Y’all know I love social media. I love getting to meet people through all the different platforms. I use it for business as well, probably not as good as others but I get by. I’ve written a lot of posts about trying to find ways to encourage people to participate in the processes, retweeting, sharing your information with Facebook and LinkedIn, and commenting on blogs.
Well, it seems things are starting to move in a different direction, and I’m not all that crazy about it. Seems that there’s going to be less effort in trying to convince people that maybe you have something worth sharing and more coercion to get them to participate. And I’m not playing the game; nope, just not doing it.
I’m not going to blame this on Andy Bailey, who I think is brilliant. I love CommentLuv, and I’ve been one of its biggest supporters. I know he made no money off that plugin, and probably makes nothing to very little off the GASP Anti-Spambot plugin as well. I know he’s only delivering to the masses what they want. I’m just not going along with it.
Andy is about to release a new version of CommentLuv, a premium paid version that’s going to have a lot of features to it, as well as allow people to eliminate a bunch of plugins because it will contain what those plugins handle now. It’s purpose is to help those who buy it encourage others to share their information with other people to be allowed access to the best parts of CommentLuv on those particular blogs. I don’t have a problem with the first half of this; I do have a problem with the second part.
When the most drastic changes to CommentLuv came around, users had the ability to limit the number of previous posts someone had access to select from if they left comments on one’s blog. They could just up and select a number or do something like ask people to register so they had access to more posts to select from. I decided I was going to leave things alone; after all, I’ve always been open for access without people having to jump through hoops on this blog. I also remember back 4 years ago when it was recommended NOT to let people register on your blog because some of those people had the skills to actually break into your admin panel and cause you all kinds of grief. I guess that hole’s been plugged, though I’ve never heard a retraction of that statement.
Now those who buy the plugin will be able to hold you hostage (yeah, kind of strong) by making you share their content with one of the major social media sites. They can select one, or they can give you the option of selecting which site you want their post to go to. If you do that first, then you have access to your last 10 posts to choose from.
Trust me, I get it. All of us want our content out there as much as possible. All of us want our blogs and websites to grow. But I’m not one of those people that takes kindly to coercion. Y’all know I’m rebellious about participating on blogs that have Disqus, Livefyre, Intense Debate, or any of those other things. You know I’ve stopped participating with Typepad blogs. You know I’m not leaving comments if the comment system is Facebook only. In other words, if I have to go through an extra step just to leave a comment, I’m not doing it.
So, where does that leave me? It leaves me with only having my last post as the selection, and frankly, that’s good enough for me. What you, the blog owner, will lose is the possibility that maybe I’ve written something in my last 10 posts that’s pertinent to your topic on the day I visit your post. You and your readers will just have to deal with whatever I decided to say on my most recent post; that might be good enough for you.
Oh yeah, in this instance I will still comment on your blogs. I’m not dropping anyone I already like. Goodness, I comment on lots of blogs that don’t have CommentLuv. I don’t comment for the link; I comment because I like commenting. You know, one of those guys who’ll share an opinion or statement if I’m encouraged to do so. If the commenting system is still the one I like, I’m sticking around.
But I’m not registering, I’m not retweeting through any of these means that’ll open up my last 10 posts, and I’m not playing the game. I might still retweet, but I’ll do it my way. Yeah, I know most people aren’t going to agree with me on this one. I know the explanations are coming as to why this is good rather than bad.
But, as Wanda Sykes says, “I’m a be me.”
You’re not the only one who doesn’t comment on disqus, etc. Time is still a most precious commodity, lots of great content on web. If commenting on a blog becomes a headache, rest assured I’ll be going elsewhere (except for friends).
Glad we agree Heidi. For folks that don’t mind registering for every new thing, they can have at it; I’m just not interested.
I don’t like any 3rd party commenting systems too, unfortunately on the latest project, I don’t have other option, at least until development of the latest version of commenting component is ready. I just don’t like the idea of adding extra JavaScript which makes websites heavier and and also add extra http requests. About WP not much of a problem, I mentioned in my previous comments, CommentLuv is pretty heavy and I am not gonna miss it if it becomes paid.
