One of the trends you’ve probably noticed around the web for a while, has been the disabling of blog comments. It seems like the new trend in social media circles. In fact, at one time, there were strong advocates of having comments on their blogs and have now since taken them off. The main reasons for this seems to be along these lines of:
- People are leaving few comments on blogs.
- The quality of comments has declined.
- SPAM (don’t think I need to add anything else here).
- Blog commenting systems aren’t great.
- More people are commenting via social media.
- It is better to save time from moderating comments on your blog and instead engage on social media.
- Worrying about comments can hinder your self expression.
Let’s be honest, those are some pretty good points. I know Eric has historically had a pain moderating all the spam we get hit with and even my own humble personal blog gets a fair amount of spam comments. But we have no plans to removing blog comments from ChurchMag and I recently re-added comments onto my photography site because I realized that although I dislike the downsides of comments, I prefer the advantages. So here are some reasons we are keeping blog comments and you might should consider keeping them too.
Reasons for Blog Comments
- Comments can be good for SEO (they often have keywords which can help).
- Comments allow you to build connections with your readers.
- Comments allow you to learn from your readers (this is so true of ChurchMag, our readers are so great that we all learn a lot. It’s not uncommon for a reader knows more than the writer).
- Comments allow you to clarify.
- Comments can help generate blog post ideas.
- Comments show the “social proof” of a post, helping persuade people to check the post out.
- Comments are a single place to go to find different peoples views on a topic. Not everyone uses every social network (Phil isn’t on Google+, whereas Jeremy and I are very active), but everyone can see a blog post and leave a comment.
All in all, this means that on ChurchMag we value comments as our topic metric to aim for. It’s all well and good getting a post to go viral and be shared by millions of people [oh hi there parents and texting post], but ultimately the post which generates the most comments (on the blog itself or via social media) are the ones we all look for.
Are Comments Right for Your Blog?
As you can see the benefits and cons are something you really need to weigh up. For you, you might find that the negative side effects aren’t worth hosting blog comments. Alternatively you may want the benefits of comments and put up with the downsides. That’s what I’ve done with my personal site. I want to learn from others and want to show that I am open to learning from others, so I have comments (even though that means dealing with spam). At ChurchMag, we want to give everyone a platform to speak and share their expertise, that’s why we have comments.
Confession: I’m Bad at Leaving Blog Comments
Now, having said all that I have a confession to make. I’m terrible at leaving comments. I often send a quick social media comment rather than leaving a comment on a blog. Sometimes the blog comment system doesn’t help (How exactly do I have to log in here?)
So I’m committing to leave better comments and leave them on sites which have blog comments enabled. My strategy is to
- Ask for more information or details.
- Ask how it relates to something else.
- Share my comparative experience.
- Thank someone for the information.
- Say how i will put something into practice.
Those are just my ideas.
Matt Brady says
I have comments on my personal site, and the only thing I dislike about them is that people so rarely leave them! I like the idea of trying to keep people on “my site” so that they are contributing to my own personal “platform” on the internet, instead of just adding to the noise on social media.
I will admit that I am typically terrible at leaving meaningful comments on other blogs, but like you I am committed to trying to get better. Let’s do this!
Blessing Mpofu says
I feel your pain on having either too few or none at all 😉
Chris Wilson says
Well that was a pretty meaningful comment!
It’s an interesting point about “trying to keep people on my site” and “contributing to my “my platform””. I wonder if blog comments have dropped a bit because everyone and their dog has a blog now so we can just write response pieces/our own take. I know I often see a series of articles on a topic which is in the news.
Thanks for the comment and motivation Matt.
Blessing Mpofu says
i’ve had this debate with other people as well. Until comments become more of a burden than a help I’m keeping them on for my personal blogs.
I though about this a while ago and like you have, wrote about my take on enabling or disabling here —>
http://blessing.im/commenting-blogging/
Rodney Olsen says
I agree that the level of comments has dropped significantly but like you, I still think they’re a worthwhile part of blogging.
In fact, if anyone is feeling like they’re missing the opportunity to comment on blogs, just head to mine and leave all the comments you like. No really. Feel free. I’l be there waiting. (Too desperate?)
Chris Wilson says
“Get your free comments here!”
Do you think you are doing everything you can to encourage people to comment?
UaMV says
I’ve mulled this over in my mind time and time again. The two primary sites I manage (that at the Prayer League and my personal site) have very few comments left each month.
I’ve tried a number of things over the past year or so. For a long time, I’ve preferred Jetpack comments for WordPress sites, as it allows users to login easily via a number of accounts and also to subscribe to follow-up comments that might keep the conversation going.
Recently, I enabled Postmatic for my personal site, which allows comment subscription and follow-up commenting via email. I also enabled Epoch, which turns your static comment feed into a live stream of comments (not that I currently have much need for this).
