I did reject a comment once because it was feedback on my site design and not related to the topic of my post. I did, however, take the time to message that person and let them know why I rejected it and even went as far as to let them know I appreciated the feedback and would incorporate their idea into my site.
They appreciated the explanation and understood why the comment was rejected.

Good on ya, Scott....

-- Netta

I agree and I also don't like to think I'm a "yes" man/person, but I do try to always be positive in my thoughts.

When I first started here at WA, I didn't know the difference between a site comment and site feedback. I had been rejected to the point I couldn't leave any more comments because my comments were feedback. Things like "I love the layout but if you could make change X I think it would flow much better" and so on.

Carson had to unlock me once I figured it all out.

There are times to reject comments, feedback is one-liners such as "Great Post" is another. In the end, once you submit that comment, it's up to the site owner as to whether or not to accept it on their site. I may not agree with their reasons for rejecting it but it's their right to do so. As was the case with the comment I had rejected recently regarding Halloween. I don't agree with their reason but it's their choice.

I agree that "Great post" is not much of a comment and shows no effort or thought. Fortunately, I have never gotten that from Site Comments.

I have not used Site Comments for a while, (I tended to use the "give and take thread," but with the new version, I've been trying to go in once a day and submit a comment to help others. I would be glad to comment on your website(s). PM me a link to a post you need comments on and I promise you a good effort on my part. -shirley

You are right, I experienced that also early on until I changed to try and stay away from feedback type words. Yes it is their right to reject a submitted comment but I truly wish a rejection reason was more informative about specifically why the comment was rejected. Rejection is a little too easy in my opinion, especially if an honest effort was made. -Shirley

I totally understand what it is like when first experiencing comments. I got the 2 mixed up as well.

I didn't get to the point not being able to leave comments though.

I even created training on comments end feedback so that others wouldn't go through what I went through.

But the member that left feedback instead of a comment had been here a lot longer and should know the difference. That was my point : )

I am glad Carson was the to take care of you. I think most of us don't quite understand in the beginning.

Wishing you the best in all you do
Lee Ann

Yes, I feel that Carson and Kyle are great about restoring the ability to use the Site Comment too to those you have lost that privilege through misunderstanding. I think it becomes a learning experience for the member when that happens. It happened to me early on and I learned from it and really try to meet WA's criteria for a comment vs feedback now.

However, it does seem that the website owner/fellow WAer requesting feedback can sometimes be a little arbitrary when disapproving a submitted comment. There is no recourse for the one who submitted the comment. - shirley

You are to sweet my friend. I didn't mean it like that though. I just meant I have enough trust in you to know you would leave a great comments.

Unfortunately, the rejections might get worse with the new version.
It has a different type of comments that you can request.
To me, what one person thinks will be the proper way, another may not.

I hope that made sense.
I posted my newest article and am anxious to see how long it will take: )
Um, it didn't take that long. Websites just lit up with a RED 1. Now that is definitely better than before. It happened while responding to you.

I also posted it in "the give and take thread as well".
A member even advised me to use SiteComment and explained how to find it : )

That was the second member I have seen really pushing SiteComment.

Hope it works out better.
Lee Ann

That's one issue I still see with the Site Comment tool. You can't see the original comment you submitted to try and look at it again from the decliner's point of view and learn. My memory is not perfect so I only know how hard I worked to give a nice positive comment and then it was declined. I would learn more and maybe understand it more if I could look at my comment again. I would love to share the comment that was disapproved with all of you to see how you "would take it". But I can't - it is gone and all I know is I spent my time and effort for naught. Thanks for the offer. - Shirley

I just checked you're right. In the new site comments version, we can't see submitted comments, what a shame (I am pretty sure before we could).

I didn't use the Site Comments a lot before and I can't remember if we could see after it was disapproved.

If it is important to you to have a record of your original comment, you would write your comments in Notepad or Word or some other tool on your own pc/laptop first, recording the comment, the website, and the date/time. Then copy and paste that comment into the WA Site Comments function. That way you have a record of your original comment.

That's a great idea. I think I'd do them in Google Docs...that would be a good place to keep them.

