewpoints to share, she has to continually deal with the clown.
I guess the key is finding a way to get through to the clown – make sure he listens – make sure that when he says something – he’s actually saying something relevant to the conversation. That’s the right way to get attention, and the right way to avoid making the teacher (or blogger if we leave our example) less jaded.
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Lauren August 4, 2010 at 2:14 pm
Dana, “Read the post ” is my favorite point in the article as well I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen comments on my posts or other people’s who not only didn’t read the article, but they also have no idea what the site is about.
Jon August 4, 2010 at 2:25 pm
Oh yeah, I see this so much. I write 2000 words on how to do something, then get a pile of comments asking me “how do I….?”
I guess there are 3 groups of people that comment:
1. People that read the title and have an opinion to share with the world on that subject and are not interested in what the article or the other users are saying.
2. People that Skip the article and read a few comments and just pick up where the last people left off.
3. A rare few that read the whole thing and all the comments then say something useful.
But saying that, I really do not mind when people come and ask the obvious, as it means I can still help them. Not everyone absorbs information in the same way. Some like to read, others like to ask and be told. But now I am guilty of digressing.
BTW, is it just me or are these threaded comments often hard to find to reply to?
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DazzlinDonna August 4, 2010 at 2:36 pm
It’s not just you, Jon. I’m having a heckuva time finding the comments. I’ve resorted to choosing a word from the email I get sent that is semi-unique, doing a Ctrl-F to open up the find dialog, and searching the page for that word. Otherwise, I just scroll and scroll and ….
Another reason for me to work on finding a better way to manage so many comments…
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Jon August 4, 2010 at 2:58 pm
Well done, you passed my test. You read the last line.
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DazzlinDonna August 4, 2010 at 2:34 pm
LOL, Lauren, I almost thought you’d gotten my name wrong, and called me Dana instead of Donna. I was going to make a snarky remark that using the blogger’s name WRONG was another way to get her attention. But see, then I re-read the whole comment thread, and realized you were really speaking to Dana and not me, so you didn’t get it wrong. Moral of the story: “Read the post” and “read the comments” before mouthing off. LOL!!!
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Jon July 30, 2010 at 3:42 am
One thing I have noticed in the few years I have been running sites is that some blogs do attract a lot more spam than others. I get very few spam posts on my fitness site, almost all comments are genuine questions and answers, but on techy sites most are blatant attempts to bypass askimet.
My approach to comments is to moderate everything, only publish ones that add value or ask a question. However, rarely I get a genuine question with a url attached, so I guess my job is easier.
I make a point of replying to every comment too. For me comments is like a telephone help desk and feedback forum.
Oh, and I almost never close comments, but had to once as there were too many on one post so I wrote a final comment pointing to more relevant posts to carry on the discussion. After about 500 comments the page loads slow. But pagination failed me seo-wise when a well commented article was dropped when 500 comments was reduced to 50 on the main url.
Oh, and yeah, I agree with you opinion and will bookmark this site and subscribe to your rss and tell my mum about it too.
Jon recently posted..Tennis Workouts and Fitness Tips
DazzlinDonna July 30, 2010 at 7:30 am
Bwahahaha! Love the last line, Jon. For anyone who doesn’t get spam comments (lucky you), that is a typical spam line. Good one, Jon. That’s a good idea of closing comments at 500, and then pointing them to more relevant posts to continue the discussion. I like that lot. I’ve never personally gotten 500 comments, but if I ever do, I’ll try to remember that idea. Thanks for your thoughts on this. I’ll tell my mum too.
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Vergil July 30, 2010 at 12:47 pm
“However, rarely I get a genuine question with a url attached, so I guess my job is easier.”
I take exception to that – don’t let spammers wreck social sharing for everyone else. I love to get a url with comments – it gives me an opportunity to learn more and interact with the commenter.
The line between self-promotion and spam is also grey – your post at the end of your comment has 2 paragraphs of content and just under a dozen ads, yet I’m sure you don’t classify yourself as a spammer. Hell, if a spammer can contribute something valuable to the conversation, I’ll give them the link.
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DazzlinDonna July 30, 2010 at 1:24 pm
I obviously can’t speak for Jon, but I think he was saying that he isn’t bombarded by the type of link drop spam that some of us are. I think we’d all be happy to include a url that makes sense and adds value to the conversation. I believe it’s all about intent – Is the intent just to drop a link and run? Or is the intent to share a link that helps further the conversation?
