Comments are awesome. Who doesn’t like checking their email to see, oh hay girl here’s some comments. I love those deep thoughtful comments which make me ponder, which challenge me. I love the hey how are you doing comments. I love the, oh, interesting book comments. Call me an attention-whore, but I love it all. Granted, hate comments can suck the awesome from blogging, but those are few and far between, and I don’t get bent out of shape about those things too much.
I’ve been trying to reply to comments on the blog, but it’s slow going, and definitely a new habit. I do it now, because I tend to check back on certain blogs to see if the poster replied to my comment. I used to never do it, but now I see the awesome dialogue it can create.Ā
I don’t use any form of moderation on my comments. I’ve never received a hate comment or an attacking comment. I’ve never been trolled or flamed. I see comments as a way of expressing your opinions freely whether you agree or disagree with me. I think it’s perfectly valid to disagree with me, and I would never think of deleting those comments. Now if someone comes on here and calls me a stupid bitch, I’d probs leave the comment up, I don’t know if I would respond or not. It would bother me at first, but then I’d get to thinking what kind of pathetic person trolls the interwebs calling people stupid bitches, and then I’d laugh and get back to reading.
I notice that belligerent commenters tend to bring traffic, cuz you know someone tweets about it (i.e. I tweet: omg guyz there’s some asshole commenting on this post link), then people are like TEH DRAMZ TEH DRAMZ and flock. Yeah, so I wouldn’t close comments unless the belligerent commenter makes a comment about someone that is not me, then that’s when the gloves come off. You do not mess with readers on my blog and expect to get away with it. Also, I have no tolerance for racial slurs.
On the opposite end of the spectrum, I haven’t really gotten any comments from authors or from super star bloggers, unless you count Kristi at the Story Siren, but she doesn’t have a book deal yet, although I’d read her book if she wrote about YA blogging. I think I would be a very happy girl if authors commented on my positive reviews of their books. As for the not-so-positive reviews, well, feel free to disagree politely or explain why something is the way it is, and I’ll change the review. I’ve done it before, because I respect someone when they are gracious to me, despite my not liking their book. I honestly don’t mind author comments. I am not afraid to speak my mind, or be honest with my reviews, and as I said it is 100% okay with me if you disagree with me.
As for ease of commenting, I really hate word verification. I suppose I can understand enforcing it if you’ve gotten spam comments, but personally I’ve never ever had a spammer comment on my blog. Hurrah. I do know that when you get a blog, blogger automatically has the most annoying type of word verification set, the type where instead of the picture already being there, you are lulled into thinking YAY no verification, and then the page refreshes itself and you have to put in the code. I hate that. If you are going to have verification, at least have it upfront so I can type it in as soon as I’m done with comment, rather than accidentally clicking out of the page because I assume my comment posted because I didn’t see a verification to begin with. And yes, I’m the type who gets pissed when my paragraph long comments don’t post. It’s really easy to change the settings. Just click the Settings tab, then right underneath click Comments, it’s the fourth option, and from there you can make your word verification less annoying.
I found that by disabling word verification, I get more comments, because people don’t have to go through the extra step.
I love commenting, I really do, especially writing long comments. I think it feels awesome to receive those kinds of comments, so I like to pay it forward. To pay it forward, I’d like to comment more. So here is the deal, leave me your web address and I will leave you up to 10 comments because I am awesome on that, or just tweet me a link to something you really want a comment on I’m @booksandwine I promise I don’t bite…hard…
This post brought to you/inspired by the Weekly Geeks.
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Oh I never reply to comments…I think I should now…good idea!
I often try to email to reply to comments because I know most readers don't come back to posts for replies. Not all commenters leave email addresses, however. I get a ton of spam, and I'm not sure why. I compromise: I turn word verification on for posts older than fourteen days. Most of my spam comes on older posts for some reason, and I think it's a nice balance.
Srsly. Who doesn't love 'em?
Comment. Commentcommentcomment.
Yes, it is certainly nice. It makes you feel like you're not just writing into a void. I started blogging as a way to remember what I read and make reading more interactive, so its not like comments are necessary, but seriously, they do help. Even if it's something you're just doing for yourself, a) it's nice to connect with someone, agree or disagree, just for the dialogue and b) when you work so hard on a review or something and pour yourself into it, it's nice to know it was worth it.
