19 Comments to “What Tony Lawrence Said … About Commenting on Blogs”

1. December 27th, 2008 at 9:03 am
   Lorraine Bal said

   I don’t agree with Tony. If someone has taken the time to read my blog, I am honored.

   If they post even a brief comment, not only will I include it, I will go to their site as well.

   Some folks start by putting a toe in the water, with a small comment. Positive reinforcement such as posting their comment may encourage them to be braver next time and write more.

   So if you have been discouraged because you posted a comment on Tony’s site, and he didn’t feel it was worthwhile… come visit mine instead. ( ok, so that was a shameless plug, bad me)

2. December 27th, 2008 at 9:07 am
   kelly said

   The first thing that came to my mind was Jesus Christ! Cos people followed him home and Christmas was just 2 days ago.

   I agree with you on this that connecting to like-minded readers isn’t ‘enough’ – quality of comments is important. ‘Not so quality comments’ are also important cos they kinda force others to speak up or correct what’s inaccurate.

   Like Tony, I usually delete comments from people whose names are “Best Watches” but I just might leave the comment there if it’s a useful comment for other readers.

   Even if I am not to add a quality comment in a blog, it’s likely I add a trackback via my blog. Have done this a number of times when in the past I was more conservative because I do not know more than 98% of the bloggers I leave comments for.

3. December 27th, 2008 at 9:51 am
   Lin Burress @Telling It Like It Is said

   I can agree and disagree with parts of what Tony said. For me, quality comments vs quantity comments is much more important to me whenever I choose to comment.

   Blatant self-promotion in the comment section is appalling to me, and I routinely delete such comments as well as those with a link thrown into the comment.

   If I have a post that deals with the subject I’m commenting on, I just link my name directly to that post for anyone who chooses to pull it up.

   I’ve found that leaving a quality comment that promotes the community within a blog (such as Liz has here at Successful Blog) greatly increases the chances someone will visit my blog as well and perhaps even subscribe and participate in the community on my own blog.

   Even with Liz’ blog I don’t comment on every single post because I don’t have anything to say or anything to add. But I read every single post nonetheless.

4. December 27th, 2008 at 10:58 am
   Tony Lawrence said

   @lorraine: I don’t delete comments just because they aren’t “high quality”. I only delete things that are obvious spam attempts.

   I get very few of those because most spammers are very lazy – they want to get their link in and not much else. My comment software filters those out easily.

   And yes, like you, I visit the site of everyone who leaves a link. Many of them get added to my RSS reader as a result. In fact, I just added you

5. December 27th, 2008 at 11:10 am
   Richard Reeve said

   I’ve been a pretty regular commenter on this blog for the last few months, not because I’m trying to get recognized, but because participation improves my social media skills and helps me to understand what it takes to build community. I’m always concerned when folks fall back into a defensive posture when choosing to be active in a public space. There are plenty of forums and the like to take activity out of view. I find that a willingness to participate publicly means a willingness to accept whatever “Joe Public” might throw out there. If it’s not offensive (vulgar, racist, sexist…etc.) I tend to let it stay. Often Liz uses the tavern analogy from her childhood to explain her sense of how her blog works. Using this analogy, there are always the regulars, but often there are travelers or folks just out and about. Sometimes the random visitor is not well behaved and needs to be dealt with accordingly. I trust my readers will have the capability to discriminate the relative value of each contribution.

6. December 27th, 2008 at 11:30 am
   Cath Lawson said

   Hi Liz and Tony – This is very well said. There’s no point in commenting unless you have something to say. It’s just a huge waste of time.

   And you’re also wasting the bloggers time, as they’re having to reply to an empty comment.

   With regards to the link in the post, I won’t do it. If folk I know do it on my own blog, I’ll sometimes let it pass but often I’ll delete the link and ask them not to do it again.

7. December 27th, 2008 at 1:28 pm
   Tony Lawrence said

   By the way, Lorraine: the type of people I’m talking about didn’t read anything. They just came to leave a link. You shouldn’t feel honored – you should feel abused.

8. December 27th, 2008 at 4:42 pm
   Lin Burress @Telling It Like It Is said

   Hi Tony,

   I have found from personal experience that there is often a flood of wasted, useless “comments” that come in from DoFollow Lists, from those who don’t spend two seconds reading a post let alone spending two full minutes reading a post.

