If you are a Blogger whether a seasons veteran or a newbie we all love getting comments on our posts. But are your Blogs set up to me comment friendly? Do you make your readers jump through hoops so they can leave a comment or do you allow the free flow of ideas from your readers?
Yesterday I decided to go through and visit all the blogs participating in BlogPaws Wordless Wednesday Event just to say hi and take a few minutes to see who participates. What should have taken maybe an hour at the most with 54 links to beautiful pictures of everyone’s pets took forever! And there was even one blog I couldn’t figure out where to comment in the first place.
First I need to ask Why all the need for security with the captcha (that thing where you have to type in some made up word or decipher some random numbers and letters) turned on? Do you really get that many spam comments on a daily basis that you feel the need to make everyone go through that extra step? Nothing stops people from leaving comments on your blog like having to do those captcha things.
I know I don’t get so much spam that I can keep a handle on it. Plus I am sorry to say to the spammer they aren’t giving themselves any link love by leaving all those ridiculous comments for their shoes or dog beds or whatever else they are trying to sell. All they are doing is putting more comments on your blog because most aren’t smart enough to learn how to comment in a meaningful way anyway. Plus on almost all blog platforms the comment section is automatically set to no follow for the Google bots anyway.
What is No Follow? This is a meta tag that is used to instruct the search engine bots to not follow the link and/or view the page. The no follow meta tag is used for content that a webmaster does not want a user to view via a search engine. The no follow attribute on links is used to NOT give link backs so they can spam you all they want it isn’t helping their cause.
Back to comment love.
Here’s how I handle comments. For the first 14 days a post is active I allow comments to post without my approval. I do not have captcha turned on because I want as many people as often as they feel the desire, to comment on my blog. Plus for giveaways it allows each entry to go more smoothly. My giveaway typically last 14 days so this feature is perfect for me so I don’t spend my day moderating giveaway comments. Once the 14 days are up I have to approve each individual comment. I get maybe a total of 5 – 10 comments a month on old posts that I either allow to go through or just dump them in the spam folder and then delete to try and get the system to recognize specific spammers so I don’t have to deal with them again.
When I do have a giveaway run past the 14 day mark I just have to remember to go into my comments and approve them those last few days. It takes maybe 5 minutes per day to approve the these last minute entries I don’t investigate the comments in depth. If they look like a real comment on a post I allow them to go through.
Agreed with the captcha observation!
amen girls!
There are bloggers who make things so difficult to comment that it's a real turn off & I just don't bother.
This comment box set up you have – with the drop down menu to select a profile – is one of the simplest & nicest. I see you also allow anonymous comments: another bonus! Some blogs only allow comments from typepad or wordpress or you actually have to *register* on their blog to be allowed to comment. Um, no thanks!
You did just remind me that I've been meaning to change my comment box settings so that they wouldn't be in a separate pop up but just show under the post – so thanks for that prod!
I made a decision when I began my blog about 6 months ago to make commenting easy. While I don't get many comments I value them all:) So far no spam, does that mean I'm not worth spamming, lol!
One thing I'm wondering about is commenting on comments. It would be great to get a conversation going sometimes but I never know if the person whose comment I'd be replying to would know that I have?
Any suggestions for making this easy? I'll check back to see if you reply;)
So the only places I leave comments is where I don't have to “select profile”. Too many times I've written a comment and then had no way to post it because I don't want to “join” these options. I'm trying with you because of your subject today. I would rather do a captcha then register!! Becky
I get a lot of spam for some reason, so I have mine set to where I have to approve the first comment by a poster. No captcha, no password. They just post, and if it's the first time it wont show up until I hit “approve.” Once I approve a comment by someone, all their subsequent comments go through right away. I approve every “real” comment, even if it's criticism towards my post. I just don't approve the obvious spam comments, like the dozens of “thank you for the posting, it saved much time” bs with a link to a viagra site or something.
