I think I’ve seen and worked with enough blog designs to determine what and what does not work for commenting systems. Below is a list of some of my pet peeves when it comes to comment sections. Note that this is a personal list, and in no way do I claim this to be a list of dont’s for blog comment sections. So what may tick me off might be okay for some, or other things that might be annoying for others might be okay for me.
- Comment sections with captcha and are moderated. Seriously, that’s way too paranoid. I understand the need for moderation (I do that on all my blogs as well, but if you have a previously approved comment, all succeeding comments go straight to publish). But captcha and moderation? Deadly combo. And I mean deadly in a bad way. There are a lot better blogs out there to comment on who do not make me type captcha.
- Blogger comment sections who do not have the Name/URL option. Why? You deny your commentators the link juice they deserve. It’s super easy to make the option appear, so why not edit your settings?
- Comment sections who use third party systems (like Disqus and IntenseDebate). I totally get that you want more bells and whistles other than what the default commenting system of your platform offers, but if it considerably drags down your blog’s speed, is it worth it?
I always say, people take time to visit your blog and was even kinder to leave you a comment. Why make it so hard for them to do you a favor? Like a fast-loading page is important in keeping a visitor’s attention, I think an efficient commenting system will also do wonders for your traffic. So, how about you? What do you like/hate in a blog’s comment section?
4 Responses
i agree on all 3! i really hate those captcha’s + sometimes, i even have to enter them twice…we should launch a no-captcha campaign! 🙂
by the way, what could be the problem when i cannot leave comments on a number of blogs when other people are successful in leaving theirs? i was really puzzled, there is this one blog that i visit regularly, but every time i leave a comment, it gives an error message like this: page not found!
must be an ISP problem. if you’re on PLDT (i also am), try changing the DNS. here’s a tutorial for that:
http://silkenhut.com/pldt-mydsl-dns-problems/
I agree with you. What I hate is all the spam comments, they look real, smell real and feel real.. but they aren’t.. so CAPTCHA seems like a perfect answer.. what do you do to keep spam comments at bay? You know the ones with real name addresses and pretty comments?
well, i have akismet. i also have these lines of code on my theme:
https://labulakenya.com/2011/10/get-rid-of-spam-bots-without-a-plugin/
most spammers nowadays are bots, and that helped me eliminate hundreds of spam comments a day. the most i get now on this blog is 10 a day, which is greaaat 😉