Blogs that I’ve got probably will remain this way, but I think it will be a good idea for the next one to use WPMU DEV, yeah it is paid, but support and plugins are light years apart of basic WP.
Carl, that’s one of the issues I have with some of these new blogging platforms that compete with WordPress. Everyone wants to be creative and different, but when basic things are taken away they’re not as much fun to deal with. It’s one of the reasons so many Facebook users keep getting frustrated, because it seems like FB can’t figure out when to leave things alone.
Yeah there are different blogging platforms that are competing with WordPress and there are no blogging platforms which also gives an options for commenting, the 3rd scenario custom based CMS which do not offer a commenting system for one or another reason. Except WordPress which comes with integrated system by default, other non-blogging platforms also want to offer commenting option which in most cases are not native, top CMS like Joomla, Drupal until recently, do not have native components. The way WordPress is structuring permalinks and URLs is unique that’s one commenting comes more natural.
You are right about FB, you don’t know most of my blogs and websites, but I have take rid of oath connect for Twitter and Facebook, unnecessary loading time with very little benefit. Better have faster websites and get organic rankings and traffic, instead of traffic from social networks which have conversion close to 0.
I think the o_auth thing works best with blogs, but probably not with many types of websites. I’d certainly not want to even consider using it for any of my sites. However, all these other systems that want to reinvent the system are just messing themselves up. That’s why eventually all browsers end up having the same things going on, because they realize people like certain features and might be willing to go elsewhere to get them.
I’m not crazy about Drupal; I’ve seen it in action and I’ve seen a lot of people mess it up. Frankly, if I ever had to go that route (and I won’t) I’d just have to learn how to program the thing and build my own, which is what I did with HTML and CSS. However, I think I’d just learn more ways to modify Wordpres and go with is as the main template for what I’d want to do. There are some pretty good lessons to be learned about WordPress, and it seems to be fairly robust as well.
Hey Mitch, funny that I am reading this post because I’ve just bought the premium version of commentluv, and for all the reasons you’ve stated in your post.
I feel that I am already amply rewarding my readers by being a do follow blog, by installing keywordluv and by having commentluv, even if they do only get to choose from one post because they’re not willing to promote it. Heck, I’m OK with that.
Like you I don’t comment for the link and I have no qualms about those people using the old commontluv who require me to register so that I can choose from my last ten posts. It’s all good and everyone has the right to deal with the situation as they see fit.
Interesting times ahead my friend. I wonder how it will all pan out.
How funny that is, you’re buying for the same reasons I won’t buy. We’re just goofy that way I suppose. However, I don’t feel that just because this is a dofollow blog and I have CommentLuv that anyone owes me anything other than a good comment. If folks like what I have to say & share it in some fashion, I’m a happy guy.
I agree Mitch, all we want is a good comment and yet we don’t always get that. A lot of the time we are left scratching our head in indecision as to whether the comment is good enough to survive or if we should delete it. You have to admit a lot of people leave comments just to get the link back. I figure why shouldn’t they give a little back in order to get all the goodies we give them.
As for those who consistently leave good comments, I’m sure many of them intend to give the post a tweet because they liked the post but just forget to. We are all in such a rush to move along, this just acts as a reminder. If they really liked the post I’m sure they won’t mind promoting it.
You’re probably right Sire but I just don’t feel it’s the way I want to get there, if you know what I mean. I like what I have now, and if that’s too hard for folks to deal with then I’ll leave ’em be.
I wonder what you’ll do, Mitch, if WordPress.org make you go through what they’ve made us go through on WordPress.com (which, as you might know seem to function as ‘guinea pig’ blogs to test out the stuff that will eventually be coming your way) and that is make your comments show log in buttons for Facebook and Twitter with no opt-out option? This is what I’m having to content with, which seems similar to what you’re writing about in this post (though in your case via CommentLuv).
What I’ve chosen to do as I do like WordPress.com despite its niggly-bits, is include in my (re-written) comment policy that if people comment via these logins, particularly the Facebook one as I don’t like their privacy controls, I’ll strip out the link to that site. So they have the choice – they can login via the sites I don’t get to opt out of, or they can log in the usual way as a guest.
I’m with you on this matter of coercion: I detest it.
