Site Comments Are A Disappointment
When Site Comments first got changed around several months ago, I was excited to be able to get some engaging comments on my website. It started out that way, but I feel that it has really gone down hill the last few months.
I requested some comments on a new post. I only requested 1 comment, since that is all the credits that I currently had.
Much to my surprise, I received 8 which is a big bonus. The only problem is that out of those 8, I have only approved 1 and that was a stretch.
Six of the comments have so many misspelled words, the comments don't make sense and they all say "thanks for laying that out for me." Not one asked an engaging question or added any benefit. I am still trying to decide what to do with these.
One comment was a site review, and a very poor review and then said hope this is what you were looking for.
It seems since we are able to earn credits that can be turned into money, they have gotten much worst. and not better.
I think I am out and won't be using site comments any longer. It is just too frustrating.
Are others having the same problem?
Recent Comments
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You can edit site comments and correct mis-spellings and improve the layout in terms of paragraph spacing, sentence structure, etc. A lot of WA members don't have English as their first language so it's understandable.
My real concern with it, though, is when people write comments when they haven't actually read your post. I've had to disapprove a few on my MMO site, when I've written an article with links to my WA review and people have commented as though it was the review itself.
It's frustrating at times, but still worth the effort I think.
Cheers
Rich :-)
I do edit what I can, but sometimes it has nothing to do with the article or I would have to rewrite it completely to use.
Oh sorry to hear about that and its not nice. I had good comments so far and always approved.
PM me with your link if you wish. I will post a couple comments for you. Cheers, Marisa
It's the catch-22, right?
People here are (probably) working on building their own online business to make money.
It takes time away from their own business to check out someone else's website, read (sometimes crazy long articles) and then comment in a good way.
So... rightly so, they earn some money credit for doing so.
On the other hand... whenever people can make money from doing something there are always those people who want to make as much as they can by doing as little as possible.
Not sure there is anyway around it really. Although I suppose the system could be automated over time to filter out comments that are way too similar to others, block people from using the system who have had too many comments rejected, etc (not the best option because some folks might be way too picky).
I haven't used the system yet to ask for comments. But I did leave a comment yesterday on a huge article nearly 5,000 words.
Overall, I think it is a great idea to have such a system here. Can "just anyone" leave comments? Or is it only Premium members?
One thing might be if a person could just gather a list of commenters who they like and directly invite those people through the system to leave a comment.
Still, don't we get to just look at the comments and then manually approve them and only the ones approved are deducted from our credits?
I understand if people are overly picky, but I am not. Even when I know the comment won't do anything to benefit me, I approve them, but most of them need to be edited just to get to that point. I receive many that don't use any capitalization at all.
So far, this time, I haven't disapproved comments, they are worth approving and I haven't received disapproval.
I have not had bad comments yet. I think the credit system is good in concept. To improve it, the comment requested should be able to grade the quality of a comment. Example use a 3 star system. 1 star is very poor quality and unacceptable; the commenter receives no credit. If 2 star then comment needed editing; commenter gets half credit. A 3 star is fine and commenter gets full credit. That may encourage better, more thoughtful comments.
I had one like that today, that didn't make sense. Once I added punctuation, it was much better.
Apparently there has been a problem with copying and pasting generic comments.
It is very annoying and frustrating, I agree.
It is becoming a time waster. I usually read them and have to come back later with a clearer mind to try and make sense of what they are writing. They will even misspell the name of the company that I am reviewing.
That is appalling and very much a waste of time..
Mine wasn't that bad luckily and I discovered we could edit them which made it easier.
I end up editing most of mine. This trying to have words spelled correctly and some punctuation instead of 1 long sentence.
I don't use the platform for the issues you mentioned Marla!
If you really want to start the comment train, ask friends to visit and share some comments on your site. I have found once I get a few comments on a post other organic traffic is more likely to also leave a comment.
I was thinking the same thing for a while, but I'm back to trying to give comments just in case the day comes that I may want some comments. And the day came the other day. Although, I think I forgot to click the accept button to actually start receiving those comments, lol. But, it's getting closer to me actually wanting the comments again. I'll give it a go and see what happens.
I hope you get some useful comments and don't have to spend a bunch of time editing them. It has been a long time since I didn't have to correct spelling and grammer on a comment.
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This is normal sadly, but it's OK, approve only those you want to get accepted, no matter how many disapprovals you need to do.
I am very picky about site comments and approve a minority of them. The system is designed to weed out bad comments and only keep the good ones, while teaching those who didn't get theirs approved, to improve, so it works out in the end.
You are right. I just feel bad when I don't approve them, but if it helps them do better reviews the next time it will be good for everyone.
No mercy, approve only the good ones :)