How Honest Should Comments Be?

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2K followers

Rule #5 for posting on WA says: Be nice, play nice. Do to others and speak to others as you would want them to speak to you.

This is my first post on WA, and I am a strong believer in 'do unto others as you'd have them do unto you.' I've only done the SiteComments for half-a-dozen or so pages. But I'm wondering if I am too honest, since the Comment posts on the person's page. If SiteComments feedback only posted on WA it would be less of a concern. I really want to give honest, helpful feedback, yet I don't want to make the author feel bad, and I don't want to make other comment readers think the site is poorly done .

Mostly I find sentences where a word was missing, or where there were misspelled words. I give the author specifics to correct the issues. Of course, I also mention the features of the site that are well done.

My preference is to get the specifics so I can clear up the issue ASAP. However, others may not feel that way. Particularly if the author speaks English as a Second Language. Those pages tend to have more "odd" phrasing or inaccurately used words. I think it is tremendously brave to try and write in any language other than the birth language. I don't want the authors to feel "beat up" from my very specific, critiquing reviews.

Maybe it isn't even the author making the English as a Second Language mistakes. It might be the browser software that converts other languages into English so I can read them. I know in Blogger.com you can set your site to do that, but I don't know if it is done universally and automatic.

I think we all want useful comments that help us learn to write better posts. It can be daunting enough to write anything, so it's nice to get encouragement. How do you feel? Would you prefer to have someone just say, "I noticed some misspelled words." or, "There's an awkward sentence in the second paragraph." or do you want to receive comments that are very specific and offer potential corrections? I'd really like to know.

Thanks!

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Recent Comments

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I come from a non-native English speaker point of view. I studied English as a first language and Chinese, as my second language. I grew up speaking my home dialect. In my line of work as an engineer I deal with customers of various nationality, and many of them are non-native English speaking. As long they understand your update they are not particular about grammar. The work environment causes me to neglect my grammar. Frankly, speaking I would feel uncomfortable when people point out my writing is bad, but the right attitude would just be humble and learn from others who are better.

I did not know of this website comment and feedback feature in WA and was thinking of getting someone to proofread for me in Fiverr.

Read further down looks like the I still need to get people to proofread for me because the comment and feedback are not for this purpose. Correct me.

Thanks Vincent. Learning the difference between Comments and Feedback has really helped me know what to say where. Question: You joined WA in 2007. Have you been able to reach the goal of supporting yourself thru the internet yet?

I left after one year at 2008 because of my job commitment; I just joined back at the beginning of this year. So I am all starter again.

I would rather people telling me my mistakes than saying nice things for the sake of politeness. By eliminating the mistakes then my website will be better.
Therefore it is better to be honest.

SiteFeedback can be used for mistakes, etc...I think. Is this correct?

Yes, correct.

Thanks MisterWailor.

Tell people the truth and they may hate you. Lol speaking of personal experience. .. tell them fluff and what they want to here and they would love you

SiteComments and SiteFeedback are DIFFERENT. I made mistakes in the "beginning". SiteComments is for making comments about the post/page content. SiteFeedback is for general feedback about the website as a whole. These are both very valuable tools and have served me and many others here very well.
https://my.wealthyaffiliate.com/websites/comments
https://my.wealthyaffiliate.com/website-feedback

Thanks electrobot.

We can be honest and I think it is important otherwise how will be learn if we are getting it right, though we still have to remember peoples feeling and be polite

HI I agree about not using site comments to give feedback the comments should be about engagement of the topic. However you can still disagree with the post or product it's about trying to give the author an opportunity to add to their content and follow up with other evidence or support what they have said already.

I would never lie in a comment though even to say I have just discovered their site or want to go and buy their product because that often comes across as fake, but others do and I get those comments sometimes on my site which can be annoying, just be yourself.

Thank you so much for that perspective. It's really helpful.

When we comment on a person's web-site from the site-comments platform, we do that as a favor, to help with rankings and make their content and products look good for outside visitors. I might not like the product they are trying to sell on that post, but I lie and say I will buy it. Comments on spelling and that kind of stuff do NOT belong on a site-comment. If you see something wrong, contact the person here at WA with a PM. It's a big difference between site-comments and feedback. There is a thread for feedback here at WA too, where people post their url to get feedback on look, spelling and that kind of things. But again, this kind of help do not belong in a comment on the website for everybody to see.

Agree with all.

Thank you, Marith.

I completely agree. I would never point to errors or keep going against other's opinions in the site comment. What for? If there is a real intent to help, why not contact the person privately so they can have a chance to improve or reconsider what was written? We are all prone to errors, but we also want to look great to our readers. Can you imagine if everybody starts to disagree with each other in every line of thought, in every opportunity? Site comments would be a disaster.

You are not supposed to comment on English, style and such things. This is not for site comments. If you do so your comment will be disapproved with good reasons. You are supposed to comment about the topic of the post.

It is for Feedback and PM if you want to help somebody to improve style and English.

Yes, one of the members let me know the difference after I had left a Comment on his site. And I REALLY appreciate Marc explaining that!!

I don't think you have to be mean about it. Just say what you see that could be better.

I don't think I'm mean or nasty in how I say things. It's just that I don't want them to be embarrassed in front of their readers/followers. I guess it doesn't really matter if I say "that sentence is awkward" or if I say "for this phrase: He enjoy beautiful things -- replace enjoy with enjoys." Either one could embarrass the author. I guess that answers my question!

I know what you mean, I guess I just don't worry too much about feelings when I'm trying to help. I try to write very neutral when offering feedback. If they feel hurt, it's really only hurting them.

HI Diana, the site comments should be so that a person can learn and make the site better - it is no point to say oh that is a nice site when it screams overload at you so by telling not quite is not helping the person - When I do comments or a review I am like Simon Cowell but it gets the job done

Thanks Paul.

Wrong Paul, that is not what site-comments are for. The site-feedback is for that. The site-comments is to make the content look good for readers outside WA and help with rankings. Feedback on look and spelling do NOT belong in a comment on the web-site.

Sorry I was very tired when I wrote that last night and feedback is to help a person to improve so you have to be honest and comments are the things that Google sees on our websites and these help us to grow - feed back is internal WA and comments are external Websit

Thanks Marith. I'm just starting to "get" the differences now.

Thanks Paul. Do you have any tips for staying on top of correspondence here? It seems I could spend all my time reading and replying to stuff - not just WA but now Google+ and my website - and I'm afraid it's only going to mushroom!

Well some times I get 220 emails a day now and do I get up an hour earlier in the day !!!

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