{"id":615,"date":"2008-01-05T13:34:00","date_gmt":"2008-01-05T18:34:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blacknell.net\/dynamic\/2008\/01\/05\/on-commenting\/"},"modified":"2008-01-05T13:34:00","modified_gmt":"2008-01-05T18:34:00","slug":"on-commenting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blacknell.net\/dynamic\/2008\/01\/05\/on-commenting\/","title":{"rendered":"On Commenting"},"content":{"rendered":"

I discovered a new dimension to my recent frustration with Google<\/a>, today.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 In addition to being arbitrarily locked out of web mail, site stats, and browser syncing, I’m no longer able to comment on blogs that only permit comments from registered Blogger users.\u00c2\u00a0 Like the other items, however, this is more of an inconvenience than a real loss, as I generally don’t participate on sites that require registration to comment. \u00c2\u00a0 However, I tried to offer something substantive and useful (an exception, I know) on another site concerning the FCC’s approach to the multiple ownership rules, only to discover that it wouldn’t post because, well, Google hates me (temporarily, I hope).\u00c2\u00a0 That’s a real shame, I think.<\/p>\n

Registration for comments is cumbersome and time consuming, and it provides yet another vector through which an email address can be lost to the aggressions of spam lists.\u00c2\u00a0 I suspect that the proprietors of most sites with registration requirements don’t realize that they’re closing the doors to many would-be commenters.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 Further, to the extent that registration requirements are imposed to prevent spam or ban certain people, those can be efficiently handled on the back-end without too much work (ask anyone who uses Akismet, for example).<\/p>\n

So what do I like?\u00c2\u00a0 Open comments that permit a user to pick her own name, attach a URL (if desired), and aren’t moderated by default.\u00c2\u00a0 An option to be notified of future comments on that thread is gravy (which I recently added here, by the way).\u00c2\u00a0 This can be one of many identity options in a commenting system including Blogger, OpenID, etc., but it should always<\/em> be an option.<\/p>\n

Who does it right?\u00c2\u00a0 Well, most anyone with an open commenting system.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s easy to participate at any<\/a> of<\/a> these<\/a> places, because they’ve chosen to offer simple and open commenting.\u00c2\u00a0 A good example of a hybrid system is over at the Freewheeling Spirit<\/a>, where not only do you have the option of simply using your own chosen ID and url, but you can pick from a plethora of existing ID systems that you probably already use (e.g., OpenID, Blogger, Typepad, etc.).\u00c2\u00a0 And, for gravy, you can simply pick “anonymous.”\u00c2\u00a0 I’ve not asked, but I suspect it wasn’t all that hard to set up.<\/p>\n

Who does it wrong?\u00c2\u00a0 Lazy sites that restrict comments to registered Blogger users.\u00c2\u00a0 Sites based on SoapBlox or similar infrastructure that require far too many hoops to jump through to leave a simple comment.*\u00c2\u00a0 Sites that show a commenting option, but then say “Comments restricted to team members only” when you try to post (and, of course, there are no team members). \u00c2\u00a0 Sites run by such control freaks that each and every comment must be approved before posting, making it impossible to carry on any sort of conversation there.<\/p>\n

That’s enough meta for now.\u00c2\u00a0 I just ask that, if you run a site where you welcome conversation, please take a look at your commenting process.\u00c2\u00a0 A few easy tweaks here and there could improve the conversation for everyone.\u00c2\u00a0 Thanks.<\/p>\n

*Big community sites (such as DailyKos or RaisingKaine) are another matter entirely.\u00c2\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I discovered a new dimension to my recent frustration with Google, today.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 In addition to being arbitrarily locked out of web mail, site stats, and browser syncing, I’m no longer able to comment on blogs that only permit comments from registered Blogger users.\u00c2\u00a0 Like the other items, however, this is more of an inconvenience than […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"activitypub_content_warning":"","activitypub_content_visibility":"","activitypub_max_image_attachments":4,"activitypub_interaction_policy_quote":"anyone","activitypub_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7,2,14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-615","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-content-distribution","category-personal","category-tech"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blacknell.net\/dynamic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/615","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blacknell.net\/dynamic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blacknell.net\/dynamic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blacknell.net\/dynamic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blacknell.net\/dynamic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=615"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blacknell.net\/dynamic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/615\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blacknell.net\/dynamic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=615"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blacknell.net\/dynamic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=615"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blacknell.net\/dynamic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=615"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}