Yay For Frequent Commentators
Tagged as: Sep 06I think that commenting is one of the most interesting and enticing things about an online blog. It allows one to share their thoughts, but it also allows others to give feedback on those thoughts! I like to comment on other blogs, but I also like to respond to comments on my own blog.
So after participating a bit at One Man’s Blog (who is also having a great contest for becoming a “member” of his site right now where he gives away something to the winner of a random drawing), and enjoying it very much I decided that I would do something similar to what he does.
Instead of removing the nofollow on each and every commentator’s link, he instead creates a refreshed list of the top 10 commentators and provides them with a link back that way. I think that after seeing how I can sometimes be getting the single comments just to get a link, I think that this is a more prudent decision to minimize single-line “spammy” comments.
So therefore I am going to go for installing the Show Top Commentators plugin.
The way to get onto the list is as follows:
- Use the same information (name, e-mail, website) when leaving comments. It might be easiest to simply register (which I have opened up) on my website. You’ll be able to log in and not have to enter your information each time you leave a comment.
- Leave comments! It’s fun anyways, I think to get to give feedback to the author (and be assured that authors do enjoy feedback, especially this author).
- The plugin will gather its data from the last 60 days, so be active else you fall and cease being the king of the mountain. Hm I always enjoyed that game (king of the mountain, not falling).
Oh an don’t worry, it will start immediately and retroactively use the comments that you’ve left. So we actually don’t start off with a clean slate, but I wouldn’t think that would be fair anyways to those that have graced me with their participation.
I’m going to remove myself from any sort of communities for adding dofollow. I don’t really get too much traffic from them, and the traffic that I do get is usually people just leaving a single comment to get the link back to their site. I like the idea of adding dofollow, I just don’t like how it’s worked out for me thus far.
Comments might not make the world go ’round, but they sure are more pleasant than the alternative.
I never could quite understand that “no follow” thing…I did notice my link goes straight to the bathroom dare post though!
And I totally agree the comments. I thought it was odd to comment on my own page at first, but now I see it’s ***way*** more fun!
Dang. I had no idea I left so many comments on your blog. The “Frequent commenters” count has me at 18 (not counting this one).
I enjoy leaving comments and wish I had time to leave more. I tend to leave lengthy ones and Jill is a great one for commenting!! I can see she left 17 so far. If I had a count on my blog, she’s be a high-ranker.
I enjoy your blog – a great mix of thoughtful observation and tech.
@Jill
Well simply put, the “nofollow” is added in order to tell search engines that the link does not mean that you’re “voting” for the site that is linked. The way that Google (in particular) works is that they count up the number of links to your site and assign you a rank. The higher your rank, the more “reputable” your site is. So very popular sites such as yahoo.com or google.com itself have very high ranks and thus come up very high in web searches.
I didn’t notice that you linked to your bathroom post this whole time! That’s pretty amusing, I think. If you want, you can either register and select your homepage or I can make the changes for you so that it points to your front page.
I definitely enjoy discussing things in the comments! Besides the fact that it’s easy and less stressful than creating a post, it just feels so natural to have a discussion like that.
@Ms. Q
You know I think that you probably didn’t think that you had so many because we’ve had a few posts where there was discussion in the comments. You were probably good for a few in those types of posts.
I, too, wish that I could comment more. In general I try to leave a comment if I especially want to give the author feedback or if I feel that I can add to the discussion.
I’m very glad that you enjoy my blog! Granted I’m sure that not everything can be interesting to everyone, but it’s nice to know that at least someone out there is interested in the same things that I am.
Hi Derek, I have completely removed the nofollow rel. from the comments on my blogs to make it a tiny little bit more interesting for commenters to leave a comment. I have had not too much people just coming in and leaving a link for the sake of it since, as I am still monitoring and moderating each comment.
Frankly, I don’t care all that much about rankings etc.
What I have found is that by my replying to each and every comment that people submit on my blog, slowly some kind of community is growing around my blog. And that is nice. At first, it indeed felt a bit awkward to do that, it is a bit like talking to yourself, since you never know for sure if the commenter will ever come back to read your reply to his comment. But somehow it seems to be working.
I like to comment on other blogs myself and if I do, it’s usually because I either like the blog, or the subject, or enjoy the discussion with other commenters in that particular community.
Your blog is simply one of the blogs I like to drop by every once in a while and read about our thoughts. To me that is a way of giving some affirmation to you that I like your blog, find it valuable to visit and appreciate the hard work you put into it.
Keep it up. & Take Care. -Jos:)
@Jos
I noticed that you do remove the nofollow from commentators. And that’s just fine. I think that, although page rank is in my mind a little bit, I actually prefer to include the nofollow because I don’t want to promote OTHER people’s page rank. I want to promote other people who actually participate and are someone that I can have discussion with. Essentially I want to vote for people who are worth it to me.
I think that almost from the beginning I’ve responded to people’s comments. I’ve definitely enjoyed that part of blogging! I’ve tried out the co.mments that I know you’re using, and I do definitely think that’s a good idea. I like using it on occasion, especially when I think or hope for a response.
I’m glad that you enjoy dropping by every now and again, and I hope to hear more from you!