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Jon August 2, 2010 at 7:10 pm
I tried replying to this before but the reply was lost….
so, yes, Donna can speak for me as she got it right.
I do not block all comments with a URL. For any comment to be added it has to add value. I accept repetition also though, as often the comments are a way to address specific problems, and although it is often the same question I do feel compelled to answer. I never take the approach “they should read everything before asking”.
So yeah, if they add value, and have a URL, even a relevant one, I will still add. The fact is, even on the rare occasions that there is a URL it is not relevant to the site, it will be their personal blog about fly fishing or a Myspace page and not a rival website.
As for the other comment (somewhere…) about Askimet and errors (false negatives you know, spamming good stuff?) I never have the time to check. Maybe some good comments get spammed, but there are so many coming in at times it is not worth checking. I just put my trust in Askimet in the same way I put my trust in a firewall or web host – I let them get on with it and trust all is tickety boo.
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Hobo July 29, 2010 at 7:50 pm
Solid advice. I’m perplexed at the number of ‘social media’ gurus who close blog comments altogether for this exact reason – answering a few comments on someone’s blog is the number 1 way of first connecting with a blogger bar lazy ass Twitter which isn’t as nearly as personal.
I’ve made some cool connections with top folk in my industry and it starting with a comment that took 10 mins that wasn’t just looking for links.
If you’re blog commenting ONLY for links, well, I guess you didn’t get the memo…..
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DazzlinDonna July 29, 2010 at 9:34 pm
There are a couple of SEO gurus I know who’ve done the same thing. It makes no sense to me at all. I guess if you just want to stand up at a pulpit and preach to the masses, in a “I’m the god, and you’re the worshipers” kind of way, then go for it. But yes, it’s those awesome connections that are made when the conversation is allowed to take place that makes it so great.
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Hobo July 29, 2010 at 10:35 pm
It’s interesting how well the threaded comments and the “most recent first” comment on this site works. I think I will pinch it lol
Thanks for the reply Donna and I agree.
I actually close old posts comments purely because I want comments when I post, not when I am knee deep in a project and I don’t have time to chat. It REALLY CUTS DOWN spam comments doing this, and after a few days after a post, the chat goes quiet and I can concentrate on my work…..
It works for me as an easy way of moderating and spam fighting while keeping the recent posts the centre of commenter attention.
I’d never kill blog comments completely. Those crazy social media consultants…..
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DazzlinDonna July 29, 2010 at 10:42 pm
I don’t automatically close old post comments, but I have chosen to do so a few times – manually – when a couple of old posts started getting a tremendous amount of spam for one reason or another. Either way, as long as there can still be some kind of connection, I’m ok with that.
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Barry Welford July 29, 2010 at 7:41 pm
The Power of a Smile
It struck me that in the physical world, if someone else smiles at you, it is infectious and you smile back. Perhaps there’s an analogy in the blog commenting world. Clearly a little bit of humour never hurts.
Also if you can personalize the encounter (as a smile does), rather than just giving all the facts, then you’ll get a richer interaction.
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DazzlinDonna July 29, 2010 at 9:36 pm
I do wish emotions and meaning could always come through the written word, but very often what we write doesn’t convey that as we’d like. If we can manage to convey that all-powerful smile – through our warm, thoughtful comments – then we might achieve that rich interaction. It takes time to make sure what we write does convey the emotion behind it, so taking that time can mean a lot.
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Garrett French July 29, 2010 at 6:47 pm
Comment threads are sometimes where the best action is – I’ve often retweeted articles simply because the comments have heated up and people of authority and experience have begun exchanging view points… or worse
Donna I’d love to hear your thoughts on coaxing jaded experts into commenting
DazzlinDonna July 29, 2010 at 7:02 pm
The best way I know to coax a jaded expert into commenting, Garrett, is to use that expert’s name in vain. Ok, maybe not in vain, but if you can say something like, “I bet JoeJoe would hate to hear me say this, but…” and then of course, link JoeJoe’s name to his blog or his Twitter account. When JoeJoe knows he’s being talked about, he’ll have to comment. If only to clarify that he does or does not hate to hear you say what you said.
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Elizabeth Able July 29, 2010 at 7:34 pm
Ping them in a way that gives them something to talk about. Be interesting! A ping is just a ping, but conversation is a meeting of the minds. Don’t be too heavy handed, and don’t be bothered if they don’t bite.
