One Thing To NOT Do When Leaving Comments
I've been requesting a lot of comments from SiteComments lately, because I want to create engagement, and possibly help boost the rank of a few of the pages on my site. However, I keep running into one issue over and over with the comments.
There's one thing that many people are doing that makes the comment difficult to approve.
That one thing is: "I've never heard of this before".
A similar comment is asking silly questions like, "What does this thing do?", even though it's clearly explained in the post, or assumed that you know what it does since you're looking at a review.
As a one-off comment, it's fine. I suppose there's a chance that someone ran across the post accidentally, or clicked on a link in an email list out of curiosity.
But if 75% of the comments I receive on a post are similar in saying, "Wow, I've never heard of this thing before but it looks really cool", then the comment section starts to look spammy, or at least not interesting. A boring and fake comment section defeats the purpose of exchanging comments.
This makes it hard to approve some comments!
They may be a proper length, and they may be correct English, as well as 100% unique. But if they are just repeating the same thing that everyone else says, then in my mind they are low quality.
I know that there are many niches, and not everyone has experience with all topics. You are absolutely allowed to do a quick 5 minutes of research to learn a bit about an unfamiliar topic before leaving a comment so that you can write something substantive.
Remember, many people are spending money on comments! Also, many people are spending time leaving awesome comments. If you are leaving short, unoriginal, or uninteresting comments please be aware that the value you are exchanging does not meet what some others are putting into the system.
ATTN: This is just a friendly PSA for those that might not know they are doing this. It's not meant to scare you away from using the comment system or chastise anyone that left a similar comment on one of my sites.
Recent Comments
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Very true. I've had comments where people sounds like they are totally unfamiliar with the topic or even worse, where they sound like they are not even interested in it. This doesn't make any sense. Why would someone post a comment on a topic they are not even interested in?
Similarly, there are comments where people give feedback on how great the website looks. This looks fake too. People don't tend to leave comments on websites just to compliment them on how great the website looks.
I don't think some members are properly following Kyle's guidance before using the SC feature.
Unfortunately, taking shortcuts doesn't do people any favours here.
Fortunately, Kyle is aware of the problem, so hopefully things will be made clearer in his new training.
Very valid and important issues. Rather not comment.
There is a lot of things that I have never heard before, until I joined WA. I had to learn what a "widget" is, an SEO etc. So if I say things like, I have never heard of this before, I am just exposing my ignorance. The reason for that is, because I never had an interest in it before.
Instead of saying, I never heard of this before, say something like, thank you I have learned something new today.
I have also noticed that people in the feedback section, leave short 20 to 50 word reviews. The request is to leave a 250 word revue.
Saying, it is cool and look interesting, hope you will have a lot of visists, does not help anyone to better their sites.
I do hope that they do not get awarded with credits for comments like that.
Thanks for bringing this up, it bothered me as well.
If you even read the post you can almost always find something to say about it that relates!!! It is better, though, to find sites that you have some interest in or know something about.
I think a lot of newbies don't understand that they can pass on to another site and not comment on every one that pops up.
Thanks for bringing up the discussion!
Blessings,
Debby
Amen Nathaniel! I've either been rejecting comments like this or editing them. But I just feel people are doing this to help their word count so they can get pass the required word length of the comment. And folks really need to understand the concept of the comments. If you never really heard of said topic, then the chances are you wouldn't have searched for it and landed on the page. And the comment just looks fake and spammy.
Don't comment on articles you wouldn't actually have an interest in. I had an article about women clothing and dudes were chiming in. It's like come on man. lol
I definitely think @Kyle and @Carson are going to need to make some changes to the site comment functionality to improve this. Because stuff like this has been getting worse over the last couple of months.
I think some people do it purely for the credit Eddy...I agree though, do not comment on stuff you have no real interest in, or at least you should have enough interest in the subject to read the article properly.
Regards
Neil
Oh they're totally doing it for the credit Neil. And it's why I've been deleting far more comments. Sometimes I edit it. But a lot of times I'm deleting these comments.
Hi Nathaniel, great post and discussion. This is an area I struggle with. Often I am providing comments on topics which I either know nothing about or are not in my usual area of interest.