That's a good thought, maybe I will begin to do that myself. But I sure wish that WA would fix this to allow the original comment to be seen - it would be awesome and helpful. - shirley

Just an idea - Send Carson or Kyle a PM then with the suggestion and the reasons why you think it would be helpful, so that they might add the request to the wish list.

Agree but I'm not sure how to find out if the owner of the site and WAer is one of those that reject a lot of comments. Is there a way to find that out?

i thought u need comments for website growth?

That's what I usually do Jaco but editing it ALL yourself takes time and time is money. So, when I get tired of feedbacks saying how nice my site is and how awesome the article is without engaging me other than a "thank you" then I may disapprove.

My patience isn't endless. And I will accept mistakes from newbies but if it's the regular ones then it makes me wonder why after so many WA posts about difference between comments and feedback, they still leave a feedback.

Yes, you do - it helps your ranking. That's why I disagree with WAers who are overly critical in disapproving comments through the Site comment tool. We are taught to be helpful and create content that helps others. I wish more WAers would remember to be helpful to other members using the site comment tool who are trying to "help" them with comments for their site. - shirley

I consider feedback and comment to both be good to have on my site. I will always accept both because it will help my ranking. I can always engage with the commenter and ask them some specific questions to give them something to respond to. I believe in working the system to get as much out of it as possible without hurting others. - Shirley

See you consider a feedback a good thing, but a LOT of members here hate comments that state how great the article/site is and how it's easy to read. If you think about it real comments on popular sites don't say "wow it was so easy to read". Besides, I am not paying money to get someone's approval that it's easy to read my articles.

And because I have a hard time disapproving, I am forced to waste my time editing and this annoys me. And probably the reason why I am commenting on your post so much because this is a pain point for me now.

I understand the paying for a good comment issue. I wish there was a way the commenter would know it was a paid request for comment. Maybe some people would spend more time on their comments.
I know I always struggle with each word/sentence I write in giving a comment because I want to find good points to bring out and say something that will help the site owner to gain validity when regular visitors read comments. Paid or unpaid would not affect the time and effort I now spend though.
For myself, I never edit a user comment that I get on my sites in any fashion unless its to rarely correct a spelling error. I like all the comments to seem organic and written by a real person giving their honest opinion.
-Shirley

Yes, the new version of Site Comments is definitely an improvement. But people will be people and disapproving an honest effort is not something I would do to a fellow WAer. I like the "give and take" thread because all critical things can be kept within WA and only good things can be submitted on the actual website. So the WAer gets the benefit of both good and bad thoughts about their post with an option to avoid submitting constructive criticisms on the actual website comment.

I agree. One reason I like to use the "give and take comment" thread is that you can do the criticism or constructive comments within the thread replies on WA and then put all the good stuff in your comment that shows up on their actual website - so they get the benefit both. - Shirley

Absolutely but I'd argue that some types of suggestions for improvement might be better suited for Site Feedback vs Site Comments. It would depend on the content of the comment.

I would agree with you on that Scott.

True but regular site visitors would seldom recognize the difference between Comment and Feedback as WA rules them. The entire purpose is to acquire visitor comments that say good things about your site and your content and hopefully give you an opportunity for engagement which will really help your site ranking. The closer our "Site Comment" tool comes to achieving what a "real site visitor" would offer, the better it is in my opinion. -Shirley

I totally agree. I know I want all the nice comments I can get on my websites.

There are various types of comments to leave. The pleasant ones are brilliant, but then you might also get the constructive type, or a clash of opinion...which then, the whole thing might turn into a discussion...which is even better.

I certainly agree that rejecting honest comments that do not fit my point of view is something I would not want to do. I would tend to take advantage of that comment to create more engagement - which we are taught here is good. I also do not like that we can't see our own comments after the disapproval and would love the ability to redo and resubmit. Sometimes its hard to remember exactly what we said in our comment and it would be nice to reread and consider why someone would disapprove it - we could learn from that. Thanks for responding to my post here and your honesty - Shirley

Exactly...I'll post opposing views and respond to them...engagement is one of the goals. Maybe they'll change my mind, maybe I'll change theirs, maybe we'll get deeply entrenched in our positions. As long as there's engagement, it's a good thing!

