Wait... Let me guess, you are either a blogger or an online reader, orrrrr both. Aren’t you? Anyway, as you go through a weblog, you can see a comment form beneath blog posts. The comment form is the best way for blog visitors to interact with the author and to share their opinions. You are always welcome to share your opinions on mine ;) Eventhough you can write anything on a comment form, it doesn't mean you should write anything and submit. There is a reason why you see comment forms beneath the blog posts, not somewhere above the post. Wondering why?
Content + Comments = Valuable Information
Your contribution is expecting after reading through the blog post or hearing what author(s) has to say. Not looking at title, niche, blog, reputation or other factors. If you wanna be a trustworthy commenter, be genuine. Genuine commenters are always good commenters. If there is no way to contact blog author, then you have a point there. Else, comment form is for you to generate a valid personal or official response to the content published over there. We tend to believe that the content generated by authors are the valuable piece of information. But, we were misguided. It's not only place where interaction and socialization happens, but also comments are part of the story. Sometimes you can find answers to your questions, useful advice, inspiring stories in comments, not in blog posts.
Your Comments Disapproved
Did any of your comments never made visible on a blog, including mine? Generally, blog authors don't filter out comments if they are offensive to their personal opinions. Anyone can express their opinions in blogsphere as a blogger or commenter. No... It's not your ethnicity, religion, personal attributes or whatever you call it need to be satisfied to get your comment approved. Don't be mad. Let me explain why I don't approve comments on my blog.
Irrelevancy
Isn't it obvious? If your comment has no relevancy to the topic I'm talking about, I'm not gonna approve it. Simple as that. The priority always goes for relevant comments, so anyone has questions related to that topic can make use of comments.
Personally, I have experienced such incidents many times, where readers found answers to their questions, not in my blog post but at comment section as I answered that same question earlier in response to another commenter. See what I meant, relevancy always matters.
Personally, I have experienced such incidents many times, where readers found answers to their questions, not in my blog post but at comment section as I answered that same question earlier in response to another commenter. See what I meant, relevancy always matters.
Leave Links
Oh boy, this is the best reason I tend to disapprove comments. It's not that if I see a link, I'm gonna cut it down. But if your link doesn't support your opinion or helpful to topic I'm referring to, you are endangering your comment. If comment has a validity, I may moderate comment by removing link. But it's not possible in every comment system. So, your comments may never get approved if you leave links.
Don't ever leave your personal or promotional links including hidden links in comments, expecting someone gonna visit you. Even if your comment got approval, people tend to think you are a spammer try to promote something. It's very visual.
Don't ever leave your personal or promotional links including hidden links in comments, expecting someone gonna visit you. Even if your comment got approval, people tend to think you are a spammer try to promote something. It's very visual.
Abusive Words
You have a right to express your opinions, but I'm not tolerating abusive words or personal attacks on my blog. I don't think neither bloggers who would like to maintain quality of their blogs would appreciate abusive words either. If you highly criticize opinions mentioned in a blog, still you can criticize without using abusive words.
No Avatar
Avatar is something to reflect your identity online. I advice you not to use logos or cartoon characters as your personal avatar, if you wanna go out and meet new people online to build long-term relationships. Don't blame yourself. Once I did it too. I didn't know that time. You don't go hangout with friends having a mask on your face. Do you? In another way, using a real picture of yours as avatar helps you to brand yourself online.
On most blog platforms and commenting systems, the service Gravatar is being used to populate your avatar whenever you comment on them. My friend Barry Wells has been discussing about how to set up Gravatar. I never knew about this service in first days of blogging, until I read an article about this. If you haven't done this already, now it's your time.
Different Language
You could be excellent in many different languages. But I always assume, you comment, because you understand what I have shared in my blog post. I do use English on my blog as I believe it could help me reach more people. If you use any other language I can't understand, it's gibberish to me. Long ago, I've got a comment in Vietnamese language expressing gratitude. I was able to translate it and replied in English though. But it's not a good practice and your comment may never get approved assuming you never being through the content.
Too Short
This is a crucial factor. Comments can be too short, such as "Very good", "Nice article", "Thank you". You may think instead of comment nothing, at least you expressed your gratitude or appreciation. I'm with you on this. I used to comment like that back in my first days of blogging and before that and got approved. Someone told me to write long comments? Nope. If I feel you are truly expressing your gratitude or inspired, your comment will be approved.
In my point of view, "Too short" itself not a reason to moderate a comment if you are not engaged in promoting or spamming. But remember, your comments will define you online. As spammers are tricky and love to write "Too short" comments, you will be fall into that category if you keep writing too short comments and same thing over and over which seems like you are not adding any value for the blog with your comment.
