Just over a month ago I wrote a post where I questioned the types of links I was seeing on this blog. I’m not the first one to wonder about this type of thing but with the types of things going on with Google, Panda, Penguin and whatever else they come up with, I’ve started looking at them more.
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I’ve also noticed that most people aren’t paying attention to the comment policy, the very short one that’s right above the box you write comments in. What happens is people are putting in keywords in the name area, which I’ve asked you not to do, and your comments are going directly into the spam filter. Then I’m having to go in and pull them out of the comments seem like they’re pretty good. After that I then go in and remove the keywords from the name, then approve the comments.
Frankly, that’s getting tiresome and I shouldn’t have to do that because, well, I did ask. So I’m making some changes to how I’m going to accept comments from this point on, and it’s going to involve a couple other things as well.
First, if your comment goes into the spam filter because there are keyword names in it, I’m leaving it there. Almost everyone who comments often knows this because I’ve mentioned it directly to them. Also, I’d set up my spam filter to automatically send all comments that have the @ symbol in the name field to spam. So, those comments will never show up; sorry. I will alter the program a bit though because I know a few folks who comment often really want to use that 3rd word, something else that automatically sends comments to spam. I don’t feel like pulling y’all out of there all the time either so I’ll make that change; thank me later Brian. lol
Second, I’m not accepting anymore comments where the email address goes to “info“. Do you know that almost no one who uses that has ever responded to a single comment I’ve written then directly, asking a question? That proves to me that it’s not you writing for you but for someone else, and you’re not seeing it and they don’t really care about this blog or about engagement. It’s always been my intention that we have engagement on this blog and since I know it’s not coming, that this is just a weigh station to drop a comment and move on, those are gone.
Third, the same goes for certain links. I don’t mind business links and I certainly don’t mind blogs. But I’ve seen more affiliate looking links popping up, folks trying to add specific pages to go to and such, and I know those are killing this blog. If the link is questionable I’m removing it. To date I’ve been removing links because I’ve noticed some folks leaving comments from different businesses, and I talked about that previously. Thing is, if I know it’s your website or blog I don’t have a problem with it; my buddy Sire has 7 or 8 blogs and he’ll switch up the links from time to time. I do it as well. But my picture comes with all of them, as does his; most of the folks dropping these things don’t have an image and thus it’s questionable.
Fourth, and this is the last one, if the name in the email is different than your name or your business name, I’m removing those comments as well. If you use a male first name & it’s a female name in the email, or vice versa, those are easy. I might miss a John and Jack and that’s okay because I know those two names can be used interchangeably. But I won’t miss a Bob and Steve; way too distinctive. If people are paying you to write for them the least they can do is give you a proper name and email; if not, I don’t need it here because I know for sure you’re not ever going to see what I’ve written back to you.
I know Adrienne’s going to be proud of me for taking these steps, that’s for sure. I appreciate when people comment here but I’d like to know that people are doing it because they care and want to exchange ideas, not as a pathway to a linking strategy. Yeah, I know it happens, but at least be more clandestine about it.
That’s all I’ve got; I suppose the commenting will drop some, but I’ll know who cares and who doesn’t from this point on.
I’m with you on this one Mitch,
If you don’t keep the clowns out people might thing you’re running a circus.
Quality is like hygiene.
Definitely not one of the things to negotiate.
However,
This presents an opportunity just the same.
Save the URLs from some of these spam comments.
These are leads, obviously someone is paying for blog promotion, right?
Thanks Jacko, but I’ll let you save all those links instead; I just don’t have the time. lol I do believe that traffic may slow down, and I have to be good with that because I have to protect the blog’s overall search engine integrity, as well as make some things easier for me on this end.
Hi Mitch,
I have been doing the same thing. Funny how the comment is from Ted but the email address is for Robert. Those comments always link to some kind of business site which just tells me they are there just for the link juice.
Exactly Josh. I think many of us let it go because we love seeing the high number of comments but if it’s not for engagement then what’s the point?
