By serendipity, I have found two posts today talking about how to deal with blog comments. It’s one of those blogging dilemmas to which I have not found the correct answer.
Rebecca at Just One More Page has a meme called “Musing Mondays.” Her questions for today were:
How do you respond to the comments on your blog? Do you try to email individually or comment on post yourself answering the comments above? What do you think is the best way to respond to comments and do you respond to all of them? Do you feel slighted if you don’t receive a response back from the blog owner?
Coincidentally, I got my “daily” email from Darren Rowse, at ProBlogger, who is working on a month-long series of posts to teach us how to build a better blog (I’m two days behind). Today, his email linked to a post that encourages us to email a blog reader.
I’m stumped, and maybe you can tell me what you as a reader (if there are any readers) want.
Time is the major factor for me. There are times when I don’t get a chance to work on the comments at all. I get behind and feel overwhelmed. Then, I just throw up my hands and pray I win the lottery so I can hire a secretary. So far, no luck.
Here’s the comment response drill:
When you comment, I get an e-mail. I read your e-mail, and then try to reply. Usually, I open the post — because if you commented on something I wrote two weeks ago, I don’t remember the context and might not understand our subject matter. It’s heck to get old and lose the memory.
What was I saying? Oh yes, so I open the post, then open the editor for your comment, answer you, save the comment, copy the answer in rich text, go back to g-mail, paste the answer, and send it to you. If I’ve waited a few days to answer, I’m too embarrassed to send it to you, so I just hope you have subscribed to comments. If I have time (which is rarely, these days) I follow to your post. If I don’t have time, I keep my fingers crossed that I will remember to do it later.
My internet cable service is very s-l-o-w. So, if I got lucky and had several comments, answering a handful of comments can take a half an hour or more.
I’ve tried to just answer everybody in one comment, but that doesn’t seem very friendly. It also was like writing another post!
I tried using “nested comments,” which is a new feature on WordPress 2.71, but my blog theme was not designed with that in mind. It didn’t work. Nested comments would have been perfect because I wouldn’t have had to open the editor to reply specifically to you. I don’t have the smarts to re-design my theme, and I don’t have the money to pay someone. Nested comments aren’t going to happen.
I’m not answering Rebecca’s questions, am I? Nope. But, I’m asking you:
- Shall I just answer your comment in an e-mail & forget the comment boxes?
- Should I just try to answer all comments in one comment?
- Would you just prefer I not bother with comments & use that time to come comment at your “house?”
- Do I keep stabbing at answering the way I have been?
- Do you not give a rat’s patootie?
Leave me a comment, and I’ll e-mail you an answer (following Darren’s instructions for the day).
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{ 17 comments… read them below or add one }
If the comment is just a short note that basically says: Hi, I stopped by, read your post and enjoyed it. I don’t think it requires a response. You may WANT to, but it’s not necessary, IMO. I appreciate people stopping by, reading my post and saying HI just to let me know they have been there.
Those comments that bring up other issues which you may NEED to explain in more detail or feel the NEED to respond to, deserve an answer. The issue may depend on whether you answer in a comment on the post or in and email.
I’m pretty bad about stopping to see what you wrote and then not commenting (especially if I can think of nothing better to say than “Hi.”). Don’t you think that if a comment is “deserving of an answer” then everybody ought to see it? I dunno.
Just hi type – no response other than a message among the comments saying thanks for coming by. Exception: someone I recognize as a first timer to encourage them to return.
Interesting comment directed just to me gets an email response if only to say how much I appreciate their involvement or to answer a question.
If someone makes a comment where I believe a response would be of interest to everyone gets both and email and a public response.
Now MY PROBLEM: I prefer totally open comments, but I’ve had to go to moderation at least for awhile as I have picked up a truly nasty stalker that followed from another blog. Since my nice people don’t need to see that sort of thing, I’m on moderation until he gives up and goes away (I hope he gets tired and goes away)
Jamies last blog post..Manic Monday – Taste
OH MAN! I hate stalkers. Is there any way you can figure out the IP address and block him? Maybe he will get bored. I like your response to all the ways to comment. Maybe I just need to get caught up once & stay on top of it? Maybe I should just trust that if people want to know if I responded they will subscribe to comments? Maybe I should put that as a “disclaimer” somewhere? I don’t want people to feel neglected, but I can run myself ragged with this if I let me.
I don’t think that someone that just says ‘hi’ expects a reply…if they do, they aren’t getting it from me.
a true comment about the post is really an extension of the post in a way, so I post any response in the comments and try to keep that extension going…
caites last blog post..if you want to feel good…
Do you then e-mail them to make sure they see it, or do you trust that they have subscribed to comments (notice how I am extending this post
?).
I’m in the same boat as you are hon, (with my 10 readers, hehe). The only thing I know is that when I visit and comment, I don’t expect a chatty response. I don’t expect a response at all unless I have something interesting or provocative (or argumentative) to bring to the discussion. When it comes to visiting, or dropping in to read as entertaining a writer as you, the reading is enough for me, and I only comment at all most times so that the blogger knows that I have read and enjoyed. When I have a new visitor who comments, I try to visit their blog to say hi and thanks.
Thornes last blog post..My Neck of the Woods -High Desert California
I think you should do whatever is easiest and most enjoyable. It shouldn’t be a chore.
