Don't Be That Guy (That Leaves Poor Comments)
I have noticed an alarming trend of late. What is that trend - the thoughtless comment. It seems that lately when I ask for comments, I get sad one-liners that have nothing to do with the content of the post or are so generic that they could be put on any post.
Here is an example:
Thank you for great information here at your site. I will use it in my further education.
That was left on one of my posts. There are a few reasons that this creates a problem.
Problem 1It does not add value. A short, pointless comment does not add any value to the discussion or 
page at all. This kind of feedback does not give the author anything to reply too.
A generic comment looks scammy. When I see a comment like that, I think of two things. One that a troll has found the site and is trying to get a backlink to their website.
Or that the comment was the result of microwork. It is where website owners pay people to leave comments.
Either way, it gives me an uneasy feeling and decreases me trust in the site.
Problem 2Poor commenting is affecting a person's bounce rate and session duration. Of course, I am 
going on the impression that the reader did not take the time to read the post. Instead, they scrolled to the bottom and left a generic comment.
We are here to help each other, not harm each other. If you are leaving this kind of feedback or not taking the time to read the articles, you are hurting the author. I would rather have one person who took the time to read my post and leave a relevant comment than have 20 people tank my dwell time and leave these inane comments.
How To Be A Good Commenter- Read the article
- Write a minimal of five sentence
- Thank the author for the content
- Ask a topic related question or
- Give your opinion on the subject (respectfully) or
- Tell a topic related story
If you do the above steps, you will have added to their content. Other things you can do to help
- Open a link and leave it open while you read their article
- Open the articles you are going to leave comments for simultaneously
- Share their post on your social media (I do this is the topic is related to my niche or if I know someone who can benefit from the article)
I like giving people the benefit of the doubt. I am assuming this trend has started because people do not know.
WA offers some training on how to be a good commenter. Here are other posts that can help, post 1 and post 2.
Together we can help each other grow and succeed. Yes, it takes effort on our parts, but the 
rewards are only that much more significant. The community here at WA is the reason I joined. It is what gave WA the most exceptional value to me. But the community is only what we as individual make it.
So, leave comments that you would be proud to have on your page.
Did I miss something? What extra step do you take to help other bloggers out? Got a tip you can share. Do so in the comments.
Until next, be the light in the world.
~Dovey
Recent Comments
14
Hi Dovey,
That one liner is ridiculous. Glad to see you have outlined the consequences of what I would consider a comment that bears no worth.
For the newcomers you have outlined what is expected from, feedback/comments that is going to be helpful. Also the reference to the training by Kyle.
This is a great guideline and I hope it is followed.
Thank you for the share.
Best wishes,
Michael
Thank you, Michael. I am glad that you were able to see the helpful place I was coming from. As always, it is great to hear from you :-)
Hi
I think we need to be reminded that WA is about paying it forward.
It's about give and take, a fundamental learning in life.
Dont you want to give out what you would like to receive?
Great post, we are meant to support each other.
Daisy
That is a good point. I do not mind the return the favor that many people do, hack I do it. But it should not replace the pay it forward. The pay it forward model is a great way to make sure that everyone is getting comments. Thank you for adding a great thought to the comments :-)
Hello Dovey, thanks for highlighting this issue in such a useful way. I believe that a lot of people will learn and benefit from this post. Now I am off to give some comments...!
Thank you for taking the time to read the post. I was trying to come across as helpful. I know that we are all learning here! Have fun commenting!
Hello Dovey and thank you for your post! But you have to understand that many of us are still in process of learning and this feedback is also a part of our education. I think that you have interesting sites and we can all learn much by visiting them. I hope I havent made any harm to your site; I really didnt want it. Thank you for a feedback.
I apologize if you felt attacked. That was not my intention. This post is to bring awareness to an issue. I know that we are all learning, that is part of the fun of starting a business. I am still learning every day. And I make errors all the time. Thank you for taking the time to comment.
Great Post Dovey,
I've found a similar problem with some of the comments left on my site. (only a few though)
W.A have made an effort to weed out the gamers on this platform. But there are still going to be a few that slip through the cracks.
If you've ever heard of Pareto's law, you'll be familiar with the 80/20 rule.
Look it up so the behaviour you've witnessed will make more sense.
I hope this helps.
Cordially
Dedo
I have heard of the 80/20 rule. Of course, I heard this from a movie, and it was referring to marriage. Which after 17 years of marriage, I have seen it hold true there. The issue is that comments over the last two weeks are more 50/50 than 80/20.
When I first started, I did not know how to write a useful comment. It was not until another blogger posted that my comment was not approved because it did not meet their criteria. I then begin to research how to write a comment.
Now, I attempt to write great comments every time. I will admit at times it is challenging, but I always have good intentions.
Thank you for bringing it to my attention that WA is trying to weed out the people who do not give their best. I was not aware of that.
Very nice said! I have also noticed some did not understand that it should be a comment, not website feedback so instead of writing something relevant, they evaluate my layout, English - which would not be such a problem for organic visitors, however from this community I would expect a comment like really comment based on the training and recommendation provided by WA...
Anyway, thank you for your post, it is very actual!
Bye Renata
Thank you for reading my post. I have also noticed confusion between feedback and comments. I appreciate you pointing that out. Like you, I expect topic-related comments, not feedback on my site. Unless it is simple, I like your writing style or something to that effect. I would also expect that to be in addition to a well-written comment about the topic at hand.
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I think I have been lucky so far because most of the comments I’ve received have been pretty good.
There seems to be a lot of competition for comments recently as I think some people use it as a side earner which perhaps results in some people trying to do lots of comments without really putting a lot of thought into it.