Val, I feel pretty safe at this point because if that were included in an update I just would stick with what I have now. That and I kind of know how to get into the software now to make changes, and since this is a download that sits on my server rather than on theirs there’s little they could do about it.
I don’t mind sites & people setting things up so you can recommend to all these other places. Heck, I’m not against publicity. But this “you have to do this otherwise you only get this” doesn’t sit as well with me. Now, as I stated in my own way, no one’s obligated to go that route, and as long as I can still comment easily enough I can deal with it. But if the comment systems end up changing as well… at that point I’ll make a different decision.
But why spoil the fun now while it hasn’t happened, and probably won’t? 🙂
Hey Mitch,
Well, I jumped on the bandwagon and signed up to be a beta tester for Andy’s premium version so I could check it out for myself. I’m happy to say that I made the cut.
But like you, I’m not going to make my readers jump threw any hoops to get a link from their blog. No sign up process over at my place and I’m not going to do it over at their place either. I still think that the features that he has implemented are pretty cool and very convenient and I like the fact that he’s included seven plug-ins in just one. I also think his free version is just as good so I say to each his own.
Love hearing your thoughts on this. I feel we should just be able to leave a comment and move on! Stop making everything so difficult.
That’s my thing Adrienne. Whereas many people aren’t going to be all that punitive, I’ve already seen how some people are using the last updates to the version of CommentLuv I already have. So I’m not naive enough not to think some folks are going to use it to the full extent. If they visit here, I’m just letting everyone know up front what I’m not going to be doing.
I haven’t decided yet if I want to purchase the new Commentluv Premium. I probably won’t for now. As long as the free version is still around and working well, I probably won’t. At least, I don’t have any current plans to change.
I don’t mind sharing content and helping others to do so, but I agree that doing so should be easy to do. When time is valuable, having to register and log in makes it that much less that you can get done in a day.
Thanks for sharing!
No problem Grady. I hope CommentLuv stays free, but if not I’ll decide what to do at that point. As to the rest, I just hate jumping through hoops, so I’m not gonna do it. lol
Hey Mitch,
Actually there’s another option that gets right at the heart of your main point: CommentLuv Premium can be set to more or less mimic the behavior of the free plugin … just give folk 10 posts without considering social sharing. In that instance, they don’t have to do anything to have the 10 posts available for their use.
Vernessa, the thing is it “can” be set, but we both know many people won’t do that. And if I can make that setting, well, I have that now.
I probably won’t pick up CommentLuv Premium yet, but even when I do I don’t plan to make people register or any of that.
If someone gives me a decent comment, I’ll give them a link, let’s do it.
Aside from that, I had already signed up for most of these comment systems before I started seriously blogging, so I was already good to go for the most part.
The only one that I didn’t have was Livefyre, and I only signed up because some of my good blogging friends were using it and I wanted to comment on their stuff. If it wouldn’t have been someone I know, I would have just peaced out without commenting, though.
I’m like you in that I don’t care about the link. If it’s there, that’s great, I’ll take it, but if they don’t have commentLuv then I’ll still comment because I have something to say.
I don’t predict any changes to my commenting because of any of this (i hope I’m right…)
I hope you’re right as well John. lol I guess by the time I could have started signing up for these systems I’d already been a long time blogger and commenter and I just wasn’t thrilled with any of it. At my age, having to change things all the time is problematic.
Mitch, I love your point of view and I agree with most of it. The good thing is that once you have CommentLuv premium you get 15 posts to choose from on other blogs without jumping through any hoops!
Andy’s pretty smart right? After giving it away free for all those years, now you just pay up front and get your last 10 plus five favorites (they can be posts or pages). So even if you have a sales page, or a hire me page, or 5 different hire me pages you can pick from those. And if by chance you wrote a post 2 years ago that’s closely related to the blog post you’re commenting on – just go back into your dashboard, change one of your favorites to that old post, leave your comment with a link to your 2 year old post, then go back into your dashboard and change it back again (if you want). So now you might call that jumping through hoops but if it means you can leave a link to virtually any post or page on your blog, considering you’ve been blogging for a long time, it might be a fun hoop to jump through.
On the other hand you can just set it an forget it!