You have slow cable? How weird. I have cable envy, we can’t get it here. My verizon wireless is a $60 a month rip-off. It is fast though. At the end of the contract it will have to go, fast or no, $720 a year is not doable.
Sarahs last blog post..Name That Kitty!
Geez this is my big question too. So I am enjoying your commenter’s(-:
Heres what I do.
If someone comments, even if it is just a hi comment, I comment to the person or persons from my blog. If they have subscribed then they get my reply if not then I guess they don’t )-: But then here is the other thing. When I read someones blog I don’t go back to check and see if they commented on their blog to me. (Some blogs there is no where to check to subscribe to comments.)It takes to much time to read all the comments etc. So that made me think no one really read what I commented on either.
Bloggers need a little acronym like:
NRN (no reply necessary.) It would make blogging so much easier(-:
cindees last blog post..Happy Easter
Hey!
I’d love to go to Gaybingo with you and your husband.
Thanks for the nice comment, and I love your new blog entry — seems very timely.
RamblingRex
I agree, do what you want to do. I never feel slighted if the blogger doesn’t respond to my comment.
I only use email if there is something that needs to be said only to that person.
Sheila Atwoods last blog post..Putting Up Your WordPress Blog
I would suggest make it easy on yourself. Mine is set up to notify me by email, when a comment arrives. What I’ve started doing is answering comments on my blog within the post. I generally answer all in the same comment. I’m assuming the the visitor will have subscribed to the post if they want to know if I replied to their comment. Now that I’ve set up my comment policy, everyone will know I will respond. What they do from there is up to them.
When I leave a comment on another blog I subscribe to the comment if I said something that expect a response on. I also signed up for pro blogger and like his idea of emailing new visitors to my blog.
Robin of My Two Blessingss last blog post..Monday Musings – Comments, Comments, Comments
I’m not going to trust that you subscribed to comments
. Problogger has some great ideas (some I already knew … but didn’t practice). Thank you for stopping by to visit. I liked your answer to the question on your site. It was well thought.
I am on the whatever is easiest for your vote, acknowledge questions or a new reader in an email. B/c life is too short to be tethered to technology.
Speaking of which- what do you like best about your iphone? Any great apps that I should check out? Do you have skype? Just a girl with her toys here, like I told my husband, I don’t do pocketbooks, new clothes, shoes or any other vices, except for technology. So far I love it.
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In retrospect, I wouldn’t have gotten it. Yeah, it’s great for checking e-mails & GPS & stuff. But, I’m not a techie, and I’ve been too lazy to go to the Apple store and get a genius to show me how best to use it. I don’t know about skype…duh.
I’m with Sheila. I don’t expect an answer. Hell, you already know I think you’re crazy sending out all those thank you notes! Answering every blog post would surely prove it!
Yes, but Annmarie, you don’t have a blog, so the only way I can talk to you is to answer
. Maybe I should get your phone number. We could talk so long that my ears would look like cauliflowers.
And, I am NOT crazy to send thank you notes! My Momma would come back to haunt me if I didn’t. I see enough ghosts without hers, too (she could be pretty doggone scary in life, if she wanted to be!).
I have struggled with this issue for what seems years now. I’ve given up on any concrete way of handling comments. I do like when I get notification that I have a comment in my email and I equally like when I can hit reply and the address is already filled in for me. I then know that person has gotten my reply to their comment if warranted. A special email account to check for comments in blogging has worked for me, a lot of folks don’t share their email so that method doesn’t always work.
Did that all make sense, I don’t think it even made sense to me.
janeywans last blog post..Another first for me
I find myself switching back and forth, janeywan. I’d rather just call on the phone! I’d answer every comment if I could do that
I like to visit the commenter’s website and leave a comment on one of their posts. Kinda’ like letting them know that you noticed them.
I’m one of your
101112 readers if you include my split personality.Steve
Steves last blog post..$100 Contest – Climate Change Header
I have been wondering about this topic as well. I had a WP plugin that automatically emailed the person when you replied to their comment (I had to dump all my plugins and now can’t find it!) But, when searching for that plugin, came across an article with some good points, one being that: do people really want more emails that to them might seem like spam because it is a reply to a comment?
I’m not sure what to think. I usually click on follow the comments if it is there, esp if I have asked a question of the blogger or want to follow the thread.
Ashs last blog post..Power! Power! Whose got the Power?
I don’t have time to read any of the earlier comments, but I’d say do whatever makes you most comfortable – it’s your blog after all, we’re just along for the ride
.
If it were me, I’d answer when I had something I wanted to say and not when I didn’t.
Robins last blog post..Soft-shelled sea turtles and nutria at Nahal Alexander
PS That said, I always try to visit everyone who’s left a comment on my blog
.
@Sarah, yes our cable is slow, and I have no clue how to fix it, but it’s a pain in the kiester!
@Steve, split personalities count by all means. Can they log in on different computers so I get more hits?
@Ash, you make a very good point. I know I certainly can’t keep up with my own e-mails. I’ll just have to trust that people drop back by if they care to see if I said anything. Did you?
@Robin, my problem is that some days I feel very reclusive…so I might not have anything to say. And, yeah, I’m trying to get by and visit folks who comment as well, but it’s hard to do sometimes. Again, I’m too scattered.