Now it’s time for Weekly Geeks. This week’s topic:
“Commenting. It can be a fun way to connect to your readers. It can be the a source of frustration as a blogger. A comment can make your day. A comment can cause an argument. Today let’s talk commenting.”
Comments. Some people have them, and some of us wish we had them. I get a few comments, and I always appreciate them. On a new blog like this one, every comment by a visitor encourages me to keep writing.
I don’t reply to every comment; I like to spend to commenting on other bloggers’ posts—a habit I’m working hard to cultivate. But any time I can think of a response to a comment here, I’ll reply. Just because I don’t reply doesn’t mean I’m not reading, and I smile every time a get a comment.
Unless it’s spam.
Speaking of spam, I started out using comment moderation, moderating first-time commenters, but I always feel like it makes a new user (especially one not so internet savvy, or one who has to work up a lot of courage to comment) feel alienated. In the end, I decided to use ReCAPTCHA instead, so visitors who are actually human can see their comments posted right away. ReCAPTCHA is not ideal, since it’s owned by Google (isn’t everything?), but I’ve yet to find a better captcha for my purposes.
So far, the only comments I’ve deleted are spam. I don’t have set rules for what I’ll allow or not allow in the future, whenever I (inevitably) post an article that turns someone into a flaming, typing ball of rage. The plan for now is to allow comments I disagree with, so long as the commenter is polite; downright ugliness will not be tolerated. To use a canned phrase, my blog is not a democracy (considering my political views, that idea is kinda funny), and I feel comfortable deleting if necessary, but I don’t mind being politely disagreed with. Also, comments that seek merely to enrage (i.e. comments from trolls) will be deleted without mercy.
Just so I don’t end this on a negative note, so far all commenters have been wonderful, and all comments have helped to cheer me up and keep me posting! My blog is still fairly new, but I hope it will be not only a place for me to post my thoughts on what I’m reading and writing, but a place for interesting discussion.