   Due to the LIVE analytical software I use for my blog, I can often see them coming and where they’re coming from. And why they’re coming: to leave their pathetic link, not because they actually have something meaningful to say or any real desire to participate in community conversation.

   Hence, I hit the delete button quite often.

9. December 27th, 2008 at 7:57 pm
   ME Liz Strauss said

   Tony,
   I hope you don’t feel taken advantage here. I fully support what you said and still do in every way. Especially these sentences

   the type of people I’m talking about didn’t read anything. They just came to leave a link. You shouldn’t feel honored – you should feel abused.

   I delete useless comments for the same reasons you do. Maybe that’s why I was so surprised to see people come to your words with disagreement. Not that I thought for second, you couldn’t handle a bit of that.

   I respect folks who bring true thoughtful content to my comment box and take the time to write it. I am not grateful to those who take up space with empty words on their own behalf.

   I don’t want them in my house or on my blog.

   Thank you Tony, for your words, then and now.

10. December 27th, 2008 at 8:42 pm
    Tony Lawrence said

    Liz, I definitely don’t feel anything negative at all.

    I’m sure you have much more reason to delete junk than I do – you probably get more of that simply by virtue of having more readers.

    I think some people got the wrong idea and think that we delete “weak” comments. That’s certainly not the case for me – I try to give everyone the benefit of the doubt. If there is any way I can construe the comment as genuine, I will. But when someone just leaves a link and nothing else, what else can you do?

    Unfortunately, there are people trying to push their sites but who are too lazy to offer anything constructive at all. We all wish they didn’t exist – their sites are never anything but spam anyway.

    If someone said “Nice post” and their site link was to a real site – even if not well done – I’d probably leave it. But the links are always to MFA sites, porn sites..

    If I get to many comments where no one is saying anything new, I close the comments. Why litter the Internet with useless repetition? That is another thing that drives me nuts: people who don’t read the other comments before posting..

11. December 28th, 2008 at 2:03 am
    Sketchee said

    As for what Tony is quoted saying in the original comment, you can post both a comment and a blog. I think that if you think your comment should be a post, post it in both places. Say in your blog that you were responding to a blog post and give that person the credit for inspiring your post.

    Putting a link to your blog post about a subject you’ve posted about … I dunno it would look like blatant promotion to me. Better to restate your case.

12. December 28th, 2008 at 4:43 am
    Jack said

    I have a regular who is fantastic and comments occassionally, but when he does I go read his blog, comment on his blog, and reply to his comment. I have also had spam commenters, and I normally delete them, other than the first two who I felt were worth ridiculing because their comments were so pathetic.

13. December 28th, 2008 at 7:30 am
    Tony Lawrence said

    @Sketchee: You are right, though there can be exceptional circumstances. For example, let’s say that in the course of the conversation someone asks a question about something I have an important post about at my site – “important” meaning that it answers the question and would be found on the first page of Google results or it answers the question and no Google results match the question at all. In that case, I wouldn’t feel badly about putting in a link to that post.

    But those are extremely rare conditions.

14. December 28th, 2008 at 9:31 am
    Tony Lawrence said

    Apropos of this discussion, this morning I found two new comments on my home page.

    The first thing to understand is that my home page is “magazine style” – it’s links to new content, not actual content.

    First comment: “Enjoyed the articles” followed by a link.

    An honest expression of appreciation? No, because I can track what this person did before leaving the link. They read NOTHING. They just came to leave a link.

    Next one: “good” followed by a link. No capitalization, no period. What is “good”? I’d guess “good to be incredibly lazy”.

    Instant deletion for both.

    That’s the kind of stuff I mean and I’m sure it’s what Liz means too.

    I don’t want to frighten anyone and discourage them from honest comments. As I said, I try to give the benefit of the doubt. But some comments are just trash.

15. December 28th, 2008 at 7:33 pm
    ME Liz Strauss said

    Tony,
    I’m totally with you on both. I get those kind of “visitors” often and just *sigh* when I see them …

16. December 28th, 2008 at 7:35 pm
    ME Liz Strauss said

    Hi Sketches,
    Whether I leave a link often depends on my relationship to the person whose blog I’m visiting. If I know him or her well. I’ll leave the link to save us both time.

17. December 28th, 2008 at 7:36 pm
    ME Liz Strauss said

    Hi Jack,
    An occasional spammer does intrigue me enough to incite my creative response too.

18. January 29th, 2009 at 12:03 pm
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