Imagine this situation: You are eating at a restaurant and have just had the greatest meal ever. You want to thank the cook for his wonderful creation and ask the waiter if you could speak to him. The waiter says you can, but first you will have to translate the menu card into another language you speak. If you do it wrong you will have to ask the waiter again if you can speak to the cook and again he will ask you the same. You might be wondering what I’m getting at with this, but it’s the frustration I sometimes feel when commenting at other blogs. It’s been a frustration I’ve had for a while and when my fellow blogger Jessica from The Velvet Café mentioned it on a recent LAMBcast I just had to get it off my chest as well.
I usually try to leave comments if an article is interesting, but if I first get a new popup window where I write my comment, next have to enter a captcha (which sometimes is unreadable) and then see that my comment is waiting to be approved I probably won’t comment on that blog anymore.
When you are writing a blog I assume it is to write about something you love and also to get into contact with other people who share the same love. If that is the case it is important to look at the settings for comments on your blog and not build a big wall of defense around your blog. It really is not necessary. So let’s look at the settings for both WordPress.com and Blogger.com, the two blogging platforms which are used most frequent.
WordPress
So first off you actually should allow people to be able to comment on your articles. You can make sure they can by going to Settings >> Discussion. Go to the Default Article Settings:
You want to have the last check box ticked (I’ve ticked the other ones as well as I enjoy seeing people linking to my articles, which allows me to check out their blog too). So after you’ve allowed your readers to comment, also make it easy for them.
Go to Other Comment Settings:
These are settings I use. It allows for anonymous comments, so people don’t have to leave a name and email. You shouldn’t be too worried about loads of anonymous comments. People who read your blog want to interact with you and usually will leave information. Some people don’t want to leave their email address at a site they might only visit once. You shouldn’t worry about getting lots of spam either as that is filtered out automatically by WordPress. I’ve been blogging for two years and hardly ever get spam or very negative reactions in the comments. I also leave comments open to everything I’ve written. Not everyone will immediately read what you have written and it’s fun to sometimes talk about something you’ve written a while ago.
If you still are worried about crazy comments and don’t want to keep checking your WordPress Dashboard just go into the E-mail Me Whenever section and check “Anyone posts a comment”. You will get an email with the comment and links to change or trash it (which you probably won’t need to use often).
Next head to Before a comment appears
Make sure both boxes are unchecked. Comments will immediately appear on your blog and this also allows other people who read your blog to comment on other people immediately. It helps to get people to talk to each other.
These are the main settings to make commenting as easy as it can be for your readers and prevent frustration. Now it’s also important to make it easy for them to see if they got a reaction to their comment.
If you set this option a check box will appear below the comments on your blog. If a read checks this he will automatically get an email with responses by you and other commenters.
Which reminds me (and Jessica also stated this in the Lambcast), always respond to every comment you get! People took the time to read what you’ve written and wrote down what they thought about it. If you then ignore this, why would they want to visit your blog again? So always take time to write something, even if it’s just a thank you.
Blogger
So what are the setting on Blogger? I had to create an account and must say they were pretty easy to find. Head over to Settings > Posts and comments
First of setting the comment location. Personally I really don’t like it when I press comment and a new window pops up where I can enter my thoughts. It kind of takes me out of the “experience” of the blog and makes it feel distant. That’s why I would set it to Embedded.
The next setting is Who can comment? Set this to Anyone. If people don’t have an OpenID they will not create one just to be able to comment on your blog. Setting it like this will make it easy for anyone to write something.
Set Comment moderation to None. This means that each comment will immediately appear on your blog.
And now the most important one, which I think is the most frustrating one of them all is the captcha word verification. Just turn it off. I’ve been told that Blogger has a great spam filter so you shouldn’t worry about suddenly getting loads of anonymous automated comments trying to sell something.
A word of thanks (in advance)
So please if you are running a blog have a look at those settings. I (and probably a lot of other existing and potential commenters) will appreciate it a lot. If not I’ll send an angry Nicolas Cage to your house and you won’t like it if he’s angry (if he’s not available I might stop commenting).
