I Messed Up.
Hey everyone, there is something that I have been wanting to get off my chest for sometime now, but I have been kind of putting it off and I really do not know why.
You maybe asking, what happened? Well, here is the story.
So, I am sure everyone reading this is familiar with the Site Comments feature here at WA, right? Well it has to do with how I have been going about accepting comments through there.
Recently, as in the past 2 months or so, I started to become very picky with how I accepted comments to my website.
I started to only accept comments that were very lengthy, as in like 3 paragraphs that were highly relevant to the topic.
Here is the problem with that though, not only does this result in it taking longer to get comments that I want, but it also is inconvenient to the ones that are writing the comments.
Obviously, they are not going to expect that those are the comments I wanted, and as a result of them really putting effort and thinking of how to make a great comment, they find that I rejected them because I was initially looking for more.
So, that was how I was going about this until I received a direct message on here from one of my frequent visitors and this really got me rethinking the whole thing!
He expressed his frustration due to not being able to leave any more comments on other sites because he was banned from the Site Comments platform. And this was all because of me, because I was asking for WAY too much!
The thing is though is that it was not just his comments I was rejecting, but about 75% of the comments I got, I had disapproved because I felt they were not thorough enough. Some were because of site feedback, but that is a different story.
Anyways, I first and foremost want to apologize to the one that got banned from the Site Comments platform, as I promise that was not what I intended to do. I am confident that you will regain access to the system soon.
I also am curious to know from everyone reading this, what is it that you look for when requesting comments? Do you prefer ones that are of a certain length? Have you ever disapproved any because they were not thorough enough?
I am interested in hearing what you guys think, as well as whether or not you think I was being too picky with approving comments.
In my opinion, looking back, I feel it was very unfair and I will not be going about accepting comments this way anymore!
Recent Comments
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Hey Arie, I appreciate you writing this. When I look for comments, I want something that is natural and it really doesn't matter if it's short or long. I'm happy to see some kind of reference on my content as if there was engagement of some sort.
Sometimes, I do tweak as in edit the comment if it's doable. I have rejected a few not many but that was become the comments were more as feedback.
Yeah, I feel your pain. When asking for generic comments through WA you do tend to get 'basic' comments. People who leave comments through WA are doing to to build up points to get comments for their sites. They usually don't have much interest in what you site or post is really about... their motives are to end up serving their own needs for their websites.
Big difference between organic comments left by people who finding your site because they actually are looking for content you are sharing. Organic comments are few and far between sometimes, but they tend to be the best comments you can ever get.
You can EDIT comments people leave. And I have done that with some of the 'lack luster' comments left by WA users... not much, just enough to put a keyword in here or there.. and of course my responses can be as lengthy as I want.
Best of luck!
TD
I’ve only been here about 1.5 month and have responded to about 20 site comments but here are my thoughts. I will accept any comment that meets these three requirements:
1. The comment is positive or constructive.
2. The comment shows that they have actually read my post.
3. The comment is not about how I can improve my site. This is more for people who confuse leaving a comment on the actual post versus those who are offering constructive criticism. I have personally made this mistake already.
Those are the only things I really look for
Rick