I’m not going to say this is a new trend, but it’s something that’s happening with blogs that’s really irking me right now and it’s about time I talked about it. We’re about to talk about blog comments… kind of…
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I started commenting on more blogs recently, trying to show my support for bloggers because that’s the way things used to be. We would visit each other’s blogs and comment, and other people would see our comments and then they would visit our blogs and they’d comment… on and on.
Blogging used to be more of a community that it is now, possibly for two reasons. One, because there’s so many more blogs now than there used to be. Two, because a lot of people are setting up blogs only to try to market things that make money and aren’t interested in talking to anybody else, let alone comments.
These days more people are moderating comments, and I understand that. I don’t actually moderate comments, but I have filters set up so that if certain types of things come to the blog the filters we’ll figure out if it’s spam or not. Sometimes it does put innocent comments into spam, but when I get around to it I pull them out of there, set them up as legitimate comments, and life is good.
So what’s happening? What’s happening is a two-fold thing.
The first is an old issue, which is not getting responses to comments. I’ve never liked that, but I understand at least to a certain degree. If you’re getting a hundred comments on every article you write, I can see you getting tired and deciding that you’ve had enough and you’re ready to write new content. Although I think it’s important to get back to people who comment on your blog, I can understand when it can be overwhelming.
The second thing seems to be a newer issue, and it’s irking me a lot. These are blogs that are moderating comments but they never make them live. In essence, I’ll leave a comment and I’ll never get a response because the comment never shows up on a blog post. I know this because I save the blog posts link in a file for every post I make a comment on. I stopped checking the box asking me to subscribe to comments because I would then get an email asking me to do all kind of stuff that I wasn’t interested in doing. So instead of going that route I save all links and then I’ll go back and check them out within two to three days to see if my comment’s shown up or see if I’ve received a response.
I started saving links back in October because I wanted to have a way to remember blogs I commented on. The ironic thing is that about 60% of the time I never see my comment show up. That’s unconscionable. What’s the point in accepting comments if you’re never going to allow the comments to show on a blog?
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Then again, it could be two things going against me. One, maybe it’s me that these bloggers don’t like, although most of the time if it’s people who know me they are approved my comment and pretty cool. If they don’t know me, why wouldn’t they like me (not that everyone who knows me likes me, but you know what I mean lol).
Or two, they’re doing it because they’ve written the post, responded to the earliest comments, then a comment comes in a week after the post went live and they moved on to something else. It’s a horrible excuse, and that’s not cool either.
For the second part, these aren’t blogs that have a lot of comments. I don’t know how well the blogs are ranked, and I don’t even know if they’re getting a lot of traffic. I do know that the latest comment I left on a particular blog only had two other people who’d commented, and the writer responded to them. The post was about 2 weeks old when I visited, and it wasn’t anyone I knew. I’d seen the link which was shared by someone I’m connected to on Twitter. Frankly, if it was my blog and I got a new comment a year later I’d still respond to it unless it was spam or stupid (there are some comments that aren’t spam but don’t say much, in which case I probably won’t respond but I’ll allow the comment).
Here’s the deal. You have a blog so that you can engage with people and grow your followers; at least I hope that’s what you’re trying to do. If you’re not going to engage with people on a continuous basis, you’re missing both a personal and business opportunity. No one likes to be ignored when they’re putting through some kind of effort and leaving a comment on your blog.
I tend to try to leave pretty good comments, thus there’s no reason why anybody should be ignoring them. It’s not that I think I’m better than anyone else, but I tend to believe if it’s being done to me it’s being done to others. If you’re not going to share people’s comments and you’re not going to respond to anyone, turn comments off and stop wasting our time!
That’s how I see things, and that’s my thought of the day. What do you the readers think about my position on this? Y’all let me know.
Mitch, I agree with you. If the blogger doesn’t reply to my comment, I am less likely to return to their site to comment on more blog posts. Funny thing, is I’m like this on You Tube, especially if the person doesn’t have lots of comments and I take the time to watch and comment on their video. It only takes me 2 times to get the message and I stop commenting and sometimes watching all together.
That’s logical; why waste time on someone who’s proven they don’t care about your opinion if they’re open for comments? Sometimes I look through a few articles of a new blog I’ve found, not only to see if others have commented but if any of those comments have been responded to. I’ve actually called a few people out on Twitter for it… only they end up liking the tweet and never acknowledging it… makes me think it’s automated. lol
Hi Mitch,
I guess we had our own little issue when you first commented on my blog.
