Your Blog Is Like a Party: Do You Invite Everyone In?
If you care about your readers, you probably want to build your community in such a way that the most loyal ones develop a feeling of belonging, of pride that they are all members of the same group, that each time they arrive to your blog, they can exchange comments and start conversations, like they knew each other since centuries. Your blog can be like a party, with you, the host, being the connection between all guests. However, it is your blog, so it’s up to you who’s invited to the party and who’s not.
How can you make a selection? An option would be to allow only subscribed members to post comments. Or, like in the case of Lifehacker, in order to be allowed to post comments, you have to register and send one first comment. If the moderators like your comment, you’re in. Even so, posts on Lifehacker usually have a lot of comments, and you are not even allowed to put a link in your signature.
Community Appreciation Poll
I’m challenging you now to look at this from a reader’s angle:
- Do you feel that you are more appreciated, or more valuable if you are part of a community which has an entry barrier (be it only a simple, free registration)?
- Given the fact that you are lazy (who isn’t at least a little bit?), which would be the “stimulents” that would make you subscribe to a blog, in order to be able to leave comments there?
Thank you for giving us your thoughts in this matter.
L3ST says...
First question - Not really, I usually read my feeds in the reader, don’t even bother to open the blog and comment if the article is worth it. And if were to register to every blog I read ( about 150 ) it would take me ages just to confirm my account.
Second question - I guess if the blog is really and I mean REALLY good and I’m interested in all the posts I would register just that leave some thoughts in the comments. - I couldn’t find one yet.
( on my blog I don’t even allow register subscribers, I’m a little paranoic when it comes to blog security. )
Simonne says...
L3ST, thank you for your comment. When you find your REALLY good blog, please spread the word, so we can check it out, too.
Patrick Lee says...
It’s hard enough to attract comments with zero barrier to posting. Why would I want to raise a barrier?
Ronald Huereca says...
Patrick,
I guess some blogs are fortunate where they can be choosy about who comments, such as Lifehacker above. For the majority of blogs, I have to say that raising the barrier that you mentioned is rather unwise.
Bes says...
A very nice questions.
I would feel less appreciated, even if only a very marginal scale, because my value is being determined not by my efforts and goal [my content and its value], but by a random, irrelevant thing [ability to register].
By “subscribe”, do you mean register in an e-mail list, creating a free account, subscribing to RSS feeds or something else?
Simonne says...
Thank you for your comments. Bes, I meant creating a free account on that blog.
Sue @ TameBay says...
Personally I cannot stand being made to register in order to comment. I would never do that to my readers: I’d rather delete or edit the rare comment that’s unacceptable than make it difficult for the vast majority of people, whose contributions I value beyond measure.
Simonne says...
Thank you, Sue. Indeed, very few comments require deletion, so why stress a lot of readers when you can fix the problem in a couple of minutes?