Some people (hi Donna!!) are especially friendly and easy to strike up a conversation with. Start there.
DazzlinDonna July 29, 2010 at 7:38 pm
Pinging the friendly ones is a great way to handle it. And they may bring others into the conversation as well, Liz. And if they don’t bite, maybe they will the next time. Or maybe someone else will. As you say, keep it interesting. That’ll attract someone!
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Lyndsay Walker July 29, 2010 at 4:26 pm
Donna (see I used your name?) the points you make here remind me a lot of customer service in general, particularly in keeping commenters returning.
It’s like a cell phone company that offers new clients promotions galore, but offer existing companies nothing. Where’s the incentive to stay? There isn’t one, we feel ignored and abandoned.
If only all businesses took your advice when it comes to commenter/customer retention, we’d probably all be a lot more satisfied!
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DazzlinDonna July 29, 2010 at 5:29 pm
Yes, Lyndsay, it is like good customer service – or even just good manners. And incentive is a good word, but I’d even add an adjective to it and call it “human incentive”. Just giving and receiving that personal human touch goes a long way. Thanks for that analogy. It’s got me thinking…
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Wit July 29, 2010 at 3:07 pm
[bites lip]
[My own lip, not Donna's - doh]
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DazzlinDonna July 29, 2010 at 9:37 pm
Now, Wit, behave yourself.
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Mitchell Allen July 26, 2010 at 6:58 pm
Donna, if you want to really impress the blogger, engage her commentators! Every so often, I see a three-way conversation living in the comment stream. It’s a little harder, as it requires the visitors to opt-in for followups. However, it is well worth it.
In fact, such engagement takes the comment box from the realm of an “email-like” single event to the heights of a “forum-like” on-going activity. UTG, indeed.
Technological limitations aside, I’m sure the blogger appreciates the sustained attention
On the subject of spam in comments, I had fun reading your conversation with Sheldon Campbell (@Doc626) regarding the future of spam on cell phones.
Cheers,
Mitch
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Elizabeth Able July 26, 2010 at 7:09 pm
I lurrrve multi-person comment conversations. Them’s the REALLY good stuff. Community rocks.
DazzlinDonna July 26, 2010 at 7:40 pm
Excellent point, Mitch. If the conversation involves more than just you and me, and her and me, and him and me, instead becoming you and me and her and him, then it’s a far better conversation, and yes, I’ll definitely be impressed when you interact with others besides just myself.
I’m hoping one day in the future, Doc and I will still have memories that work well enough so that we can see who had the better instinct on the topic of cell phone spam. More likely, however, is that neither of us will remember ever having the conversation at all.
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Doc Campbell July 26, 2010 at 8:03 pm
Great point, Mitch! Nothing builds interest as well as a sense of community (well, that and free beer!). In the SEO/SEM world, we’re fortunate that many of us know each other, even if we’ve never had the opportunity to meet face to face, so we see a lot of such sideline conversations take off. Like Donna, for instance, implying that my memory may soon not be what it once was… I seem to have lost my train of thought.
Mitchell Allen July 27, 2010 at 4:38 am
Well, here’s another sideline.
I only managed to get half-way through the comments on my first visit. My memory isn’t what it used to be – I need an upgrade! Lucky for me, the subscription will send me whatever comments are to come.
Donna, I wish all blogs had threaded comments – including mine! What plugins make that happen?
Cheers,
Mitch
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DazzlinDonna July 27, 2010 at 6:34 am
Mitch, re: threaded comments, WordPress has the ability built in these days. I forget which version started it but it was a while back so if you’re current (and you should be if you want to be secure), then you may just need to “turn it on”. It depends upon your theme, and whether or not it has the needed code in it. If not, you can either add it , or use a plugin.
Here are two good tutorials to guide you through it.
http://just-ask-kim.com/social-networking/blogging/how-to-enable-threaded-thread-comments-in-wordpress/
http://www.blogtap.net/wordpress-threaded-comments-how-to-install-them-on-your-theme-a-guide-for-dummies/
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Mitchell Allen July 27, 2010 at 1:48 pm
Thanks, Donna! I’m working through Kimberly’s tutorial now…
{tinkering noise in background}
It worked! Now, to play with the CSS.
Cheers,
Mitch
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DazzlinDonna July 27, 2010 at 1:50 pm
Oh good, Mitch! Glad you got it working easily. Have fun.
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