Excellent, excellent, excellent! Now just to spread the word about your wonderful guide!
Thanks Jessica, thanks for the inspiration!
Great piece on the subject. Having my old blog hosted on Blogger, and my current on WP, it’s certainly sound advice. Well done.
Thanks, I hope it is helpful.
Lol, that’s a pretty good point! I have no trouble with comment approval, but Word Verification bugs me oh so much. However, if a blog is awesome, I will endure everything haha. Still I agree with you, Nostra.
As for replying to the comments left, it’s a golden piece of advice. I don’t always follow it for this or that reason. But I try, now especially. Indeed, there are a few pretty awesome blogs that I like but I NEVER got a reply from them and it’s just disappointing.
Yeah, I have had blogs that I really enjoyed and where I left comments regularly, but when I never got responses to them I just stopped reading them. There are so many great blogs out there I prefer reading the ones where I can communicate with the blogger that writes it.
As long as he doesn’t yell, “HOW’D IT GET BURNED? HOW’D IT GET BURNED?” I think I’d be okay with that.
The thing I don’t like about comments lately is that I get emails whenever there are other comments on the post, regardless of whether I uncheck the “notify me of future replies” box.
Do hindrances to commenting affect your willingness to keep reading that blog in the future, or just your willingness to comment?
Hahaha, well you know Nicolas Cage is a very busy guy, but I’ll ask 😉
Yeah, I read that WordPress recently changed it (and apparently didn’t test it properly if you still get them if you uncheck them). I always subscribe to posts I comment to and actually don’t like the fact that Blogger blogs don’t offer the option.
All the replies get sent to my Gmail account where they are all put in one mail, so I don’t get overloaded with emails.
Well, I’ll be less likely to comment…especially if I know there are captchas
This is awesome! Wonderful post, and I’ve made my necessary adjustments. Thank you for this!
Nice to see you’ve changed them!
This is how I have my settings on WP except for the name/email required. Thanks for the headsup. I’ll uncheck those boxes and see how it works (if I get any extra spam, I mean). The problem is that WP (and Blogger) recommends almost the exact opposite to what you are recommending. 😉
I just hate the word verification thing, it’s crazy and just makes you want to NOT comment anymore.
A few months ago WP changed their commenting functionality making it virtually impossible for people to comment, especially if they where using WP.org. It made me really frustrated and I even had to post a guide on my blog on how to comment. Really stupid because the whole blogging thing is about people communicating and that should be as easy as possible.
Some Blogger bloggers have set up their commenting making it impossible to comment as a WP user and at the same time follow comments. That annoys the hell out of me.
What I’m suggesting are setting related to readers and in the end that’s the people you are doing it for.
I know WordPress has been messing around a lot with their commenting and it hasn’t improved I think. Communication should be key and they have made it more difficult. In my settings I also set it that you don’t need to leave an email address (even though it is shown). If left empty the comment will appear.
I agree with this. Made this rant more than once before. Also quit commenting on a handful of blogs because of it.
The only thing I disagree with is that I like to moderate comments before they appear, mostly because I’ve received some heated comments in the past that I didn’t want people to read on my site. Not so much negative comments about me, I have no problem publishing those, but just something I thought was inflammatory and I didn’t want a flame war to start on my blog as a result of a heat of the moment comment.
I know I’m not alone on this, so I thought writing something about it was needed.
I can understand that, I had that happen once and temporarily switched on moderation. Once everything had cooled off I switched it back to current settings.
I guess I have to comment on this post, but everyone else got here before me and took all the good responses. Now that’s frustrating.
(seriously though, I second this for sure.)
Haha, well I appreciate the comment 😉
One more comment from me. As you say, one important thing is to answer on comments you get on your blog. Not getting a response on your comment feels… maybe not as a slap in the face but as you’re getting ignored. So: Answer the comments you get. I guess for some bloggers this might not be a priority if you’re really popular, mainly due to lack of time and in that case I guess it’s ok.
I must admit that it sometimes can take a couple of days before I respond (busy personal life), but I will eventually respond to every comment I get.
