Comments: Keeping Stupid People from Ruining Your Blog
So you’ve seen all the benefits of blogging – from maintaining your position as authority on a topic to increasing your relevance in the Google rankings. But there’s one thing holding you back from launching your own blog…people who leave stupid comments on blogs.
Just check your local newspaper’s Web site. That’s practically a breeding ground for spam comments and tasteless replies. Take a look at the comments associated with this article about a woman who bludgeoned her husband to death. Welcome to Web 2.0, where everyone is a comedian.
I understand. I’ve been there. I run a high school football blog in Connecticut. For the most part, Web-savvy players, parents and fans leave comments that are relevant and to the point, whether or not they agree with my take on things.
But when a player from one team didn’t like the fact that I predicted his team would lose in its Thanksgiving Day rivalry game, he took it to another level. His comment was laced with homophobic slurs, profanity and a threat. Of course the kid didn’t realize how easy it was to track his e-mail and IP addresses and report it to his school’s coach and athletic director.
Again that was a rare incident, and I had a system in place to keep stupid comments off the blog. Why? Because the more people leave rude, insensitive posts, or worse, attack the author or an innocent bystander, the less people want to participate in the forums.
And the less people want to participate, the less you know about your audience, and believe it or not, the less potential valid data you’ll get.
Here’s some quick dos and don’ts that I learned along the way about allowing comments on your blog (or your Web 2.0 site).
- Allow comments to be posted: In your set-up options, should you decide to toggle the “comments off” or similar button, then you obviously have no feedback. Maybe a potential customer or client will take the time to look for your e-mail address and write to you that way, but it’s an extra step for the reader. And as the blogger, you may not know what the reader’s request is (or mistake it for spam).
- Don’t leave commenters hanging: Nothing worse for a commenter that to pour his or her heart out into a comment and then have a message pop up on the screen that reads something like, “Thank you, your comment has been entered into the comments section and will be approved my a moderator at a later time.” The commenter has no idea when the moderator is going to get around to approving or denying the comment, and isn’t about to surf your site or blog for other things to agree or disagree with. It also gives the commenter a sense that the message won’t be approved unless it is agreeing with the author.
- Don’t allow anonymous comments: Change your settings so that someone leaving a comment has to include a valid e-mail address. Let the person leaving a comment know that his or her e-mail address will not be posted to the blog, but that it’s being used for e-mail confirmation. This will help filter out spam, and keep commenters responsible for his or her own words.
Related Articles:
Blog Commandments: To Build Traction, Thou Shalt Comment and Link
Measuring your Brand’s Reputation within the Blogosphere
Web 2.0 Damage Control