Ileane, that’s not the way I’ve understood it. Just because I buy the premium version doesn’t mean I get access to all those posts unless I follow through on one of the social media things on someone else’s blog. At least that’s what everything I’ve read on all the other blogs & in the video Andy put up said. You’re now saying something different. Even so, man, that’s still quite a hoop for me, going back through, what, more than 1,100 posts to search for a more pertinent one? Ugh! lol
Oh ye of little faith…. 🙂
Ileane, I’m not really a “faith” guy, I’m a track record guy. You know I’m right. lol
🙂 Mitch what I described earlier is one of the perks of CommentLuv Premium (trust me, ok? pretty please)…
I hadn’t much considered this particular issue until you raised the point, Mitch. Others will be wondering about this, too.
Guess what? I just left a comment a little further down and when I clicked on your CommentLuv dropdown, I had 15 posts to choose from. The usual 10 (because of your gracious settings) and the 5 I’ve chosen in my own backend.
This happened even though you are running the regular CommentLuv. I’m running the Premium version. Of the 5 additional posts/pages showing, some of them are indeed “Pages.” I’ll select one for the CL link below this post. (Ok, my “Can We Talk” page is the example.)
Okay, that’s a bit of an interesting twist Vernessa. Thanks for sharing that info.
Hey Mitch,
I am a huge commentluv supporter as well but I don’t like having to retweet or like the post either in order to get access to on of my last 10 posts.
I like to comment on blogs that have a simple WordPress comment system. LiveFyre is my least favorite and I will not comment on blogs that use LiveFyre commenting system.
K.I.S.S. for comments.
I’m with you Justin. I don’t know if I dislike Livefyre more than the other systems because to me they all require signing in and I just am not in the mood. KISS; exactly.
I comment on several blogs that cover topics unrelated to my site. So, to be honest, I don’t even bother searching through my Last 10 to find one of my blog posts that might be pertinent to the current article I’m commenting on, because I doubt that I’ll find one. I always use my last post…
Also, I don’t mind registering (so I have) with IntenseDebate, Livefyre, etc., for commenting privileges; as long as I only have to do it once for each service and many blogs use the particular service. But I can see how all that registering can be a hassle when the number of services get to be too many…
Sonny, the thing is that it’s just one more step to make it irritating to commenters. One of the other commenters on this blog, Sire, did a study a couple of years ago. He asked people if these comment systems prevented them from commenting on other people’s blogs. It came out about 50-50, but that’s a significant number of people who are moving on because they don’t want to be bothered. Frankly, I’m not popular enough to exclude 50% of the visitors here so I’m not doing it.
Mitch, I’m a happy CommentLuv Premium user. Even with the free version, I never enabled registration. I will continue to give everyone all the linky love they can handle.
Now, I’m certainly not out to change your mind – after all, I agree with your views about requiring registration. However, I’ve always looked at the whole process as a toolkit for marketers. What Andy has done is given WordPress publishers CHOICES galore. The ability to do a bit of social behavior modification creates fertile ground for testing.
I expect that it won’t be long before we see detailed posts on best practices, no-no’s and “tactics”.
It’s going to be a wild ride.
Cheers,
Mitch
True Mitch, Andy’s given these folks a lot of choices. But as I saw with the last update to CommentLuv, I expect to see more people shutting down the 10 links unless they pony up some kind of social media press, and I’m just saying up front that if one thinks I’m going to be coerced to do something that, if I like, I already do, it ain’t happening. Kind of curmudgeon like, but at least no one can say I’m not being consistent.
Exactly, man. I am looking at the flip side, too: If I’ve always given readers maximum “love”, what would I look like introducing the hoops, now?
It might be fun to play with the settings on another one of my blogs, though. LOL
Cheers,
Mitch
True, you could always give it a shot elsewhere.
Meanwhile, I just added the Ajax editing plugin, but since it’s my blog I can’t see it. Did you get the editing option after writing this comment?
No. But, I wasn’t looking for it, either. I’ll check now.
Okay, cool! This didn’t come up the first time.
Cheers,
Mitch
This Ajax plugin is pretty snazzy. Vernessa told me about it a while ago and I think Karen’s BlazingMinds was the first place I saw it. Nice!
I’d actually seen the use of this plugin a long time ago but I always forgot to find out exactly what it was until I saw it on Sire’s site recently.
