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Great Find: Lifehacker on Comments and More

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Before you close the drawer on that comments file, there’s more you need to complete the set.

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Apparentely the fact that lifehacker ran this piece wasn’t enough for one publisher that picked it up. If you access the document from EServer TC Library, the document comes with a lovely cover sheet like this which asks you to rate the quality of the work for the purpose of helping future readers. Gee, I thought lifehacker already did that before they ran it.

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Great Find: Lifehacker’s guide to weblog comments by Gina Trapani
Type of Article: How-to and Informational
Permalink: Lifehacker’s guide to weblog comments

Content: A popular document that describes the basic points of commenting on a blog.

  • Stay on topic.
  • Contribute new information to the discussion.
  • Don’t comment for the sake of commenting.
  • Know when to comment and when to e-mail.
  • Remember that nobody likes a know-it-all.
  • Make the tone of your message clear.
  • Own your own comment.
  • Be succinct.
  • Cite your sources.
  • Be courteous.
  • Don’t post when you’re angry, upset, drunk, or emotional.
  • Don’t feed the comment trolls.

Gina Trapani’s explanations are well-written and clear. Worth the time it takes to read them. I call the post popular because both Darren Rowse at Problogger and Steve Rubel at MicroPersuasion both basically picked-up Gina’s list, each adding only one sentence to it. They were among almost 200 others who did much the same thing.

Congratulations Gina for outstanding work.

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Another document you might find useful is Gizmodo’s Comments FAQ. This one is a great model that addresses Cas’s questions yesterday as to how you might handle a comment policy without feeling like you are insulting your readers’ better nature.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Blog Basics 1: Comments and Comment Policies
Great Find: Commenting on CTBIZBlogs

Great Find: Commenting on CTBizBlogs

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www.ctbizblog.com logo

Great Find: Commenting on CTBizBlogs by Sabine
Type of Article: How-to and Informational
Permalink: Commenting on CTBizBlogs by Sabine
Target Audience: Pros who want a model; Beginners who want information

Content: Successful and Outstanding Blogger, Sabine at CTBizBlogs, has written a top-notch document on how the comment feature serves in community building, pointing to Joel Achenbach’s Achenblog and Successful Blog as examples. She explains how Shirley Frazier’s comments led her to discover another great find Shirley’s Solo Business Marketing Blog. She also provides a straight-forward statement of her blog’s comment policy (a great model) and a how-to comment section that any new blogger could follow. Sabine does this so well, I wish she were writing software manuals, because then I might actually read them.

While you’re at CTBizBlogs, check out all you can. Everything that Sabine writes is quality, well-thought business advice.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Blog Basics 1: Comments and Comment Policies

Why Didn’t WE Comment?

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. . . Successful Blog is a community blog where every voice is welcomed and every contribution is valued.–MES

Except last night most of the Succesful Blog community wasn’t heard.

Remember when I said this on December 4th?

I can talk about building community by answering comments relentlessly, but it’s so much more powerful when I do it, and my readers actually experience how it feels. . . .

I was talking about Successful Blog as a place where we try out practices and test how they work–where you can see my shining successes and flaming-out failures. See blogging-in-action and analyze the consequences–Successful Blog as Community Test Blog, so to speak.

What better use for a community blog than to use it
to try out what works and to see how to fix what doesn’t work?

Some folks might think that last night’s discussion was a screaming success.
But when I think of my readers, I’m not so sure.

We have been talking about why people don’t comment. Now I think many of us have experienced a reason or two for ourselves. It’s as if a bunch of new readers rented the community hall for a party last night. A few of us came, but the rest of us kept our distance. The new visitors were welcome and wonderful, and I hope they all come back. Their intent wasn’t to quiet us, but that’s what happened. Isn’t it?

So many who discussed Brian’s article chose not to hang out this time–so many of the same voices went without a word.

What a great case study–right here in real life. Are you as curious about this as I am? It’s an experience worth exploring. There’s something here worth learning about.

What do you think happened last night?

What could I have done differently to bring your voices in?

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Blogging Hypothetical Question 3

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For those who come looking for a short, thoughtful read, a blogging life discussion, or a way to gradually ease back into the week, I offer this Blogging Hypothetical Question.

Here you go. . . .

A friend in your blogging niche has 700-800 visitors a day. (Don’t we all wish?) But she gets no comments.
She asks:
Is this a bad thing? Is it my writing? What should I do? Should I do anything?

What’s your response?

Besides, of course, “Send them to me, and I’ll ask them.”

–ME “Liz” Strauss

A Bloggy-Life Problem 1

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I post this today for those who come on Sunday looking for something to think about, some conversation, or just a way to ease back into the week.

Here you go. . . .

A new blogger comes with a question about a bloggy-life problem.

All of my friends are complaining that I all I ever want to talk about is blogging. I show interest in their jobs and their relationships. Why shouldn’t they want to hear about what I’m involved in?

How would you answer?

–ME “Liz” Strauss

How To Deal With Negative Comments

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From: D. Keith Robinson

Commenting and discussion, to me anyway, are the “killer feature” of most blogs. They”re what make the medium special and different. Blogging is best when it’s a two way discussion.

Most bloggers who allow commenting, at one time or another, will have to deal with negative feedback. Sometimes this comes in the form of comments. It’s inevitable and it doesn’t have to be a bad thing.

I’ve gotten my share of disparaging comments and I know how bad it can make you feel. I remember a time I worked my ass off for what I thought was a great, very well thought-out post with a positive message. I thought for sure I’d have a great discussion and that my readers would really jive with my message. I was wrong and I was inundated with negative comments. It really upset me, but in the end it turned out to be a positive, educational experience.

Over the years I’ve thought quite a bit about how to handle negative comments and I think I’ve got some great tips that might be of help to y’all.

  • Read and understand. Make sure you really understand what is being said. It’s easy to read something negative and jump in with a response that might not be as informed as it should be. That just causes more trouble.
  • Learn from it. Sometimes you’ll get a negative post because you were wrong. Take it as an educational experience.
  • Don’t get defensive. This just makes matters worse. Take a step back and try to be objective. Thing long and hard before you respond to negative feedback.
  • Ignore trolls. Do not engage in a discussion with someone who is just looking for a fight. Ignore the comment, or delete it if you feel comfortable with doing that.
  • Post your comment policy. Let people know if there is are types of comments you don’t want to see. For example, if you don’t want off-topic comments, let your readers know.
  • Respond with kindness and a willingness to understand. I don’t know how many times I’;ve turned a bad comment into a good one by simply trying to understand the point of view being offered and taking a positive attitude.
  • Admit when you are wrong. Your readers will actually respect you more if you acknowledge your mistakes. We all make them, don’t beat yourself up over it.
  • Don’t take it personally. Sometimes it may seem like a negative comment is a personal attack, but this is often not the case.
  • Take it offline. I’ve found that engaging in an e-mail conversation with someone who I’m butting heads with is very helpful in resolving the situation.
  • Use self-deprecating humor. Let’s face it. If you have a blog that you post to with any frequency there are going to be times when you screw up. Sometimes this can actually be pretty darn funny if you can take a step back and look at it through another’s eyes. Take teasing from your readers with a grain of salt and if you can’t beat ’em–join ’em.
  • Realize before you hit “post” that it’s a big world out there and you’re not going to please everyone every-time.

Related articles:
Leaving a Guy a Place to Stand
Great Find: Commenting on CTBizBlogs
Blog Basics 1: Comments and Comment Policies