Site Comments: What if your comment is not approved?
The Latest Buzz!
The latest buzz at Wealthy Affiliate is the new Site Comments feature. So far, this looks like the greatest new invention since Peanut Butter. (And I just can't tell you enough how much I love peanut butter!) It does raise a question or two in my mind, however.
Is the intent to look only at the one post on a site and leave a comment? I got very excited with the new feature and did 9 reviews before I went to bed. The little button showing you have a 100% approval rating made me smile. Then, I woke up. My approval rating dropped to 80% because one person didn't like my comment on his site and hit the disapprove button.
Naturally, I was curious as to why, so I went back to look at the website again. In his disapproval of the comment, he stated that my comment had nothing to do with his review, and that I was speaking of WA. However, I had not only read his one review, but explored other sections of his website. (There was a link to his WA review at the bottom of the page he had requested a review upon. The link stated very boldly, "Click Here To Find Out More About Blogging For Real")
My error, as it seems, was to comment on his site as a whole, rather than curtailing my comments to just the one post. Apparently, I was mistaken and that wasn't the comment being solicited. I'm not sure there is actually a penalty for this, but I do realize that having an approval rating of 100% looks better than having an approval rating of 80%.
My natural reaction was to want to explain to him what I had meant. I read his review as a comparison to Wealthy Affiliate, as that is how we all tend to write our reviews, and why wouldn't you compare a subpar offering to the best thing going out there? He determined the program he was reviewing was a scam, I had no reason to argue with that. I actually found his WA review very compelling and chose to focus on it in my comments about his site.
As I can see it, there isn't an actual way to choose which sites you want to review, it gives you only one at a time. Perhaps someone can offer a suggestion as to what we are supposed to do if we are presented with a post to which we have nothing to say. There isn't a button to click past that particular site and go on to the next one, unless I'm mistaken and I missed that particular feature?
Clearly, I am not going to send this individual an unsolicited private message to clarify my comment, as I don't believe that would be appropriate by the rules of the WA platform. I thought addressing this in general would be more beneficial, in hopes that it might help others out there, too.
With any new program, it is necessary to establish proper guidelines for growth. My suggestion is that instead of just hitting the disapprove button, perhaps you would want to solicit more information from the reviewer first? Quite often, a request for clarification can avert what is probably just a simple misunderstanding of the details in the first place. The goal is to have more comments all around. Disapproving a comment wastes the time I spent making a unique comment to offer what I thought was helpful feedback. It also doesn't benefit the site owner in any manner. Perhaps, if you, as a site owner, feels that the comment could be better placed on your website, you could just move it to another section? I think that is possible.
My initial reaction was that I felt like I had spent my time commenting and had been regarded like my opinion was SPAM. (We all know how we feel about SPAM.) It isn't like I need accolades or approval for everything I do, but I will perhaps be more reserved in my inclination to review. And, I don't believe that is the environment we are trying to foster at WA. We want open, two way communication. We are soliciting feedback. At least if you are inclined to disapprove a comment, give your commenter the courtesy of a reply, or the chance to clarify. That is just my two cents worth. No one likes to feel like they've spent their time here in vain.
One last comment and I'll quit bending your ear.
When I receive a comment on my website, I like to reciprocate. I believe it was Loes that pointed out (and I hold her opinions in high regard) that she would generally list her email as well as her website when she made a comment on someone's site. I do the same. If someone leaves me a comment, I would like to be able to click on the link to their website and reciprocate. However, I didn't see that as a possibility. Have I missed something?
Could we at least make it possible that it provide a link to their WA profile? The system does not allow you to list a website when you are making comments. I imagine that is a security protocol against SPAM. However, as we are all members of WA, I would hope that we could make it easy to return the compliment of viewing our commenters sites.
I truly believe that SiteComments is a great new addition to the Wealthy Affiliate experience. Let's all give Kyle and Carson a round of applause for their innovation!
Thanks for your time!
Kim
Recent Comments
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I totally agree with Leese who has commented below. I just had to disapprove a comment even though I felt really bad doing it but the comment was more to do with the look of my website. The person said I was doing a good job and that I should keep it up.
To me that is feedback, not a comment. I was expecting a comment about the actual article I wrote which I didn't get.
Don't get me wrong. I really appreciated the comment about doing a good job and I appreciated the time the person took to leave a comment which is why I felt bad rejecting it. But I worked hard to get my credits too and I wasn't going to waste it on a comment that wasn't a response to the article I wrote.
Kyle just posted new training on the Feedback Comments and the Site Comments sections. I think that will help clear things up a bit.
Hi Kim, I do miss the possibility to leave my website backlink, some say it is good to backlink, others say it isn't, there are some other issues too, I read, A bug with the new site comment system? I think we can create together a terrific system, by reporting these issues and helping Kyle and Carson to perfect it.
I think so, too, Loes. With good feedback from the community I believe it will be an awesome tool. :) Thanks for commenting.
Kyle gave a good response to backlinks in this thread. Sitecomments are not leaving link back? anyone know?
Hi Kim
I liked your post as I too am playing around with this feature myself tonight.
I do think as WA goes through the new program process Kyle and Carson will be tweaking things.
I do love the feature but like you would love to see a click to next website feature.
I just ran into a comment that showed up for me, but when I checked it out it was somebody else's comment starting with the name they where saying hi to and the description of the comment.
When I tried to track the person down by entering there name in the search above that has always worked for me before came up with nothing.
