{"id":10971,"date":"2007-12-12T13:18:56","date_gmt":"2007-12-12T10:18:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/2007\/12\/12\/on-blog-comments\/"},"modified":"2007-12-12T13:18:56","modified_gmt":"2007-12-12T10:18:56","slug":"on-blog-comments","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/2007\/12\/12\/on-blog-comments\/","title":{"rendered":"On blog comments"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Mark Cuban<\/a> asks an interesting question<\/a>:<\/p>\n

So the question is, is it worth it to allow unmoderated comments ? Or is babysitting comments just part of the job of bloggers ? Or are comments just a waste of time under all circumstances ?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Here is how I see it.<\/p>\n

Your blog is like your house.\u00c2\u00a0 In your house, you have some rules.\u00c2\u00a0 You don’t have them written anywhere, but everybody follows them.\u00c2\u00a0 Like, do you take off the shoes when you come in or if you are allowed to smoke inside.\u00c2\u00a0 How loud can you speak and can you bring kids or animals with you.\u00c2\u00a0 You know your rules.<\/p>\n

People, who are coming in for the first time, they don’t.\u00c2\u00a0 There are some etiquette rules, generic for everyone, that will almost always keep you on the safe side.\u00c2\u00a0 Like, don’t swear until somebody does it first.\u00c2\u00a0 Or ask for the permission to smoke.\u00c2\u00a0 Stuff like that. When people come to your house for the first time, they keep it on the safe side.\u00c2\u00a0 They observe how you and others behave.\u00c2\u00a0 They ask if they need something.<\/p>\n

This\u00c2\u00a0 is pretty much how comments on the blog are.\u00c2\u00a0 When people come to the blog, they would usually read others comments before posting their own.\u00c2\u00a0 They start with simple, straightforward ones.\u00c2\u00a0 They grow slowly.\u00c2\u00a0 If they do something that you don’t like, you let them know.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s OK.\u00c2\u00a0 Most good people won’t need more than one correction.\u00c2\u00a0 They can understand and feel the atmosphere of the blog and of the discussions.<\/p>\n

Of course, the more popular the blog gets, the more morons will come.\u00c2\u00a0 Inconsiderate idiots who will feel an obligation to annoy and offend the heck out of everybody else, they will post insulting comments to a few entries in the archives.\u00c2\u00a0 They will come back for more…<\/p>\n

Give them a warning.\u00c2\u00a0 Once.\u00c2\u00a0 If you are in a good mood – twice.\u00c2\u00a0 If it’s not your day, you can skip the warning altogether.\u00c2\u00a0 Then just ban the troll. Filter them out. They aren’t worth your time. They aren’t worth the time of your blog’s visitors.\u00c2\u00a0 The sooner you’ll get rid of them, the better.\u00c2\u00a0 Don’t be afraid to hurt their feelings – they don’t have any anyway.<\/p>\n

I like the way WordPress handles comments.\u00c2\u00a0 It gets rid of SPAM automatically.\u00c2\u00a0 It sends me comments from unknown users for moderation.\u00c2\u00a0 If I allow a comment from someone, all further comments will be automatically approved, unless I ban the user.\u00c2\u00a0 If I will ever be overwhelmed with moderation of comments (not likely), I always have an option to go for “only registered users are allowed to comment”…<\/p>\n

As to the Mark’s question of the value of comments – yes, I see plenty of value in comments.\u00c2\u00a0 Comments is not the main reason for me blogging, but it’s a pretty important one.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\n

Mark Cuban asks an interesting question: So the question is, is it worth it to allow unmoderated comments ? Or is babysitting comments just part of the job of bloggers ? Or are comments just a waste of time under all circumstances ? Here is how I see it. Your blog is like your house.\u00c2\u00a0 … Continue reading On blog comments<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1,2],"tags":[29,599],"keyring_services":[],"class_list":["post-10971","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","category-personal","tag-blogging","tag-comments"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t