Bravo Mitch, do you hear me standing up clapping for you? I say you’re the man! I’m so proud of you!
You of all people know how I feel about blog commenting and why it’s an important part of what we do. I seriously have no time for people who are on my blog for self promotion. I had an issue myself recently with my blog & it happened when I took the time to edit a comment to REMOVE their keyword from their name which I don’t allow either.
I think I’m just going to do what you’re doing now. Send them to spam because I’m tired of messing with those people. If you don’t want to take the time to read my commenting rules then don’t get ticked off when they don’t show up. Shame on them.
You want quality people showing up here Mitch with quality comments. Who has time to waste on everyone else promoting their wares!
Thanks for the mention and you’re right, I’m very proud! 😉
~Adrienne
P.S. By the way Mitch, when you changed your social sharing icons your Twitter ID isn’t there anymore. I put it in for ya but most probably won’t. Thinking of ya!
Glad to make you proud of me Adrienne. It’s just been taking so much time to change all that stuff and, after all, I manage 5 blogs right? 🙂 as for the ID, the plugin I use doesn’t give me a place to put it. I went to this one when Topsy quit on me. It’s the AddThis plugin; it was better than another one I tried, but you’re right, it would be nice having one of these bad boys where I could put that in.
Good Job Mitch, it is funny I am working on the same thing. I guess you had the guts to stand up before I did.
I got rid of the commentluv keywords and that has helped some. I was getting hit every night by a host of bloggers.
I guess they think it is better to hit you when you are sleep.
I applaud your efforts. You made room for a real conversation.
Thanks Michael. I’ve been fairly liberal all these years but in the last 4 months this blog’s taken a major beating. I knew what part of it had to be coming down to. I run a dofollow blog and that’s to benefit people who engage, not just everyone. Had to do it; it’ll streamline my process overall.
I think I might be rubbing off on you Mitch. lol I’ve been letting a lot of comments stay in the spam box because of keywords or added links to their website. It’s funny, I use CommentLuv Premium that allows keywords and people still just use their keywords. I don’t walk up to someone on the street and say I’m Hot Blog Tips, I’m Brian. It’s just rude to visit someone’s blog and leave something like that. Oh wait, maybe you’re rubbing off on me. lol
I’ve noticed that almost all emails that end in .ru is spam. I’ve also found that almost anyone that refers to you as “Dear” is a spammer.
Like I mentioned in one of our hangouts, I have no problem removing links. If I really don’t like them, I’ll edit it and won’t be kind at all with the destination.
Brian, it was mainly Adrienne’s talking to me, but you got me on the links thing. I’ve always cringed at seeing keywords in the name area and hated when Andy created that plugin; so many take advantage of things like that, and not in a good way.
You know, it could backfire and I could find that not all that many people are interested in what I have to say. Still, I figure I’d know who really did care if they left a comment legitimately. I can live with that.
Mitch,
I think, tightening your comment policy is a good move. To be frank, the spam originates mainly because of the following:
1) dofollow enabling
2) CommentLuv
3) Akismet bugs
4) WP’s inability to detect software generated comments
While it’s good to reward a regular reader with a dofollow/commentluv, it may result in spam as well.
A suggestion: Why not look at a possibility of allowing dofollow/commentluv only to those who have been regular or say have posted at least 10 valid comments? I am sure certain dofollow plugins had this feature, not sure about commentluv though. If that feature is not present, Andy would be probably glad to develop the same.
Comment moderation is indeed a tedious task, especially for those blogs that receive a lot of comments 🙂
Thanks Ajith. Actually, I have an old plugin for dofollow so it doesn’t allow for that capability. No problem though; with the new policy I doubt I’ll have many of those issues anymore.
I’m proud of you too Mitch. We work damn hard writing these posts and O don’t think it’s too much to ask people to do the right thing when leaving a comment.
I’ve been asking people to do one simple step in my Friday Funnies before their comment is approved and they completely ignore is and so I delete their comments. Just goes to show they’re not even bothering to read the post.