The captcha function on Blogger that doesn’t work a lot of the time and basically prevents you from commenting drives me crazy. I’ve definitely not bothered to revisit blogs that use it, since there’s no point in trying to be part of the conversation.
Away with the captchas!
Wow didn’t realize it was an issue. Will take a look at my own settings!
Always a good idea to do so…
I have moderation enabled on my blog for new commenters, because I get a fair number of ‘smart spammers’ who try to cleverly disguise their self promotion as true comments. But anyone who submits a genuine comment gets put onto a whitelist so all their future comments get automatic approval.
But I absolutely agree with you about the word verification thing. That is the most annoying and discouraging feature of all.
That’s also a way to do it and it seems you’ve got a good reason for it.
Great topic, Nostra. Yes, that captcha thing is annoying. I don’t know why, aside from writing that captcha, I seem to have longer loading commenting on Blogger. I have to refresh a couple times. In wordpress, it’s easier but lately the registered e-mail stuff just make it a little hard to comment these days. I have to comment at home, which I have little time on weekdays so.
Yeah, I prefer wordpress commenting (especially now that you are able to respond through your dashboard, although WordPress did make some changes that have made the experience slightly worse.
You nail it on the head Nostra. I don’t know what got into WordPress.com but automatically signing people up for email notifications has me fuming. And don’t even mention the ABSOLUTELY RIDICULOUS Blogger Captcha. These people need to realize this is 2012, not 1999 and develop their own Akismet Spam filter.
Yeah it really has been a stupid move to automatically sign people up to email notifications. It’s a shame it’s not a setting that can be changed. But as you say the Blogger Captcha is ridiculous. Hopefully more people will disable it.
Go Nostra!! I have felt this for a long time on other blogs. Some of which I don’t bother with anymore.
I hate captcha!!
🙂 A lot of people have that feeling.
Nostra you’re a genius!
Reading through your blogger section I was thinking, Yes, Yes, Yes, I have all that: no moderation, embedded nested comments. Hang on, why on earth did I not know that you can turn the Captcah things off!!! Changed it on my blog immediately. I HATE those things, and I wouldn’t blame it for being a deal-breaker for other people. It does my head in that I have to enter it on other Blogger site even though I’m a blogspot user. Enter the two words to prove I’m not a robot? I think robots could probably read them better than me! It’s usually the second or third attempt when I’m finally successful!
Thank you so much! Hopefully my blog will be that little bit more user-friendly now.
Thanks Russell! And great to read that you have turned the captcha off!
Totally agree with all of this! I hate captcha codes…they annoy the crap out of me!
The idea behind them is good, but having to type them every time you visit a blog grows tiring very quickly.
I do have comment moderation on my blog, but only to weed out the spam (although Askimet does a pretty good job). I hate captcha with a passion, I’ve also noticed that some blogs insist you have a google id and won’t allow name/url posting – that’s a real turn-off for me.
If a blog needs me to log in with something they have lost a commenter in me…
Never used captcha on my blog but I do use the ‘comment author must have one approved comment’ and that’s only because there’s some spam/comment that I can never tell if it’s fake or not. But after I allow it, commenters can comment until their hearts delight.
I do try to follow up on a comment but sometimes you have nothing to say/write.
Well, even if it’s just a “Thank you for your comment” it shows that at least you’ve read it.
My biggest problem is commenting on blogger blogs when the comments request capcha and then “await approval” – I totally agree with you on that. Other times I’ve seen blogger accounts who only allow you to comment if you have a google account which is rather annoying.
This is a great guide and hopefully will help some people organise their commenting systems a bit better.
It’s always good to create guides like this (especially if they are about things you yourself find frustrating). A while ago I did one to get the old IMDB layout back and it was read way more than I ever expected and helped a lot of people apparently.
Perfect advice. I’m on a self-hosted wordpress blog, so I’ve got a lot more control over what I can do, and love that control.
I’m not a fan of a lot of comment options that blogger offers. Usually I will grit my teeth and just fill in box after box. I remember once I was on a blogger blog, I wanted to comment, but I HAD to have a blogger attached google account in order for me to comment! They wouldn’t let me just comment with my name/url – annoying!