It is a cool plugin. I raised a ruckus about how they handled customers (and affiliates) and the developer called me up on Skype to let me know when they made the suggested changes.
Sweet!
Glad you’ve added it Mitch. // This is my edit. 🙂
Good deal Vernessa. We still need to have one of those Skype or hangout calls some day.
Say when Mitch and we’ll do it. Add me to your Skype contacts (username is my full name.)
Vernessa, just added you to my Skype list; you make #4 (isn’t that sad? lol).
Hi Mitch
That’s a well written, strong point of view; I was going to jump on board as ‘one of the minority’ LOL! By the time I’d scrolled through thirty three miles of heated debate most of which supported your stand-point . . . I was starting to feel I was with the majority – and that’s an unusual place for me.
Hoops! No. Thank you all the same. I think I’m one of that silent 50% who walks on by. I’ve not added to a blog debate on several occasions because I wasn’t doing the dance the blog caller called for. And I hate that enforced “we’re all bein’ social” mantra – just step up here to comment on facebook; one more tick for Twitter. . . Geez! Not if you’re gonna ‘make’ me.
I like Andy’s work, and his effort and his intent. People like Andy make the net a great place. And I stuck my paw up to trial his new widgety thing, though I didn’t make the cut. But I dunno if I’ll buy it; I don’t think I use the free one to its extent yet, so that probably indicates I don’t need more bells. I’ll only trip over ’em.
Cheers,
Anthony
Thanks Anthony; great to have you here. Andy is quality people, and this plugin is going to make a lot of people happy. I’m just not up for it because I know what’s coming. Nope, don’t like being forced into anything. Course, I’m surprised someone hasn’t said “yeah, but you have rules on your blog as well”. Rules yes; coercion, no.
Thanks Mitch; thanks for visiting a new kid on the block as well. I like debate; anything that encourages more is good. But if it puts up barriers; bad. I’m identifying with what you wrote to Olawale (below this) “It’ll be interesting seeing how certain people manifest their use of this sucker, that’s for sure.” Oh yea.
Welcome Anthony. I don’t know that I like debate as much as I like conversations. Still, being able to do either and be unencumbered works better than having any type of restrictions, or stuff getting in the way. In this case I know I’m not registering to ever leave comments, and as long as the ComLuv Premium still allows me to make comments, I can live with it.
I love the phrase “I’m a be me”.
In my own opinion, this new development by Andy Baily will help some bloggers to gather more subscribers while others will dispute the idea on the long run. I too hate this move but there’s nothing we gonna do about that except for the blog owners to have a do at it.
Thanks a ton for sharing this awesome information that has been giving some people steepness night especially when it comes to blog commenting. 🙂
No problem Olawale. It’ll be interesting seeing how certain people manifest their use of this sucker, that’s for sure.
I agree, I don’t like being told what to do…or going through hoops to leave a comment, and I don’t expect my guests to do that, either!
Plus,why would I want to pay for something that will probably turn people away?
I’m fine with the FREE version…
Carolee, I’m fine with the free version as well, and I hope it continues. I’m not sure it’ll drive people away, though, since they’ll still be able to comment and they’ll get the one link back to their site. But you never know.
“I’m a be me.” <– lol I love it!! I'm such a Wanda fan – I can just hear her saying that. We love that about you Mitch…you don't hold back. It's refreshing.
I think I was one of the few testing out the share for 10 posts option so you can put me in the timeout corner…can I at least have a coffee there? As a beta tester I feel it was my job to test out all the available functions. I would never require registration, and the only people who see that share option are those that don't have 5 approved comments according to how I set it.
I personally never cared for the all or none dofollow. Occasionally I approve a questionable spam comment because they did have something good to say…but I don't want to give their questionable site a dofollow. I like that I have that option now.
FYI the share option is a one time deal. One tweet or one like and you always have 10 posts in future visits..it isn't a repeatable option. Just thought I would clarify that as I discovered that during testing when I wanted to screenshot the option and couldn't get it to come up again.
Is lunch served in the corner? If so I'm staying. ;P
Melinda, you get to move up to the adult table. lol Now you’re adding something new; all a person has to do is share one post and then “forever” they’re good? They never have to share another post if they choose not to? Or is that a setting someone can add?
