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Blog Management Of Comments...HELP!!!!

by Steven Wagenheim
11 replies
Okay, now that I've finally decided to do something with my blog, I'm running
into an area that is a little foreign to me only because I've never had to deal
with it before.

Comments...lots of them.

I need an expert in this area because it is certainly not me.

Some of the comments are brief one liners but I can't really call them spam
because they're not blatantly promoting anything except a link back to their
blog.

Some of the comments are well thought out.

In either case, how do you handle moderating comments?

Are their any comments that can hurt your blog's PR or SE rank?

I don't want to go approving things that can end up screwing me in the
long run. Normally, I'd just allow all the comments, but since I'm now
working so hard to make this blog work, I don't want to do something that
I'm going to regret later.

So if there are any experts in this area, I would appreciate any advice
that you could give me.

Thanks.
#blog #commentshelp #management
  • Profile picture of the author Mo Goulet
    Hi Steve..

    You could require people to register before posting a comment and spammers do not waste their time with registration stuff most of the time and then you do not have to approve comments but you always have the right to hit the "delete" button.
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  • Profile picture of the author Marian Berghes
    if you don't want links to screw up your seo put the comments on nofollow tag..tho I don't know how to do it somebody did it for me...and if you think you can get bad comments just set the blog to ask you what comments to approve or not.
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  • Profile picture of the author jhongren
    Hi Steven.

    Normally I allow comments without any html link to be posted automatically.

    However, if there is one or more link, it will be held for moderation.

    I will spend not more than 15 mins to look through all comments on Friday and delete those which are spammy to me...such as

    1. one liner with the website left
    2. self promo ads discussing nothing related to the post

    My 2 cents,
    John
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  • Profile picture of the author flnz400
    This is standard, but I assume you're using your askimet key? Just double checking.

    As suggested, required registration or adding no follow will deter most spam. You can mod your comments.php and css file as well to make mods, but I wouldn't make links no follow. At least I don't choose that for my own VRE.

    As for your site's reputation, basically the same principles apply to your article theory. Comments that are pertinent to the discussion at hand and actually contribute to the topic (good or bad) IMO are acceptable. Comments for people, you could call the theory, just as you write articles for people.

    "That's a good article" or something along those lines, are kind of heehaw to me. It also depends on poster's link name as well. Personally, with your personality and the crowd that I've seen follow you, I would require readers to register and become established followers.
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  • Profile picture of the author Angela V. Edwards
    Adding the No Follow tag does not stop all spam. Trust me. When I am looking for High PR backlinks for my customers, I see quite a bit of keywords-as-names on places with No Follow tags. Which means that either they didn't check in the first place, or the blog owner added the No Follow tags later but didn't delete the spammy looking comments. And I think that comments with keywords-as-names look spammy.

    I think putting the comments on moderation should work fine. Spammy comments are very easy to spot and great comments help keep your content "fresh".
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    • Profile picture of the author Steven Wagenheim
      Originally Posted by Angela V. Edwards View Post

      Adding the No Follow tag does not stop all spam. Trust me. When I am looking for High PR backlinks for my customers, I see quite a bit of keywords-as-names on places with No Follow tags. Which means that either they didn't check in the first place, or the blog owner added the No Follow tags later but didn't delete the spammy looking comments. And I think that comments with keywords-as-names look spammy.

      I think putting the comments on moderation should work fine. Spammy comments are very easy to spot and great comments help keep your content "fresh".
      Angela, thanks. I actually already do have all the comments on moderation.
      None of them are going to win any Pulitzers, which just confirms how lazy
      bloggers are.

      When I post a comment on somebody's blog, it's practically an article.

      But that's a whole other story.

      That's okay. You know what they say. The cream always rises to the top.
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      • Profile picture of the author tommygadget
        Originally Posted by Steven Wagenheim View Post

        Angela, thanks. I actually already do have all the comments on moderation.
        None of them are going to win any Pulitzers, which just confirms how lazy
        bloggers are.

        When I post a comment on somebody's blog, it's practically an article.

        But that's a whole other story.

        That's okay. You know what they say. The cream always rises to the top.
        Steve, be careful about approving innocent looking comments. One spammer was using free profiles at game forums to redirect my blog readers to his amateur porn videos. Just remove the links and approve the comments if you don't know the posters.

        TomG.
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        • Profile picture of the author Chris Lockwood
          Originally Posted by tommygadget View Post

          Steve, be careful about approving innocent looking comments. One spammer was using free profiles at game forums to redirect my blog readers to his amateur porn videos. Just remove the links and approve the comments if you don't know the posters.

          TomG.
          What's his URL? I need to investigate this.
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      • Profile picture of the author LABuroker
        None of them are going to win any Pulitzers, which just confirms how lazy bloggers are.
        Heh, this is why it's entirely possible to get some nice traffic from commenting on blogs if you *do* write quality comments.

        As for my own policy, I usually delete comments from anyone who signs with keywords or a company name rather than a personal name. If it's one of my sites where I sell advertising, I'm even more strict about the amount of "free advertising" I let companies get away with in the comments.

        Really, the goal is to build a community, so there isn't going to be any big loss in deleting comments from people who are obviously just trying to get a link and never plan to come back.
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    • Profile picture of the author bgmacaw
      Here's how I set it up on my Flagship blog. I place all new commentators into moderation so that I can check their site to make sure it isn't a 'bad neighborhood' and to deny them immediate access to a followed link on my Top Commentator widget. I also place all comments with links into moderation even if the person has commented previously. Short comments like "Great Post" get deleted or edited with a pithy extra comment thrown in and the link removed. As long as a post is on topic, meaningful and of decent length I allow keyword names in my comments but not everyone does this.
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  • Profile picture of the author Mark McWilliams
    FYI, the nofollow tag is automatically added to the commentators link.

    (I guess that's one of the reasons people created plugins to remove that if you wish!)

    Thanks
    Mark
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  • Profile picture of the author Mark Brian
    Steve, here's what I do in my blogs:

    - I install Akismet plugin to automatically filter spam comments.
    - I auto-approved comments containing no links.
    - I manually moderate comments containing 1 or more link.

    I usually dis-approve comments with links not relevant to the post. I also approve 1 liners as long as they do not contain links. The author URL is always no follow so it's cool with me.
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  • Profile picture of the author futurebells
    Simple solution:

    Install 2 Anti-spam Comment plugins such as akismet
    Let every comment roll in...You are safe
    Occasionally check the approved comments
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