These days you don’t really need captcha’s on blog comment systems, especially on wordpress, thanks to the wonders of akismet. It’s epic! Also, there are a tonne of wordpress plugins which help filter out spam. Sure I still get spam, but the filtering is brilliant and it never actually gets published.
That’s nice being able to control them even more then.
Yeah, I have to admit that I’m less likely to comment on Blogger blogs since commenting is usually not right and it’s not possible to have updates. Not using google accounts to leave comments….I will just move on.
Excellent post, couldn’t agree more with you about the captcha notifications and pop up windows. There have been many times that I’ve just said screw it and not left a comment on blogs that have those features.
As for approving comments on Blogger… I do that for two reasons: 1. I like receiving an email notification when a comment is posted. If there was a way for me to receive emails WITHOUT having to approve comments, then I’d definitely do that. BUT, 2. Blogger has done better with its spam filter, but I still receive 5-10 emails a day for spam comments. If I didn’t approve each comment separately, then all of those spam comments would be posted automatically, which would be an incredible hassle.
Still, you make very very valid points here.
I retract my previous statement, just found out how to receive an email WITHOUT having to approve comments. This means I am following your advice step-by-step. No wonder I voted for you for Best Blog!
Alex, having read your comment I don’t even need to win anything. The fact that you consider it the Best Blog means a lot to me and makes me try even hard to keep writing interesting stuff to read! Thank you!
Dude, YES. Blogger is the worst for this with its ridiculous captchas. Generally, blogs on that domain are a big turnoff for me, so it requires a DAMN good blog for me to deal with it and continue to leave comments.
I’ve got the exact same feeling about it Eric!
I agree with almost all of what you said. I don’t have a major problem with waiting for my comments to get approved, but the other just bugs me sometimes.
It seems this article brought out a lot of frustration in others 😉
Ahah well you touched a lot of nerves with this post, Nostra. Yeah it definitely can be frustrating, that’s why I tend to comment more on non-Blogger blogs because of the darn Captcha! I can’t tell you how many comments I’ve lost and after a while I just gave up!
WordPress REALLY got on my nerves w/ the auto-check on the ‘Notify me’ thing a few days ago but looks like they disable that default setting now, thanks goodness!
Yeah, it seems I did. It really makes me think of what other frustrations I should write about!
I do comment more on non-Blogger blogs too. Yeah, the auto-check has been very annoying…for me it is still on though (but I personally don’t mind as I like receiving updates on other comments)
Great post. Though now I’m guilty my blog is guilty of it! (Off to check now!)
*Though now I’m worried my blog is guilty of it! (Never mind!)
Hahaha, so was it guilty or did you manage to clear it of all charges?
It’s cleared (I think) I’d somehow managed to do it when I set my blog up without really understanding what I was doing!
i really do get frustrated with Captcha. and another thing I wish Blogger had was a way to incorporate what WordPress has in the “Comments I’ve Made” section so I can see if someone replied to my comment on Blogger pages. I doubt that will ever happen, but that makes is so nice on WP.
That’s one of my biggest frustrations as I really don’t remember every comment I’ve made and sometimes feel I might have missed replies.
I really hope a lot of bloggers read this. I’ve had the very same problem and I’ve told many bloggers that they don’t really need verification unless they are getting a lot of spam. I’ve been blogging for over a year now and hardly ever get spam. It really is a pain with the various verifications and honestly at times I don’t leave a comment just because of that and sometimes after I get frustrated when I can’t get the captcha.
Great that your brought out the topic out in the open. Cheers!
You are welcome Raghav!
I totally agree! Mind-numbingly frustrating.
You’ll be glad to know I don’t have any of these pop up windows or enter text here things, just plain and simple type and send .
Sounds good and beacuse of that will pay a visit to your blog! 🙂
Does it have an email subscription option? 😉
Does now.
Great!
I changed the word verification settings to OFF today, thanks for the detailed info
Very nice to read! Hope you will see a change in the amount of comments!
That was really helpful. I always wished someone said and explained all these to me and to others. I shall keep this for reference. Thanks a lot.
Glad I was able to help!
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