Also, we could always kill someone’s CommentLuv link, and I have to admit I’ve rarely paid attention to any other link a person has left, although I assume if I had and didn’t like it that I could always just pop in Google’s link. Now wouldn’t that be something?
Yes once you share a link you never see that option again. You now are like someone who has 5 approved comments with all the same benefits. There isn’t a way to require that every time.
Yay! The adult table. Phew.
I am late on my input on this article because I was engaged in several meetings yesterday and to make matters worse I have not read all the comments and replies before commenting. I usually do. So forgive me if I repeat something you have already covered in a previous comment. You mention that with this new arrangement things are moving in a different direction I take that to mean the wrong direction. How will that impact on new persons to the market /industry like me who depend so much on people like Andy who provide tools that we benefit from, will this facility to have these plugins soon come to an end? Will the paid versions root out the use of the free ones, I am not sure. If that is what will eventually happen then I will have to agree with you in not going along with things. If not then you should leave Andy alone. I however agree with you that there should always be some flexibility in the use of plugins it will provide a greater chance of getting our materials out to a wider audience and help with growth. Excellent point on the Facebook only issue I felt that way for some time but I was not sure about the process so I would end up leaving a comment. I am now better informed. (ps. I check the email address and found nothing wrong so if the problem continues please let me know.) I wanted to get my little input in before today’s post …. Now I am off the read the comments and replies Thanks.
First William, you keep typing your email address in wrong, and I’m fixing it because anyone else who responds gets mail delivery bounce backs. You’re typing “gi**************@gm***.com” and leaving out the ‘r’ that you have in your domain name.
Second, since you read the post, you saw that I’m the last person picking on Andy. Andy’s a great guy, he’s created something that will make him money, probably something the market has asked for in its own way, and more power to him.
I’m basically letting others who buy the product and use it to its most punitive level know that I’m not registering for anything and I’m not recommending anything to any social media medium just so I can see this or that. Doesn’t mean that one day I might come across something really cool and share it, but it’ll be always on my terms, just like I make it in the terms of people who visit this blog.
Mitch, I absolutely do agree with you. I was shocked when I ran into this new “feature” on famousbloggers.net. If that isn’t incentivizing the +1 button – which I’m pretty sure will soon be a big Google no-no if it isn’t already – I don’t know what is!
So let me get this straight because I think I failed to understand the article as I’m not very familiar with CommentLuv (I never had this plugin installed on my wordpress blogs) but from what I’ve read in the comments, in the new premium version you need to share on social media sites the article you are commenting on, if you want to get that pots link thingy. Am I right?
Well if this is true I would personally go without that specific post link. I will share only what I want to share.
Cristian, you’d get the one link but none of the choices you get now. At least from some people; my bet is that it will be the majority, as it already seems to have gone that way.
Hi Mitch,
I read your post and smiled, it’s refreshing knowing I’m not the only one turned off by the dangling carrot. I recently ranted about this feature (as well as a few other things) in a recent blog post.
I recently stumbled upon one of the people that use CommentLuv Premium, and I have to admit the jumping through extra hoops was a major turn off. Now, looking through your comments it seems that this applies only the first time. I can’t help but think that those who’re turned off by the dangling carrot (like myself) would think this is something that had to be done every single time.
Eventually I’ll purchase the premium version, but I won’t have my readers jumping through hoops. I strongly believe that people should only share what I write if they want too, not because I’m attempting to force them into doing it.
My apologies for the delayed response, I just stumbled upon it today. I’m slowly getting back into personal blogging. I’ve been gone for a little over a year, and it seems that they way people interact has changed a lot.
I’ve mixed feelings, it’s nice reconnecting with folks (and meeting new ones) but I’ve encountered several that do very little commenting on their own sites. It makes me wonder if they even take the time to read what their visitors are saying.
Thanks for our thoughts Opal. One of these days I might acquire the upgraded program as well, but I’m hoping the one I have now sticks around for awhile. I’ve seen on some blogs I comment on that once I’ve written a comment or reached 5 comments it all comes back, so that part is good.
And welcome back to the blogging world as well. 🙂