Filtered as Spam
It's not a reason for disapproval, but it happen sometimes. A reason not to visible the comment you have made. Your comments may stuck in moderation panel as it flagged as a spam by automated spam filter. Usually bloggers take their time to go through moderation panel and approve comments unpublished in such occasions. If you can contact author, you can just ask about it. If you weren't suppose to spam or promote anything, and your comment was genuine, most possible reason not to visible your comment is it's being waiting for moderation.
Ask Bloggers "Why?"
If you can understand above factors and change your perspectives on commenting, most probably your comment will get approved. But, they are not the only reasons relates to disapproval of comments. Can you think of more? Rather than making assumptions, why don't we ask bloggers, why they actually disapprove comments on their blogs. So, I asked my fellow blogging friends ~ "What are the best 3 reasons for you to disapprove comments on your blog?". You know what, they have different type of reasons too. Now, I will let you go through their responses, as in order I've got 'em. Take time to read them and visit their blogs to see what kind of bloggers they are, 'cause I'm not gonna reveal here. I'm really grateful for my friends on sharing their perspectives with me.
Vanita Cyril
● If the commented was insulting to myself, anyone mentioned or anyone who commented.
● If the comment was a shallow attempt at a backlink
● If the person's comment had nothing to do with the post but was just an attempt to attract attention to themselves
Lisa Buben
● If they look spammer
● If I have never seen them before on the web
● If they are totally unrelated to the topic
Harleena Singh
● If they are spammy links, which you can make out because the comment makes no sense and they look so automated.
● If the person leaving the comment has left a link to a site where his or her name doesn't exist - like some company name or when they are trying to sell some product or affiliate site and link. As a rule I approve only those comments where links are given to people who have their own blogs or sites - where their names are clearly mentioned.
● When they don't have a Gravatar - here I don't disapprove the link - I approve the link if it makes sense, but I remove all the links from such people and email them as to why I did what I did. Still if they don't follow, they keep commenting and I approve their comments without any links. Some known people also don't have Gravatars, so can't make a rule to not approve their comments - can I?
● Another reason is when the comments are just 2-3 words - they are totally deleted. But I don't get such comments any longer. I guess people see the looooong comments, wonderful bloggers like you leave, and the loooong replies I give and run off.
Jan Bierens
● When it gets picked up by my comment spam filter.
● When it has commercial links in them.
● When I feel it does not really contribute to the topic.
● When it's offensive.
Sylviane Nuccio
● They are obvious spam, full of links and no avatar.
● They are totally NOT relevant with the post.
● They are very short and just obvious "want to get backlinks" type of comment that bring nothing to the discussion.
Vidya Sury
● I generally don't disapprove comments - except when they are by Anonymous and include a totally irrelevant link. In fact, of late I have been getting of anonymous comments, including links to cigarettes and other crazy websites.
Lynn Brown
● Self promotion - when someone just wants to 'sell their stuff', so they will leave a 'good post' but then the rest of the comment is about their product with a link.
● Commenter provides link to unrelated site or topic and you can tell they are just spammers.
● I will not approve a lot of my trackbacks because they go to topics that are unrelated. But if the link relates to the topic or my site, I will approve those.
Donna Merrill
● No Gravatar - Unless I know the person well and know that they are changing things. It is imperative that we have a picture of ourselves, otherwise it could be just anything.
● A comment that shows me that the person didn't read the blog like "good job" or something that is not congruent with the post. That could be a sign that my spam didn't catch it or the person is just out for themselves.
● Since Google put into motion their bots to check backlinks, I don't like to accept a comment that goes to a sales page
Barry Wells
● Links lead to spammy looking site, with hardly any comments or posts on.
● Comment could relate to any post on any site. i.e: Learnt from your post thanks or great blog i'll be back... that kind of stuff.
● Self promoting comments that include links to sales pages, squeeze pages etc. If comment is ok but contains links I remove links and tell person off in my reply (unless I've asked for links to be included).
Adrienne Smith
● They are only commenting for backlinks.
● The comment left has nothing to do with the blog post.
● They're linking to their company’s product.
Brenda Lee
● Spammy
● Commenting just to leave a link to their own blog.
● If it is too rude or obnoxious and I feel it may offend my readers.
I Believe
Hopefully, now you have a good understanding about commenting, especially after reading through different opinions of my blogging friends. This is an attempt to guide commenters who has no idea why their comments being disapproved, including spammers. I don't care if you were a spammer or doing it wrong earlier. From now on keep the idea of commenting in your mind and interact well in blogs you comment. Be genuine. Do it right. No commenting rule will be on your way.
If you are a commenter, let me know what you weren't aware of when you commenting. If you are a blogger, let me know what other commenting rules you have imposed on your blog. If you can relate to both of them... What are you waiting for? Scroll the page and you can find the comment form below ;)