Thank you

I have experienced the same problem too when the site owner doesn't like your comment. Even it is related but there is some word you say that they don't like and got rejected. Sometimes when I look at the website, I am thinking to give a comment or not because I have the risk of getting rejected for a small matter like this. I will just take note on the people who use to reject comments for small matters. Rather skipping these websites.

Yep..that's the trade-off....risk rejection or increase your skip rate. I dunno....I'm a bit trusting that people will consider whatever view and at least accept the comment and respond with a rebuttal, etc.

Sometimes its hard to see who owns the site though.

I also like to trust people to accept the comment for the effort they took to read the article and give their thoughts about it. - Shirley

I agree... The comments shouldn't be all glowing, after all, there are there for discussion.

Scott, I actually have been trying to find you at WA. Why? Recently you left a comment on my website, and it was one of the best comments I received, I mean you made my day! So basically that's what I wanted to tell you :)

So, given that I saw how you write comments it's unlikely that yours will often be disapproved (unless the other person really is a jerk).

Thanks...I'm just trying to be part of the community. You'll see me a lot for a week or so then I disappear for a bit then I'm back...just the hectic schedule of my life.
So many people have helped me here that i just want to give back. That said I won't simply make a comment to make a comment. I try to make sure what I'm saying is what I truly believe on the subject. Sometimes that works for others and sometimes it doesn't :).

Thanks again and fell free to reach out any time.

I totally agree with you. -Shirley

Now there's a comment I'll accept ;)

lol!

I definitely agree that when a comment is disapproved, you should give a detailed reason instead of some generic "its not a valid comment". I know I would always want to know why my submission (which are always as nice as I can make them) was not acceptable. I totally agree with the idea of a resubmit option too. - Good ideal - Shirley

Sleeper, My only thought is why would you want to disapprove a comment that would reflect well on your site and discourage another member from making the effort and taking the time to read your post and try to comment? I'm not into being overly critical and tend to think positive rather than negative so I always give the commenter the benefit of the doubt. I would probably only disapprove a comment if it was totally not understandable or riddled with spelling and grammar errors and not positive about my site. If it is positive, I want it on my site. That's just my personality of not being a critical person. I live with a critical person (my dh) and I never want to come across as that way. Thanks for responding to my post even though I might disagree with you. Have a great day and best wishes on your efforts here. - Shirley

That's just it - it wouldn't reflect well on my site. It's not that it wasn't a good comment, it's just that this person messed up and wrote something for site Feedback in the site Comments. It's understandable, but not worth approving what he said, since that's not what I asked for

Mixing up feedback on the look and the design of the site is common (our website visitors are never aware of WA's rules on this - and if it is positive I would always approve it because it would be good for my readers. If it was not positive, I would tend to take advantage of the comment to try and initiate engagement on the suggestions. I'm a "glass half full" type of person and usually try and see the best side of something. Thanks for replying and we can certainly both have our different opinions on this. Like I've said before, I always give the commenter the benefit of the doubt and kudos for efforts- shirley

"discourage another member from making the effort and taking the time to read your post and try to comment" - the problem is some people don't make that effort to read an article, I've had comments that clearly showed that the person has NOT read the article and actually thank me for the "advice" that I advised NOT to use.

You should realize that it's our business, it's our money. Some people feel that if they pay money for the comments (and some do), then they deserve not to spend their time constantly editing comments.

I am sorry you feel discouraged but I'd like to see your comment that go disapproved because it seems you're encouraging almost all types of comments as long as the commenter "read the article and took the time".

Again... I usually just edit comments but it does annoy me. And some people, unlike me, just don't want to waste their time on that.

I wish I could share the comment but its gone and I can't retrieve it. I just know I read the article for sure and thought hard about what to say in my comment. But my effort and time were wasted and I can't even see my submitted comment again to try and look at it from the rejector's point of view and learn something.

I know I've only ever created a truly negative comment once through the Site comment tool and it was disapproved from a hurt WAer. My comment basically said there were so many English grammar and spelling errors that I could not understand the content at all and it was true that the writer didn't have a decent grasp of the English written language.

So I hurt that person and they responded with disapproving my comment. I do not want to do that ever again. Even though I had said some nice things about the site, my criticisms were hurtful. There was no way to win for me in that situation.

Thanks for your honest comment on my post - shirley