I've been reading stuff around the blogosphere recently that has caused me to pause and reflect. I interpret it as whining and since I'm a huge whiner myself, I should be considered an expert whiner spotter.
Anyway, what I've been hearing is that people don't like the word verification deal on blog comments. Again, my interpretation: they're too lazy to squint, do their damndest to make out what the jumbled letters are, and then type them into the box. Oops. You mistook the "q" for an "a" and now you have a whole new "word" to squint at again. Whine, whine. So, as an experiment, I'm disabling the word verification on comments. But just so's ya know, the first spam comment I get, I'm putting it back on.
Secondly, people have been whining about bloggers that only show the shortened version of their posts in a reader. Well, if you're gonna comment, you have to go to the blog anyway. Am I wrong? But I’m flexible so I’ll experiment with this one too and turn on the "full" option there too. Honestly, I had to check to see which one I had turned on in the first place. Makes no difference to me.
Another complaint is bloggers that don't allow anonymous comments. Who doesn't have at least one Google, WordPress, AOL, Live Journal, or TypePad account so that you can leave a comment using one of these ID's but still reads blogs regularly? I'm sorry. I won't compromise on this one. Anonymous users tend to use their anonymity to spread nastiness and I don’t like it.
Lastly, comment windows: Pop up window or full screen? This one seems to pretty much be a toss up with everyone so I’m leaving this the same too.
Am I accommodating or what? I don’t get why people think I’m so mean, heheh.
The thing about partial feeds is that so many people with a partial feed don't make sure that the part you get in your reader is INTERESTING. If you're interesting, I'll click through to comment, but you have to get it right in the first few sentences. I have hundreds of subscriptions, I don't have time to click over for something that is ultimately boring. It might be the best post EVER, but if that isn't reflected in the first few sentences, I'm not going to ever know. Full feeds have much more of a chance to say something I want to click over to comment on.
ReplyDeleteI admit to whining sometimes (in private) about the word verification, but when I've tried it without, I wasn't pleased with the result: spam. I do hope you have better luck without it. I figure it's a necessary evil.
ReplyDeleteI can't say I have any complaints about partial feeds. I prefer to go to the blog to read the posts anyway--even though I first come across them on google reader, although sometimes when I am short on time, I will skip over a partial post and move on to the full ones until I have more time.
I haven't heard anyone complain about the Blogger comment format (pop up or full page--although I have gotten three complaints about my new comment format). I find it more convenient when it's a pop up box because then I can refer quickly to the blog post while I am responding, but on some blogs, the pop up boxes aren't centered right and no matter what I do, I can't get it centered and so I cannot see all of what I am typing.
I recently discovered though that I can select "show original post" on Blogger and the post will appear. That takes away the problem of having to flip back and forth between post and comment page.
I don't think I would ever complain to the blogger if I wasn't thrilled with any of these aspects though. It's that person's blog and I'll make do with whatever I am given. These matter so little when it comes right down to it. I'm more interested in content.
You are right about the the word verif, sometimes I squint and squnit and still can not get the letters right. And you are SO RIGHT about the anonymous comments, the only rude and nasty comment I have recieved was from an "anonymous" person and since you can track comments.........we know who it was. Like you said he was just trying to spread his nastiness because he thought he could. Good that we have a delete key.
ReplyDeleteI am one who hates partial feed. If you aren't selling ads on your blog, you are much better off to allow full feed if you want people to actually read your blog. I probably click through to the full post 1 out of 10 times on blogs that only allow partial feed.
ReplyDeleteI don't like word verification, but on blogger it's ok, it's the blogs where you enter it like six times and still don't get it and lose your comments, etc. I don't get much spam on blogger.
Lisa~~I see your point with subscribing to so many feeds.
ReplyDeleteLF~~That's my thinking on the word verification but so far, so good.
Also, I would never complain to a blogger either. I hadn't gotten any complaints, but I figured I would go ahead and make the changes and see what happens.
Arlene~~Yup. I'm totally adamant about the anonymous comments.
Amy~~I've had that happen to me on blogger blogs. While it was pretty annoying, it didn't stop me from leaving a comment. I don't like word verification myself, but I don't like spam comments either.
Word verification I don't mind. I have gotten a few spams even with them on though. I am a fan of the shorted reader posts. I work hard on my layouts or headers and whatever, people better come and see them. Also, you can't leave comments from a reader and I love comments. Anonymous comments suck. But I leave them on for the occasional person, but jerk ass comments are deleted and jerkasses are sent bad karma. As for comments, I prefer the style like this over the pop up window myself.
ReplyDeleteJennifer~~I don't think I've gotten spam comments with the word verification on. If I have, I didn't notice.
ReplyDeleteJerkasses definitely deserve bad karma.