III. Commenting

Sour Duck's Blogging Basics: Commenting

Commenting cultures vary greatly depending on the readership and focus of the blog.

Example:

A technical blog will have a much different feel to the commenting culture than a mommmyblog.

The techie blog's commenting culture may have few social niceties thrown in, while the mommyblog's commenting culture may contain a great deal of phatic speech. Phatic speech shares feelings or connotes sociability rather than information or ideas.

I don't mean to paint with too broad a brush. There are a variety of commenting styles found at blogs. But I've found the difference striking when perusing new blogs.

Commenting at other blogs

For the above reasons, it's usually a good idea to lurk for a while before venturing with a comment. Through lurking (or, simply reading a blog and the comments without posting a comment yourself) you can learn what the unwritten rules are for that particular blog tribe. These rules may be loose, and invisible, but they are still there nevertheless.

After you've lurked for a while (anything from two weeks to a month), you've probably got a feel for the comment culture at a particular blog and can venture forth with a comment.

Depending on the blog author, your comment as a newbie may be received in different ways—or not at all. I've seen bloggers recognize a new reader and welcome them by responding in the comment thread, but this is by no means standard, especially with blogs that have a huge readership and active comment threads.

Does comment thread = chat room?

Some comment sections are like chat rooms. If the blog owner condones this atmosphere, then obviously this is fine.

Other points of view do not condone this:

"A weblog comment is a public one-to-many communication within the context of a blog post. An e-mail is a private interaction. A weblog comment that reads, 'Oh yeah, that link is cool. By the way, how's your sister?' doesn't contribute to the public conversation and belongs in an e-mail message to the author instead." (Gina Trapani, "Geek to Live: Lifehacker's guide to weblog comments".)

Comments at your own blog

Against Personalization

Whether a blogger participates in the comments section of her blog is entirely up to her.

Although the blog format breaks down the wall between reader and writer, the blog author is under no obligation to respond to the comments her writings receive. Ever.

You can publish at your blog and simply let readers respond. This is a valid approach and bears repeating: the blogger does not have to further explain, justify, or clarify her piece in the comments section at her blog.

Thank You's are not necessary, either

Thanking a commenter is not necessary. People leave comments because they want to leave comments. As a blogger, you do not have to thank each and every commenters for stopping by and leaving a comment.

Besides, it's a bit tedious for others to read many "thanks!" comments from the blogger in the thread.

Here's where we spin around…

Having let you off the hook from ever having to respond in the comment thread to your own posts, I will now state the obvious: you may, of course, choose to respond to a commenter. You can choose to thank them for their comment. You can choose to say "hi!" or "welcome" if they are a new commenter.

Your approach is dictated by personal preference. Experiment, and pick what feels right to you.

Spam Comments

While the commenting culture varies from blog to blog, one thing that cuts across all sectors is spam commenting. This is unwanted and frowned upon. In fact, it's more than frowned upon, it's cursed at! It's the bane of a blogger's existence.

What is it? Well, a spam comment is content that is usually (but not always) off-topic and links to a site that sells something. Example:

Fictional Example:

Shelley Powers writes a post on women's visibility in the technology industry. If I leave a comment that says,

"Great post! I really like your writings here. Come by and try my herbal remedies, I think you'd like them!"

…you can bet she won't appreciate it. My post is off-topic, but what's worse, it promotes a product I'm selling.

Most bloggers would delete such a comment right away, or, if their blogging platform allowed moderating, reject the comment.

Some bloggers have a very strict spam policy: if a comment has even a faint whiff of spam, they'll delete it with no reservations.

Bear in mind, too, that many bloggers won't bother investigating whether a comment is spam or not—they'll simply delete it.

Afterall, who wants to spend their time checking if a comment is legit or not?