Anyways, it feels good to have your comment approved and published right away. I have also applied filters on my blog so that genuine comments get approved right away. I suppose it increases the chances of someone coming back and expressing his views again knowing that they would acknowledged and published immediately.
It does exactly that Vineet. Everyone hates being ignored when they’ve made an effort to communicate. Glad to see you fixed your process; now I have to go check out your latest post! 🙂
I don’t moderate. One app automatically takes new commentators’ comments for moderation and unless I find those to be spam, I approve and also respond.
Coming to your blog, I do not comment on most posts because they do not relate to me as a blogger. I do however comment when I can and need to.
Which brings me to the question, why I don’t see you commenting on my posts?
You do; I commented on one earlier this month, or whenever you wrote the post that we disagreed on. Like you, I don’t comment on everything or close to everything; you and one other person are the only two people I know posts more than me. lol
Hey Mitch,
I hear ya.
I think I’ve been pretty good about responding to comments. I’m usually just happy to see someone got value out of the post and cared enough to share some thoughts.
You’ve always left thoughtful comments on my work, and I’ve enjoyed responding to them.
Enjoy your week 🙂
Thanks Dana; I appreciated how fast you got back to me about Fiverr. I’m still looking into it; at least I’ve visited the site! lol Just seeing that you’re writing on your blog again works for me. 😉
Hi Mitch,
Hmmm, maybe because you don’t have the https? Just a guess.
I approve comments as long as they have a gravatar, make a comment that is about the post and don’t throw links in them. Once in a while I’ll approve one without the gravatar if I know the person.
I don’t know how often mine are going through. I haven’t tested it like you. Something I may do as I try to comment on newer blogs.
I think commenting has gone done over the past few years from what I’ve seen. Love to to see what others think of this one Mitch.
Have a great evening!
Lisa, I’m not sure if the link beginning has anything to do with that, but there’s no real way to tell. For instance, I see domain names with it or not on this blog and all my other blogs, but if there’s a plugin that only accepts the new version, I don’t know about it.
You’re probably right in saying commenting has gone down. Blog communities aren’t what they used to be, although Rummuser above & Holly seem to have thriving communities based on history. That’s kind of cool; I need more of that in my life. lol
Mitch,
I agree. Why allow comments if you don’t care about what your readers are thinking? If you do, let them know that you do. It’s that simple.
Thanks Rasheed. You know how I am; it’s simple logic. 🙂
Hey Mitch,
You are right on point.It’s bad to feel ignored and it’s worst to ignore people who take their time to drop a reasonable comment on your blog.
The thing is must of these newbie bloggers don’t understand the power of connecting with other bloggers. I get so excited each time there is a new comment from a new reader. That to me is a huge opportunity to add someone to my list of friends.
That explains why I would reply, check out the website of the new commentator, try my best to drop a comment on his blog and even send an email to create a stronger bond.
Well, if I comment and you don’t reply, chances are that you’ve lost a chance to grab a repeat visitor (especially if I’m new on your blog).
Thanks for sharing your thought.
I hope you are having a wonderful weekend
Thanks Enstine; great points. It’s the same thing I say about people who write guest posts that never go back and respond to comments. So many opportunities are being missed, and if it’s too much trouble to respond to a comment, let alone show it if someone actually does comment, just turn them off, move on with life & don’t waste everyone else’s time.
Isn’t it sad Mitch that things aren’t the way they used to be. Remember Writingup? That was a great community of bloggers.
Now it seems that responding to comments seems to be a new trend. I haven’t noticed this all that much because apart from this blog I rarely visit or comment on other blogs.
Like you I used to keep track of those times I leave a comment, but it was too tedious to follow up on them. A shame that most bloggers still refuse to install a plugin to notify when they’ve replied to you.
Truthfully, I’m not sure if my plugins work well or not, but people seem to know when I respond to their comments and some come back like you & Holly. From my perspective it’s easy enough to track because I’m not commenting as much as I used to. I’d do it if blogging felt like the community it used to be but those days are long going; sniff!
Hello Mitchell, you are right! I love a lot of comments from other bloggers, but I am disapproving them because the comments are not genuine. I will try to filter them and accept them. Thank you very much for sharing a very useful post!
There are lots of tools to help you filter some of them out. Try the GASP Anti Spambot for example, and a new one I’m using called Stop Spammers. They can help you out.