Hate captchas! We originally had no approval, but got so much offensive spam. Now it's set up so once you are approved once, you don't have to be approved again.
im not a blogger but i loved your first few paragraphs. It is a pain to type extra things in just to post. I also hate that comment timer if you are doing giveaways I can type faster than the timer then I have to sit there refreshing waiting for my comment to go through.
I also found what you said about the meta tag interesting. There have been giveaways on other blogs that I did not enter because I did not want a future potential employer googling me and finding that I had entered a giveaway for some AHEM bedroom toys or something.
smart post! thanks for sharing :).
Great post; I wholeheartedly agree. I would love to go through and see all the WW posts or visit a good portion of the Saturday Blog Hop entries, but I try to limit myself to a certain amount of time on blogging/blog reading and all these security features really eat up that time. Plus, like BZ Training said, I can't count the number of times I've clicked away too soon and my comment never even got submitted. Maybe I'm just lucky, but so far, no spammers have hit up my blog, and it since I like to read the comments that are left anyways, it only takes a minute to do away with something that shouldn't be there.
Interesting… I've always wondered what's the best way to go with comments. Did you keep statistics as to how many did captcha vs. moderation vs. no security?
I actually perfer captcha to moderation (as a reader) since I like to read others comments, although I've know I've clicked away too fast on many occasions, not realizing it was there, and my comment got lost in the ether. š
That's another reason not to have captca sometimes you don't even realize it is there and you spent time writing the comment that will never post.
WordPress allows you to comment on a comment. As far as I can find Blogger does not give you that capability. Sometimes you can subscribe to comments so you can see who comments after you so you can go back and have a conversation. But I never subscribe to those.
If it is a conversation I am interested in I will try to remember who blog it is on and go back to see how the conversation has progressed.
I had to stop anonymous posters and turn on the password thingy, because I started getting a lot of mean and disgusting comments on my blog.
Some people!
Some of the things they said still bother me! They were nasty.
Thanks for this! When I started my blog, I used captcha, but then when I realized what a pain it was (after commenting on other people's posts) I did away with it. I think I've only gotten like 1 or 2 spam comments in the year I've been blogging. It's so annoying to have to go the extra step to leave a comment on some people's blogs!!
Elyse (and Riley)
Maybe I will remove captchas from my blog, but it's the only thing in the way of leaving a comment, no other hoops to jump through. Personally I don't really mind these captchas and it hasn't stopped me from leaving comments.
I do have threaded comments though and it is a follow rather than a no follow blog.
Hope I haven't turned anyone here away with the captchas š
I personally hate the captchas, especially the hidden ones that pop up AFTER you have typed your comment! As a blogger I don't have any of that on my blog because I know how much it irritates me to have to put that extra time in on other blogs and it really takes me very little time to delete any spam comments on mine
I haven't used security in ages. I was plagued with spammers the first few weeks but I just delelted those and now I haven't seen one in months. (I hope I didn't just jinx myself!) I like to keep it easy for my commenters. And I noticed that I do get more comments. But then again it could be because of my readers. š
I also hate captchas but I try not to let them discourage me too much with folks who have been faithful in commenting on my site.
I have a WP blog and use Akismet to stop spam. It's terrific because it rarely captures “real” comments but stops all the spam from posting. However, I can get as many as 50 spam comments captured each day. I'd hate to see them turning up on my posts.
I've really only had problems commenting on blogger blogs.
I don't mind the captcha that much… though I do hate when there's a captcha and the comment is moderated too. Why go through the trouble of making me do the captcha if the comment is still not going to be posted until approved? I do prefer captcha to moderation, if given the choice.
I read this post a few days ago and so yesterday I took Captcha off my comments. Lo and behold, I got a spam comment the length of a book!
I received an email notification of a comment on my phone and was really perturbed since I was away from any computer at the time. When I was able to check my blog I happily discovered that Blogger had caught the spam comment holding it for me to delete. It never showed under my post!
You are spot on and Blogger rocks!!