Comments on: Blogging Pro Not Afraid to Delete Comments

By: diannejacob

diannejacob — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 02:52:36 +0000

You get the last one, Patricia. I’m closing the comments now because we are going round and round.

As for editing, well, you’re talking to the wrong person. I’ve been an editor since my summer job in journalism school in 1975, and I fix typos, spelling mistakes and grammar. It’s the right thing to do for the writer and reader, from my perspective. I make the writer look better, and I keep the reader from being annoyed.

And here’s my last word for the end of this post: I deleted a comment. It did not add value, and it was mean-spirited. So there.

By: diannejacob

diannejacob — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 02:37:55 +0000

Hilarious. Thanks for injecting some humor!

By: MyLastBite

MyLastBite — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 02:35:57 +0000

Looks Delicious

(kidding!)

By: Patricia Eddy

Patricia Eddy — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 02:34:07 +0000

I have to agree with kitchenMage. I don’t delete comments unless they are attacking. If someone wants to say that my recipe didn’t work for them, that’s just fine. As long as they do it in a civil manner, I let it in (this has happened twice in my blogging history and in one case I was able to help the commenter figure out why their attempt failed and in another instance I was able to see where something I wrote wasn’t clear). If all someone wants to say is YUM, that’s great. I’m happy to know that something worked for them or that something looked good. It helps me know what my readers want and what sort of recipes are successes.

I enforce no-follow tags on links in comments. I never edit. I want all readers to feel welcome and feel that they can say what they want on my blog. I get at least 10-15 comments a week at this point, which I realize isn’t huge, but I think that part of the reason I get this many comments is because I respond to the majority of them and I publish everything.

I’m all for having a commenting policy and I’m all for the thought that we can all choose how to run our own blogs. The one thing I’m not for is editing comments. I’m afraid I just don’t understand that one. First of all, why spend the time? Second of all, unless you are disclosing in your commenting policy that you may edit someone’s comment, that just seems wrong. I would love to know her reason for editing for grammar and spelling.

By: diannejacob

diannejacob — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 02:17:24 +0000

For some bloggers, it’s about having a professional product. I fix typos and mis-spellings. I think they reflect on me and my product.

In journalism school I learned to focused on the reader and what the reader wants. Certainly the reader doesn’t want to read 50 boring letters, or 30 that say the same thing. So the newspaper or magazine editor decides which have merit. I guess if you don’t think much about the reader experience, you’d leave them all. There are sites with 100-200 comments that say mostly the same thing, and I get bored quickly and leave.

I guess it’s all about balance, for me. On the other hand, I don’t want to hurt people’s feelings, and I like the fact that people take time to write. Ex. we’re kind of going over the same territory now, but I’m leaving the comments rather than delete them!

By: diannejacob

diannejacob — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 02:03:39 +0000

We’re having a healthy discussion about it right here! There are no discussions like this on her recipe blog, and that’s her right. And might I say, with over 100,000 hits per day, her strategy is working pretty well for her.

By: Jeanne

Jeanne — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 01:57:15 +0000

I think I’m not totally clear on why plain ol’ “that looks delicious”-type comments aren’t good enough. It’s not spam. It’s not selling anything. It’s just saying, “I was here and I like what I saw.” I can see that if you’re getting 100,000 comments a day it might take up too much bandwidth or something. But 30 seems manageable. And deleting them seems kind of degrading–like simply being nice isn’t up to snuff.

I’ve seen other popular bloggers comment on the fact that they don’t like the “looks delicious” comments and I can’t for the life of me think why that would be a bad or annoying thing.

I will admit that I am uneasy with the concept of editing other people’s comments for grammar and spelling. Why do that? If they make mistakes in these areas, it’s a reflection on commenter, not on the blogger.

But, then again, I get very few comments on my site. So, I am thrilled when someone takes the time to comment–even if it’s a “that looks delicious” comment.

By: kitchenMage

kitchenMage — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 01:50:58 +0000

Don’t you think this sort of post circumvents people deciding for themselves how to run their blog? Like if a ‘big A-lister’ does it, they will too? I think you underrate the effect of the perceived voice of authority.

I’m also curious about the real lines for censoring and (worse) rewriting comments. As I mentioned, clearly “looks delicious” type comments get through, so how does she decide WHOSE “looks delicious” is worthy v. not? Is it friends, bloggers who are “big” enough, what?

I guess my point is: disagreement is healthy. Why not let it happen?

By: Kristina

Kristina — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 01:37:51 +0000

Actually, if they were from different people, I WOULD leave them.
I want people to return to my blog, and if I don’t post people’s comments because they are a little banal, then why would they? THAT’s one of the differences between my blog and a newspaper; I have no expectation that every letter to the editor gets published, but I do expect comments I leave to be posted as long as they are polite.

By: diannejacob

diannejacob — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 01:36:10 +0000

Okay, that’s what makes the world go ’round, that we are each entitled to our own idea of how to run our blogs.