I also developed the appear.in WP plugin which allows use of appear.in video chat/discussion on a per post basis. This I’ve enabled on both sites, but don’t know that it sees much, if any use.
I have considered disabling comments altogether, but for reasons mentioned above, I’ve not been able to pull that trigger.
Chris Wilson says
I swear blog comments use to be easier! It feels like we’ve got all these new tools which should make them easier (and in many ways do) yet I still have people say they couldn’t leave me a comment on my site.
P.s. I’ve heard great things about postmatic, what’s your experience been?
UaMV says
You know, I tried it for a short while when it was in beta. It had some issues that I wasn’t ready take on with my site. I think they’ve sorted a lot of that and have come a good way. I only just a week or two ago re-enabled it on my site, so I’ve not too much feedback at the moment. I’ll try to let you know how it is moving forward.
Blessing Mpofu says
I think there are ways that commenting systems become a part of the problem. I’ve had a number of people (in person) tell me they wanted to comment but didn’t want to have to enter their email addresses and or names…
Eric Dye says
I can understand that to a degree. However, if you REALLY want to be a part of the conversation, here are two things to consider:
1. You are saying something that you want associated with your name. Moreover, communication should be a two-way street.
2. If you take the time to leave a comment, you should care enough to be interested in a response to your comment—so then you shouldn’t have a problem leaving an email or even subscribing to the follow-up comments.
People who think leaving a name and email is too hard aren’t really interested in interaction, so then what kind of value are they bringing in the first place?
This is why adding a thumbs-up, heart, star, etc… to a blog post is kinda cool. It’s a way to say, “Hey, I like this. I want you to know, even if I’m not leaving a comment.”
All of the above = IMHO
Eric Dye says
Leaving meaningful comments can be tough sometimes, as the author has done such a good job talking about the topic. But maybe that’s just the problem? We over think our comments—when in actuality—just an encouraging word is just the kind of interaction the author would love to have. Some sort of signal that says, “Hey. You wrote something. It was cool. I want to read something you wrote, again.”
UaMV says
Totally this.
Matt says
I agree with that sentiment. A six word comment means just as much to me as a 150 word one does. It may be easier to engage with a longer one, but the effort is appreciated equally.
Chris Wilson says
I used to really dislike those comments which didn’t really “add any value” but it does feel great when someone says “that was useful, thanks”. I guess the thing that’s put me off comments more are the spam comments which usually follow a template of “that post was really useful, I really like your reading…here’s my site ” and is just automated.
Riley Adam Voth says
It’d seem wrong if I didn’t leave a comment on this, right? But really, I’ve probably written about 5 drafts of a post about this same topic, but I never publish it because I see both sides. Still, I typically pretty still strongly dislike any blog or blogger that turns them off and so have a rather harsh view on the matter…
To me, it’s like saying, “I want everyone to pay attention to me, hear me, respect me, like me, and yet I refuse to do the same for you. You’re not worth my time and effort – just keep feeding me.” It seems “unappreciative pop-star-ish” to me; kinda, egocentric. Yet, I get that I don’t have a blog that’s just bloooowing up with traffic and interaction and creating more work either. But then I think, “well if you asked for it, deal with it.” If you work to become a celebrity, be someone worth knowing and following – I think this means interacting with “ordinary” folks.
Then… for those of us without blowing up blogs, I’m convinced much of it is fueled by insecurity or embarrassment. I mean, I’ve thought to myself many times, “Well if I turned these off then nobody would know that nobody comments and they’d think I’m just pretty dang popular and don’t want to deal with it.” Make sense! haha. But just two days ago I read a post by an internet friend of mine, wanted to comment, and couldn’t. It was the first post I’ve ever read of his that really resonated with me. It could have been a good start to a relationship, but I couldn’t do anything except shoot him another tweet. So… no, I think I’ll always have comments on whether it makes me look lonely or not. Haha.
…Plus for all the reasons you said, Chris! 🙂
Chris Wilson says
Wow Riley, interesting thoughts. [sorry for the late response. I think I was getting ready for my wedding when you commented!]
I think it is a real shame especially for us “normals” that we can’t interact. Do you remember about 8 years ago when the comments section could go on for ever. In fact, I think that’s a real shame about bigger name bloggers turning off their comments too. Often times you could connect with someone in the comment section of someone else’s blog.
I think some of the people who started out blogging now really run sites with articles. I say that as part of the beauty of blogging was that the post wasn’t finished when you hit publish, it could be refined over time. But there are some bloggers who’s posts are definitely finished when they hit publish and they won’t be edited later.
Funny story, I looked back at one of my first posts on my personal blog and I saw a couple of comments there. One was from you! I couldn’t believe it. I actually have been rewriting and updating it to make it even better but it was so amazing to see.
Anyway thanks for the comment [both here and back then] and wise thoughts.