It can be difficult sometimes in providing a thoughtful comment which adds to the blog I am commenting on. I like and agree with your point about doing a little research on the topic before commenting.
Thank you. Have a great weekend.
Hi Nathaniel, part of the issue, in respect of your mention about 'it's clearly explained in the post' is to do with something a friend of mine terms as the 'the headline phenomenon' (he is a consultant psychiatrist so I figure he can make judgement on these things to some degree) and skimming.
I think in part, journalism and spammy sites are to blame for this, with their sensationalism and sparkly headlines that pull readers interest then it turns out to be about some spammy or pointless story and you feel deflated, plus of course, people clearly like crud, look at how successful sites that show things like celebrities when they were 18 and gorgeous and now they are 50 and fat, people will read that stuff all day, cos there is no reading involved..
Plus, sometimes people are reading and making comments on things they have no real interest in, which is crazy really and they do it all the time on all kinds of things, like just having an opinion on something irrelevant of whether it makes any sense is important for social weight somehow.
Happens to me all the time in my job when I mail a customer a list of checkpoints to run past in order to try to fix their issue, they often go off on some wild tangent, never answer the question properly and then get annoyed when their issue is not fixed, it's a right bugger...
To be fair most of us do it at some time or other, frustrating though it is to the authors, when I find myself doing it, I slow down and make sure I try to read as much as time will allow me, after all why spend any time there if you are not getting any value from it, so you may as well just leave if you are not going to take in any of the content on offer. Well done if you made it this far, have a cookie.
Basically, it's about being lazy and not being focused, people do not read the article, some folks make a real habit of it too, and then start posting stupid pointless comments and questions, just had a toasted cheese sandwich myself, wasting time and energy, we see it here in WA and other forums, all the time, with people asking questions about lessons or posts.
Often, the info is actually on the same page they are asking about, which brings us back to your original point, and it is clear they have not read the instructions, the article or watched the video, and then they throw a strop because someone says, well why don't you read the instructions, do the lesson and read the article and watch the video...
Anyway, take a look at this, I found it quite amusing, and, honestly, I did read it all, haha...its a bit old now, wow 4 years, but it is still a decent little read...
http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/technology/2013/06/how_people_read_online_why_you_won_t_finish_this_article.html
The author mentions 'I’m busy. You’re busy. There’s always something else to read, watch, play, or eat.' which I suppose is just how we are now...
And here about how 'headlines' change the way we perceive things http://www.newyorker.com/science/maria-konnikova/headlines-change-way-think
Best wishes
Neil
Nathaniel, thank you for this blogpost. I´ve got the same opinion like you. Give a proper comment, if not then better not do it at all.
But to what extent do you edit your website comments? I thought we only edit at the most spelling mistakes, but not changing the content.
I only edit out really bad grammar, typos, things like that. If the content itself is just meaningless gibberish, I do not approve the comment.
Hello Marvin,
Thank you so much for your help. Good to know how you handle this. Then I will follow your example.
:-) Pernilla
Five minutes is too much if a hassle to them. That would defeat the purpose of them doing as little possible to get a comment approved.
Most of my recent comments have been pretty terrible. They had enough redeeming quality that i edited them(which I hate doing). However if half your comment is "I really like your site, it is really awesome", you pretty much know they stopped trying and are trying to move on to the next fomment as fast as possible.
Ya when people give feedback instead of an engaging comment I absolutely have to politely reject them!
Nathaniell, you are very correct in asking this question. It is happening all the time. I don't know if it is a case of ignorance, don't give a shit attitude, or stupid is what stupid does. I have come to accept the lower quality comments from what I am hoping for but with one important difference... I never accept a low quality comment "as is", I edit the comment to a more engaging, constructive comment that adds value to the post but also answers questions that another visitor may be thinking. Or at least this is what I strive for. To Your Success,
Ken
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Absolutely right. If you've never heard of it, why the heck would you be reading a review about it?
Another bugbear of mine is when people say things like "Nice layout, your paragraphs could be shorter, I like your images..."
Please know the different between SiteComments and SiteFeedback people! :-)
Yes, there is a difference between Site comments and Feedback but it seems like some people can't tell the difference or maybe they just don't care to recognize that there is a difference.