When I clicked on there name it took me to there avatar account.
So when you have to deny a comment you get to write why you are rejecting the comment. In my case I told who ever gets these comments there is a glitch in the system about what happened to the one who made the comment that came to me instead of the proper website.
There will probably be updates to the new system coming.
Simply refresh the page and it will give you a new site. You can check which interests you have and only those types of sites will come up.
I did that, Jean. I just thought it would be more obvious than basically starting the process over. I also checked my interests, perhaps I'll need to go review my choices. With the exception of two sites that came up, all were affiliate marketing sites. That is great, however, I do like to review something other than WA comparisons. It makes it more difficult to produce a unique response. Thanks for your time! :) Kim
Hi Kim, I also suspect that the ratings in SiteHealth are based on a number of factors over recent time. The publishing frequency goes down if you do not keep publishing. Visitor engagement (comments) goes down if a number of them are not received recently. The task is to keep publishing, keep getting comments and keep replying to comments to get these high. You just need to watch these Key Performance Indicators on what is really important to your business.
Hi Kim, I started to use this new feature as well. One of the sites/pages I was asked to review was full of spelling mistakes and used incomplete sentences. The sites/pages should be ready before seeking comments. In this instance, there was no way I was going to comment on it, I still be writing comments on it and my time is way too valuable. Anyway, I just exited out of the function and went back in. This time I got a different one and reviewed that one.
Thanks for commenting, David. I read more in the SiteComments thread after posting this, and I think I got some clarity myself. What you say is exactly true. I myself tend to go into critique mode and try to offer helpful suggestions when leaving a comment on a site, be it a WA member's site or really just anyone's site. Pay it forward just always has been part of my way of thinking.
Apparently, there is a difference between asking for comments and asking for feedback. I've always viewed that as one and the same thing. My take now is that asking for comments means we want 'just the good stuff' for others to read (not sure if I agree with that lol but ok, I'd rather give a good, valuable opinion.) There is a separate venue to ask for "Feedback", and that is where you would comment on grammar, spelling, etc.
I think I missed that in the rule book lol
Thanks for your insight.
Kim
Well, it doesn't mean the good stuff exactly. It's just about commenting on the post topic. If you don't agree with what the poster is saying, disagree. It starts a conversation which is good.
Perhaps my thought process was a bit jaded in 'the good stuff' outlook. There are two ways to look at it. Most people like to be agreed with. If they are drawing comments of disagreement with their post, there is nothing to keep them from just hitting the disapprove button. In which case, what was the point of leaving the comment in the first place. It would take a more unique individual to allow dissenting opinions color their page. (A most admirable trait, to be sure.)
Hey Kim, now that I used this new comment function a bit more, I see now what you mean. I had one of my comments that I spent time on disapproved which I think was hard.
I make a few comments about the page in question, he had a good header image and text in it, and I make the mistake of including in my comment something along the lines of "if if is not too much trouble and if it is not a trade secret, how did you do that?" in order to start a conversation.
Now I know how to do it however I wanted to start a conversation so that he could show to his readers how helpful he is, which I thought was one of the ideas behind providing comments. Well, the door shut so fast when he disapproved my comment. It was not even a disagreement.
What is a person to do???
By the way Kim, I don't expect you to have the answer, this is more aimed to the WA community, and may be something that Kyle and Carson may have to think about when fine tuning this.
Maybe disapproved comments should be reviewed by someone else as well in order to be fair. I have no way of knowing in advance how another person will react. I think that maybe 17 out of 20 people would have approved it (a bit biased to be sure)...
The comment feature is to leave comments related to the content of the post, not the site layout. The idea is to engage with the post and the information that it contains rather than the website in general. Feedback for the website should be left through the feedback feature.
If you are 'penalized' for a disapproved comment, then yes, David, I totally agree. Some sort of a check and balance system seems to be warranted. However, ultimately, each owner has control of their own site. There is nothing to keep them from just going and deleting the comment if it is 'forced' upon them.
By the same token, though, there should be no penalty involved when someone has made a legitimate effort to spend their time giving a quality comment.
When a comment is approved, an additional credit is earned to help you 'pay' for your next comment. When a comment is disapproved, no additional credit is earned.
To actually give the comment in the first place requires a time investment.
What is the percentage of disapproved comments?
And if they were viewed by others, would they also be disapproved?
I know that this is a matter of opinion.
What will you feel when you spend time providing what you think is a quality comment only for it to be disapproved.
Where does it say you don't get credit for a comment that isn't approved? You give 2 comments you get 1 credit. It doesn't matter if it was approved or not.
You give a comment, you earn a point. No matter what.
If you look in your comment history, under comment approval.
For each one, that is approved, there is a little green box that contains a tick and the words 1 Credit.
If there are any, disapproved, it is a little black box with "Disapproved".
This suggests that when the comment was approved, an extra credit is earned. Did I read this incorrectly??
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Thanks for helping to clarify comments for me Kim.
I like your suggestion of reciprocating to members with a comment on their site, I think that would be useful even if we don't score a point.
I also feel a link to their WA profile would be great so we can reach out further & support each other.
Hopefully I'll my comments & feedback right the majority of the time now.
Thanks again.
Cheers :)
Hi Missfaye,
I'm sorry it took me a week to reply. I've been busy on other projects lately and haven't been spending much time here. I'm happy that you found my comments useful. I hope you enjoy your experience at WA!
Kim
Thanks Kim :)