Aaaaaarrrrggggg!
I had been reading posts last week with reference to peoples frustrations with poor site comments. Because of this information I decided to hold off for a week before I requested any for my recent posts.
So at 15:12 today I submitted a request for feedback on a 2,500-word post that also has 1 video at 12 minutes in length and one at 11 minutes.
I kid you not, within 4 minutes of requesting the feedback I had 3 comments and the 4th comment within 6 minutes.
How long would it take to read my post - 5 minutes maybe? Even if you browsed the videos perhaps 8 minutes plus a good 5 minutes perhaps to feedback with good relevant comments.
So 15 minutes, and I'm being generous.
So how the hell within 3 minutes can I have 1 comment that says my post was really informative and the videos offered fantastic information for beginners.
WTF???
One comment isn't even about the bloody topic and another one says my article is a godsend and then has the audacity to copy part of my post and paste it back to me in the comments section.
Not one of the people who commented are Premium members (which I have no issue with) so I think the main issue here is that the training is asking people to leave comments at the end of one of the phases.
To me this is saying to people they need to leave comments to continue the training, so they are.
The problem is they either don't have the experience to leave a decent comment or they are just getting another part of the training out of the way.
I now understand peoples frustrations.
Recent Comments
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It's a catch 22. Without the incentive, people can't seem to get comments. With it, they get terrible comments as the commentor is either new and doesn't know what a comment is (so many times I've received feedback vs a comment) or the guy looking to make a quick buck from the Certified Commentor feature, so they rush through it and put in what they think you might want to hear.
This topic, unfortunately, has come up many times for discussion. I believe you hit the nail on the head with people completing this as part of the training and just wanting to "check it off". It is unfortunate because it is very frustrating for the author of the article who puts so much time into their work.
There are two things you can do:
1. If you decide to approve the comment, edit it to make it more topic-related to your site. I have had to do that in the past because of the same reasons you have stated.
2. Get a few "comment buddies". Choose a few people you can depend on to give quality comments on your site. Of course, you will then do the same for them.
I know it's frustrating, but those are two ways of getting around the situation. Hang in there.
Have a great rest of the day and weekend.
Yvette
I think you hit the nail on the head here with regard to the instruction in the training. However, the training does emphasise the 'pay it forward' nature of WA and instructs members to give considered feedback and identify any issues or glitches the reviewer comes across so I guess there are (mostly) some really decent people here and there are also some not so decent. Like any other walk of life I'm afraid, but yes it is very frustrating and demoralising when you are on the receiving end of lazy commentators.
Good luck with your site mate, it sounds like you have put in a heck of a lot of effort and I'm sure it will pay off.
Thanks very much.
I agree with you and I totally get that not all comments will be great and I really don't expect them to be - I would be foolish to think otherwise for sure.
It would just be nice if they tried to actually comment like they have read some of the post lol
Best regards,
Mark
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Thanks Mark for the warning! I'll be interested to see what I get.
Continued success!
Brenda