How could anyone not read the Funnies post? lol Thanks; had to get a handle on it that’s for sure.
Test comment just to see if I meet all your requirements Mitch. I do hope that I cross all the hurdles!
We know it didn’t Ramana but since I addressed this in an email maybe we’ve found something; we’ll know at some point later.
Test comment two after our exchange of mails.
Nope; I have no clue whatsoever now. Sigh…
My comment may go to spam because I appear everywhere as Mother. My semi-anonymous blog is for the protection of my family since I ofter air the linen.
Actually, nicknames are fine and your email address goes back to your blog. However, I’m not addressing you as “Mother”; just can’t do it. lol The overall thing is that I need to know the people who comment on the blog, and I need something I can call them most of the time in addressing them. For instance, I allow my friend Sire to use that name because I knew him as that long before I knew what his real name was in a different space. But if someone shows up with the name Master or Boss or Slave it’s not staying on this blog; just not happening because of who I am.
So I guess when I address you I’ll do it without an appellation at all. Kind of impersonal but it’ll have to do i suppose.
This is really a big problem that a number of people used comment for only getting back link. However, sometime its make problem for those people who are really want to give there opinion about the particulate article.
I don’t think so Lalita. History and research has proven to me that overwhelmingly those folks are being paid to leave the comments because they’ve never come back and responded if I asked them a question. If those folks want to prove they care they can give a real email address and link like you did.
Hello there Mitch!
I think that you may need to revise your written Comment Policy to reflect the laws of the land 🙂
“You can use a name, then put your keywords after it. I just need something to call you, since I respond to most people who post here. If the name is a keyword name only, with no real first name, the comment will be deleted, good or bad; can’t say you weren’t warned,”
Maybe making a correction above will help clarify things.
Very best,
Sam
No Sam, that won’t work. I don’t want to see any keywords, period; that’s what the policy says. And truthfully, you’re the first person in 2 years to read it, and it had to be prompted by this post. lol
Hello Mitch!
That’s not what I am saying. Maybe I have a huge misunderstanding, and if so I apologize, but your policy says it is okay to leave keywords after your name. You might consider removing those words, because Key Words are not allowed. This is causing some confusion with new visitors, which no blog wants to have. Am I misreading your policy??
Thank you,
Sam
Yes you are Sam, but it’s kind of my fault. It specifically says this: “This blog doesn’t accept keyword names…” but then I get into this extra stuff because at the time I created it some people didn’t use keyword names but used names that didn’t make sense that had 3 words in it, thus I didn’t know what to call them. I’ll modify that so it’s clearer, but that was the intention at the time. Thanks.
Hello Mitch, so sorry that this has been going on. I understand the stress of going back to approve comments that landed on the spam box, that’s painstaking, but it tells me how generous you may be. I sensed that you care about comments and you’re making this decision simply because some people (not all are bloggers cos some are likely paid to drop comments) commenting wont come back to read your reply. Your decisions seem ok to me. Just keep sharing.
Thanks Emmanuel. I don’t mind going into the spam box to fish out comments that are truly legitimate; I had to do that for yours, though I have no idea why it went there in the first place. But having to alter and delete and such… time consuming.
The comment filter must be really hatch, but I thank you for taking your time in bringing my comment back from the spam box.
Kind regards
Hi Mitch,
Good to see you took action on your earlier thoughts. I hope it helps clean things up. As for me, I took the lazy way out, and went over to what I know you consider to be the “dark side” … just installed Disqus. Personally I like being able to log in with my Twitter or Facebook accounts … so hopefully anybody who wants to comment on my blog will find a way to accept it too 🙂 lol, not that anybody ever comments on the occasional post I put up anymore anyway. 😀
Oh no, you went to the Dark Side; the horrors! lol With the GASP plugin I can handle the big of spam that comes my way easily enough. Things are much cleaner and clearer to deal with now I must say.