Stop Disapproving Comments Merely Because They Aren't Long Enough - Stop It!
100% Sites Comments Approval Rating - Gone with the wind!
Before today, I had a perfect approval rating for my Sites Comments. Sadly, that record is gone today. All because my commentary was allegedly not long enough!
I was gutted.
Well, after recovering from my disappointment, I decided to write the person who disapproved my comments. And I want to share that message with you.
Doing Something About My Disappointment
I want to share the message with you because I believe there are others like me whose commentary have been unduly rejected largely because the text wasn't lengthy. And I very much want folks who are disapproving short commentaries to reconsider their view and stop disapproving comments solely on length. Because how long a commentary is doesn't determine how useful or enlightening it is.
A comment can be long, and yet be full of lies. It can be lengthy and be full of fluff. Still, it can extensive but tedious to assimilate.
What is important - my view - is to ask yourself first - is this a useful comment and is it relevant? Other things should flow from there.
My Private Message to the Website Moderator
Anyway, here's what I wrote:
Note: I have changed some details so that the person cannot be identified. But the substance of the message is intact.
"Hi WA Member,
I have just seen a notice that you disapproved the comments I provided for your blog on Mr XYZ and the one on ABC program. What a shame.
I know it's your choice to make, however, I don't share your decision, and I think you ought to know.
First, I read both articles from the beginning to the end, so much so that I was impressed by the quality of your articles which is why I reached out to you for feedback on my websites.
Second, while your articles were on Mr XYZ and the ABC program, you spent a great deal of time talking about WA too! If you read my comments one more time you will see that I talked about the bits where I had shared experiences which included WA but not only about WA. For example, I also wrote about one aspect of Mr XYZ's material that you found lacking which was that they weren't always up-to-date. I could relate to that very well (not necessarily from having used Mr XYZ's products before, but from having used other products from another online tutorial platform where it was difficult to follow the training because the material were out-of-date).
Here's the review I provided on Mr XYZ's article, read it again:
"Thank you for your balanced review of Mr XYZ's material. I am already a Wealthy Affiliate WA member myself and what I really value about WA beyond all the invaluable resource they offer is how up-to-date and organised their resources and training are. I haven't actually heard of or used Mr XYZ's material before reading your piece but I have used other platforms like Udemy and this issue of resources not been consistently up to date or well-organised is always something that is a let down.... "
Finally, I'm not writing to you so that you can change the decision, I'm writing to you because I want you to know that not everyone is looking to game the system. There are those of us who are trying to offer genuine commentary. And the genuine commentary isn't about how long or fluffy the text is, it about how informative it is. And I believe I was informative. The reason you gave for disapproving the Mr XYZ's comment was I didn't say much, and I quote, "this comment didn't talk much about Mr XYZ". When you gave me feedback on my two websites, you didn't say much either!!! This is what you wrote to me:
"I think both sites are fine, but too early to tell anything on. Your goal is to keep growing the site's content. If you're tight on time, focus on one site for now."
You didn't say much but I thanked you for it. The commentary does not have to be long before it is valuable. There others who gave me much more detail than you did and others like you who gave little. It's not necessarily about length, my friend. Stop disapproving comments based on length alone, please."
Recent Comments
11
I totally agree with you! In fact I wrote a post on the subject awhile back: Different Take on Site Comments Debate! I would've had no problem approving your comment.
Janelle
Wow - What an article you wrote Janelle!!!!
It was as if you wrote that article for me. Thank you so much for sharing:)
I was particularly drawn to the comment you made about how time-poor many of us are. Allow me to quote it for those who may not have the time to go read the entire piece:
______________________________________________________________
" The reality is that giving comments can take up a whole lot of time for people who may have only a limited amount of time every day to devote to making a success of their online business! Think about this:
It can take several minutes to read someone's blog post and then a few more to think of a decent comment--say it took someone 10 minutes total.
The person does this 3 more times, spending a total of 40 minutes.
They've received 4 credits for that amount of time.
In return, they use those 4 credits to get 2 comments on their own website." Excerpt from Different Take on Site Comments Debate! ______________________________________________________________
That is an extra dimension that I didn't cover in my piece. And guess what they don't appreciate the time we put in to provide thoughtful but brief commentary.
Do you what time I posted this blog that you and others here have responded to? 5:45 am in the morning! I ought to have been sleeping. But I was working on my business, and I had been working from just before 3 am. I have to because if I don't, I have a 2-year-old toddler son to babysit when he wakes up in the morning as mum was going out this morning. And during the week, I lead a team in my day job from 8 am - 6 pm Mon-Fri so I haven't got much time to work on my affiliate business. So when I sit down and read any blogs for that matter, it is precious time.
It is this angle that some of our fellow WA members need to factor into their judgment before they start attaching quality to length alone. Totally inconsiderate.
Consideration for other members time and effort should be important for anyone asking for comments. Since the WA requirement is a relevant comment that is a minimum of 50 words, no one should be disapproving any good effort that meets it. The system doesn't let you post something that is not long enough. So if the comment is accepted by the system--it's long enough!
Unfortunately, members seem to be almost afraid to leave comments any more for fear of their efforts being disapproved for a reason that is not legitimate. I used to get 5 or 6 comments every time I requested one, now it takes awhile to get one. So everyone loses when people get so picky that they discourage others from offering comments.
A little patience and understanding can go a long way to having a system that benefits everyone!
See more comments
Hi - first of all, don't mix up comments and feedback. A comment is for publication on the website, and feedback is private, so you can't really compare the two.
I am not sure if you are aware, but the number of words in a comment is added to the word count of the article. This makes an article appear longer, and more authoritative in Google's eyes. It may be, that they were hoping for longer comments to add to the word count.
Hi Diane,
My post was not about a comparison of site comments and site feedbacks. I very much know the difference between the two things. I have provided a number of sites comments that have been approved precisely because I know the difference between the two and vice-versa. So let's not get distracted by that.
Yet, I appreciate why you raise the matter since I made a reference to soliciting site feedback from that particular WA member after I left my comment on their post...
My contention and the spirit of my argument is about informative and useful narratives. Whether it is a site comment (that is aimed for public consumption) or feedback (intended to improve one's website), what is written can also be rejected as you know. However, what I found here was that the reason provided for rejecting my site comment was at worst inconsiderate or at best indulgent - at least in my view.
Yes, it is your website, yes you ultimately call the shots. But that doesn't mean your decision - in the big scheme of things - is right. Here at WA, we are all building our businesses and we want the best for them. But we must never forget, we have a duty to the WA community to ensure that there's mutual appreciation of one another's views and time.
Lastly, it wasn't the issue of word count - this particular person had numerous comments already and their original word count was already in the 1500 region without the commentaries.
Kind regards
Femi