Following on from a post I made over at the Birds on The Blog site, on whether or not to delete negative or argumentative comments from your blogs, I’ve had quite a few emails from people saying that it’s not the negative comments that bother them, it’s the ones that say nothing.
You know the ones:
“Nice blog”
“I agree”
“You’re right”
On the face of it they’re innocuous comments, don’t really upset the apple cart, and show that people are reading your blog (allegedly, although not always).
On the other hand, they add no value, they don’t create debate, and a lot of times they’re there purely so that the commenter can get their link on your blog.
So what do you do?
Well, in the past I’ve been pretty relaxed about them and let most of them thorugh. Unless they’re blatant linkback attempts, like the ones that have “SEO training expert” as the name rather than a real person’s name, or they’ve got optimised links in the comment box, then I’ve let them through. I’m still of a mind that if they look like real comments and that people have left them to let me know they were here, then the comments should go through – they don’t cause any hassles for me, and it’s no big deal.
But if they’re clearly from a bot, done just to get the link back to a site, or I get duplicate comments on multiple blogs saying the same thing from the same person then I’ll be deleting them. This may mean that some genuine comments get missed out on, which is a shame, but I hope people understand.
I want comments that tell me something – you don’t have to agree with me, in fact it’s kind of fun when you don’t! You don’t have to suck up to me, you’re welcome to talk about your own business and experience when replying to my comments (in a lot of cases I ask you to!). I love finding out whether you’ve put my advice to work, and whether it works for you. And if it doesn’t, I welcome those comments too as maybe I can find out why. I love it when you tell me what’s going on in your own businesses, and refer me to your own blogs. I love it when you tell me I’m wrong, and tell me why. It’s all part of the debate, and part of the world of blogging. And it’s fun!
“Yeah, me too” – that’s not fun, now is it?
I’d be interested to know whether you have a ‘comments policy’ on your blog, and how you implement it – feel free to tell me (with a link to your blog of course!) in the comments below!
Other posts you may be interested in:
Tags: backlinks, blog, Blogging, comments, debate, discussion, robot
I think I’ve already posted to this effect, but I’ll say it again as it’s on topic this time
We get a lot of spam comments along these lines – “Nice post, dude!” etc. They tend to use “surfer speak” now I think about it, actually – which is more than a little odd.
However, I generally publish them unless they link out to something iffy, have keyword-spam in the name or generally carry some other signal of spamminess (is that a word? It is now!).
Yeah, that’s kind of my take on it Matt – I don’t want to delete genuine comments, but by being ‘lazy’, people run the risk of being deleted because they’re seen as borderlin spam.
And spamminess is a great word
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by NikkiPilkington, Lindsey. Lindsey said: RT @NikkiPilkington: Just Posted: Deleting comments that say ‘nice post’ or ‘I agree’ | Internet Marketing Tips & Help http://ow.ly/XCRe [...]
While many “wow nice” post comments are quite spammy I still think there are many genuine people who just want to say something nice. Be careful of being too cynical i reckon.
I don’t think they are lazy Nikki, I just don’t think they know how to craft a comment.
For example they should say what they liked about the blog, I liked how you explained that an acknowledgement of the blog can look like spam and that you may lose genuine comments.
You are skilled in leaving space for people to comment and add to the blog, to start a conversation, people should grasp the opportunity, even if they are a little unsure.
Sometimes seeing a lot of comments can be intimidating and commenters may fear their voice will not be heard or what they wanted to say has already been said by someone else. Thats the biggest thing that stops me commenting.
What really annoys me is competitors leaving a comment on my blog and a note saying please publish, they need the link… guess what I do with those?
I really don’t think a lot of people understand the power of leaving a comment (other than those who understand it too well and still get it wrong!
)
Saying ‘I agree’ is a big deal for some folk and saying ‘I disagree’ is something they’d never contemplate – silence is the only option for them.
It took me a long time to realise that those of us who find it easy to express ourselves and our opinions in public are a minority and most people really are the silent majority and prefer it that way.
I agree. (kidding) This situation came up for me yesterday as I was working through the comments on some of my blogs. While some commenters were clearly leaving a comment to link back to their site, I still let them through because they actually had something substantial to say about the post to which they responded. Then you get the comments that say “nice post” or “I was looking for this through google, nice site,”, those get the heave-ho right away. I’m not averse to providing a link back – does me no harm – but at least say something that actually relates to the post!
@Sarah – wow, people actually request a link back, “please publish”? Amazing!
Nice blog Nikki…I agree…lol.
But seriously I agree with Sarah Arrow that many people are face to face people. They prefer social situations where they can talk to people and say what they think and feel. Other people are good at expressing themselves in writing and shun the face to face thing because they are introverts. Of course there are those that can do both.
One man’s ceiling is another man’s floor.
Its sometime annoying to receive these kind of comments but it’s all some people are capable of or have time for alot of the time.
@ Ann Hawkins, I agree with your thoughts.
I prefer to give people the benefit of the doubt as the post described.