Comments on: Nobody wants to read 1,000 comments

By: Alexandre Lahos

Alexandre Lahos — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 02:00:15 +0000

I'd already suggested the use of peer moderation à la Youtube on a moderated blog about a year ago, and guess what... My comment was edited!

By: Jon Husband

Jon Husband — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 19:33:24 +0000

The comments thread are often the most interesting, if not the most valuable, part of a given blog post, and I often read thenm all. That said, the value of good moderation policy on "mature" blogs cannot be overstated.

Many blogs do not employ moderation ... those that regularly receive significant numbers of comments would do well to consider moderation. Done well, it's an art that adds value. Done poorly, it's heavy-handed and often discourages potentially valuable insight and amplification.

Your last 4 or 5 paragraphs point that out, I believe.

By: Jill

Jill — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 00:56:36 +0000

I think we should never turn away genuine comments, even if they echo the thoughts of others. Considering that there are a zillion Internet forums in which people can participate, we should feel honoured that people take the time to read OUR blogs and respond to them. They respond because they want to participate -- you, the blogger, inspired them. For some people, responding to a blog and seeing it posted is a very special thing -- a sense of accomplishment, the feeling that they have made contributions. And if a debate ensues in the comments, all the better.

And it's nice of bloggers to acknowledge their contributors sometimes, too.

Just my two cents worth.

Cheers

By: Blogues et commentaires : un mal vraiment nécessaire? — Michael Carpentier.com

Tue, 05 Aug 2008 02:19:57 +0000

[...] Fagstein propose aussi Slashdot comme modèle, où les lecteurs peuvent s’accorder des notes l.... Pour que ce système fonctionne, il faut cependant que la majorité des lecteurs ait un minimum de compétence du sujet traité. Bien utile pour une communauté d’intérêts, je me demande ce que ce genre de système donnerait dans un environnement plus généraliste. [...]

By: Isaac Lin

Isaac Lin — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 22:11:46 +0000

Far too many unmoderated comment threads end up looking like this:

http://www.carrotpatch.org/blog/2004/11/what-alas-many-blog-comment-threads.html

The signal to noise ratio can be so low that unfortunately it becomes too much work to try to bother threshing out the few valuable posts, so unless you are getting a lot of willing assistance, the ratings won't be useful.

By: Fadi

Fadi — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 05:36:55 +0000

Salon.com has an interesting attitude towards comments (they call them "letters to the editor"). From Salon's Letter FAQ (http://letters.salon.com/about/index.html):
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Salon's editors will review the letters posted to an article and mark those they feel are most worth readers' attention as "Editors' Choice."
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You can then opt to see all comments (default) or just the Editors' Choice letters. In my experience, Salon's editors do a good job of highligthing the better comments. Anybody who's been reading political blogs knows that at some point discussions devolve to a "dialogue de sourds" and Salon's system enables you to cut that cr*p out of your screen.
This system adds to the blog overhead, as you need staff to filter comments, but if you're already filtering for trolls (legal minimum limits), why not elevate the best comments?

By: Karine

Karine — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 00:31:19 +0000

Correction on the last sentence: I have a feeling that an organized gang who will make it's duty to systematically give low scores to views or commenters they don’t like…

By: Karine

Karine — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 00:29:28 +0000

Once a the number goes past 3, you already start seeing comments that echo each other unless it turns into a private conversation between commenters trying to shout each other down. At that point I look around to see if my comment would add anything to the topic, if not, I move on. The peer review thing would work in a fair and honest world but judging by what happens whenever André Pratte talks federalism or whenever Marie-Claude Lortie writes the word "woman" on their blogs, I have a feeling that certain views would be an organized gang who will make their duty to systematically give low scores to views or commenters they don't like...

By: Fagstein

Fagstein — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 18:51:43 +0000

@Philippe-A.: Your blog, like mine, has a low number of comments per post. I'm not advocating being so ruthless with comments on low-traffic blogs. But when you're getting hundreds of comments, knowing that 30 people I've never met agree with you (without an explanation why) is kind of useless. I'd rather get to the comments that bring up something interesting and new.

By: nicolask7

nicolask7 — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 17:28:57 +0000

i sometimes wonder how ppl read blogs, may be it could be a good idea to write a post about content aggregation...

By: Philippe-A.

Philippe-A. — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 16:54:16 +0000

Erase comments that agree? Seriously?

The best comment I can receive is a laconic "Right on" or even better, "WORD."