I love comments too – except for the mean ones, but I like your attitude of laughing and just going back to reading š Those are far and few between in any case. I try to respond to comments because I think it helps make people feel welcomed, plus it helps *me* feel closer to those who're reading and take the time to comment. But I completely understand why some people don't respond – it does take a lot of time. And yeah, word verification sucks :\ I refuse to put it back up, though I have been hit by spammers pretty badly lately.
Interesting post. Having read it, I'm tempted to drop the word verification. It's just that I have had a few spam comments and I really hate that. Maybe I'll try turning it off for a week and see if I get more comments / more spam or not.
I love comments to I try to reply to them all because I also go back sometimes to see if the blogger replied to me. Also you have an award at my blog since even though your really popular I just discovered you.
http://bit.ly/9a2twk
Man, I get spam all the time, but I, too, don't want to do the word verification thing. (Especially the ones that pop up after your hit Publish–those are extremely irritating!) Most authors I know don't comment on reviews either, but every once in a blue moon I get them, and they make me happy. What makes me even happier is when the same author will comment semi-regularly on my blog, and not just on posts that mention them. Those are the best! Although they have taken many months for our relationship to get to that point.. š
I can't believe you've never gotten spam! I do a fair bit, but I'd rather just go through and delete it than turn on word verification. I try to respond to comments as often as I can, especially when people comment with more that just a 'great review'.
I get spam fairly often. I moderate comments on older posts and for the newer ones… well, I just try to go and delete them when I get them. Just recently, I had one person post comments on about TEN entries that I had to go through and delete. Ugh.
I don't like word verification, either. I got rid of it on mine around read-a-thon time. But I also don't like moderation- it makes me think that some comments just don't get posted if the blogger doesn't like them.
But I also love comments! I try to respond to them on my blog, but I also rarely check back on other people's blogs for follow-up comments. I'm so disorganized.
I hate word verification too!
I wish everyone would disable it.
Love me dem comments!!! LOL
I do use word verification, but I've never had a spam comment, so I think that's working. I wonder what would happen if I disabled that for a while… I'll have to do a test!! I don't mind doing the word thingy on other bloggers sites, though. It does tick me off when I can't read the darn word, though!! haha!!
Good post!! Happy Reading (and commenting!!)
I currently have word verification on my blog simply because when I take it off I get MAYBE one real comment for every four spam comments. That's just not worth it for me. So, until I can devote more time to refusing spam comments, I'll be keeping my verification. However, I'm pretty sure I have mine set to show you up front that you have to fill it out so I don't feel toooo bad about it. LOL.
As for loving comments, I can't imagine anyone not liking comments, but I'm sure there's at least one weird person out there that doesn't like 'em. I'm not that person though, so if your offer of a few comments still stands…you can come visit me here: http://phoenixshadowbeast.blogspot.com/
I don't know how to turn it into a link in the comments. I see other people do it, but still have no idea how to do it myself. oh, look at me writing a book in your comments. sorry. It was just such a good post that I had to jump in and tell my story. š
I used to reply to all comments, but have majorly slacked off on that in the last couple months. It's shameful, really. I've been trying to get back in the habit, because I really do love getting comments and love trying to keep conversations going.
I have moderation set up for people who haven't stopped by the ol' blog before. I'm not going to lie, seeing that I have new comments that need to be approve warms my heart. I always hear the phrase, a la Friends "You have two new messages." And since I'm such a compulsive blog stat-checker, moderated comments are usually approved about 30 seconds after they're submitted.
You've never gotten spam? Lucky! I get at least a few every day and it drives me crazy, but I don't want word verification because it bugs me sometimes on other blogs.
I never reply back to comments really because I figure people don't check back. But I do try to return comments if someone comments on my blog, I try to leave them a comment (when I can). I totally agree with you about word verification – I hate the dumb refreshing word verification! That's even worse than regular word verification.
Thank you so much for reminding me! I have had it at the back of my mind forever now to disable word verification (and I just did before writing this š Like you, I haven't really gotten any spam….should we be knocking on wood or something?
Here's another random question – how do you prefer your Comment Form Placement…um…placed? I assume you like the pop-up window because that's what you use. I have mine embedded below the post…is that annoying to you? I'm not sure if I have a preference or not…
Stop by my blog if you like –
http://redhousebooks.blogspot.com
Thanks for such an interesting post!
You're so lucky to not get spam. I get them a lot. The male enhancement ones are very popular.
And yes like it or not drama drives traffic up.