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Reader Question: What are Your Comments Preferences?
27 Mar
First Reader Question Ever!
Few days ago, Stefano (my #1 top commentator) wrote me an email with the following questions:
- As a reader, do you prefer to leave positive or negative comments?
- As a blogger, do you prefer to receive positive or negative comments?
- Do you prefer having comment moderation turned on or off?
Since this are really intresting questions, I’d like to answer here.
1. I like to leave constructive comments
That means that if I 100% agree with a post I read, odds are I won’t comment (unless there’s a strong debate going on). Odds are also that I’ll keep an eye on that blog, and eventally subscribe to it, because it deserves it ;)
That means also that if I 100% disagree with a post, I won’t waste my time trying to convince the author of something so far from his position.
Apart from that not so frequent cases,I love to leave comments when I have something to add to the conversation… a slightly different point of view, an addition aspect to think about, a personal experience to report.
2. I love every single comment
Obviously my ego is happy when I read comments like the ones I received for my category cloud plugin:
You are what pi is to maths.
But constructive comments are what I appreciate most as they are the ones that really add value to this blog, the ones that create knowledge and share informations.
What can sound strange is that I like also the trollish comments, because they can help me to improve this blog:
The first comment on this blog was
Please post more ads.
Comment by Stupid — November 22, 2006 @ 11:07 pm
It was definitly a trollish comment, I could have removed it, and forget about it.
But I decided to keep it visible, and I thought about it.
And I removed a lot of ads.
Criticism is a blessing, even if given in a rude way.
3. I hate moderation and approvation queue
Moderation and Approvation queue are evil.
Comments generate comments, and you need the conversation to keep on going even of you’re sleeping or far from the computer: the first comment is always the hardest, and having an approvation queue means that all of your readers feel like they are the first.
Imagine being in the middle of a social storm (e.g. digg/reddit/del.icio.us frontpage) without being at the pc. Dozen of comments in your comment queue, no comments displayed on your site. Does it makes sense? (Is not so easy this days to be in the middle of a social storm, but since it happened me once with my google guide, I’ll keep on thinking it can happen again)
Your turn now!
Now it’s your turn, I’d like to know what are your answers to this questions.
Do you like to leave comments when you do not agree with what the author states? Do you like to receive criticisms? Do you love moderation? Do you want me to post more ads? ;)
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7 Responses for "Reader Question: What are Your Comments Preferences?"
[…] Basado en What are Your Comments Preferences? […]
As a reader:
I like to post positive comments. Most of the time I’m quite slow in english writing and I don’t feel comfortable with the small text fields of most blogs. So, entering comments takes time for me. That’s why I don’t want to waste this time posting negative comments or opposite opinions that probably will not be accepted.
On the contrary, when I see something good on the Net, I feel the need to give positive feedback, to encourage who is making something I like because he/she needs to know that someone liked it. In this case, even if I don’t have something really constructive to write, I think that “Ehy, you did something good !” can be enough …
Some blogging platform (eg. Vox) offer the opportunity to post complete text comments, but also buttons with quick ‘This is good’ and ‘This is bad’ feedback: I think this can be useful even when a blog post does not start a real discussion.
I generally like to leave comments when I feel the need to encourage a writer of quality posts, as Stefano said. For the same reason I generally refrain from commenting in wide-read blogs, unless I have something extremely clever to say - and this happens rarely ;-)
As I do when replying to e-mails, I flag with Google Reader worthy posts and then come back and comment when I find time, sometimes with a lag of a day or two. Or more.
This is also useful because I avoid too rushed-outs comments: sometimes posts which feel like “Must comment!” fall out in the “Leave it alone” category after the heat of the moment, contributing to the overall quality of my comments. Hopefully. :-)
As an aside, I think that sometimes it is healthy to comment on blogs I regularly read but rarely feel the need to write on. Not a lot of the authors I am subscribed to keep track of subscriptions, and they may have the sensation that nobody read their blogs if they constantly see no comments - this is not true, and I like to point out this with a quick “Hey, I’m here! Keep up the good work!”
Oracolo,
The “talking to a wall” feeling is something every blogger has experienced :)
I think that it should be netiquette not to be a lurker for too long… but sometimes I just don’t feel myself enought involved in a blog to leave a comment… sometimes it takes time to feel you’re really part of that community.
I am a believer in only leaving comments if they ‘add value’. I will criticise if needed, but only politely.
What ads? (Firefox + ad-block plus= :-) )
Hi, great site, thanks for info! Get some banners from cj.com, to make extra buck.
I also hate moderation. A moderator can delete a post anyway if he didnt like the comment but as an open minded person one should take a comment constructively.
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