'Net Features : commenting

Threaded Comments (and more) at Blogger

Pete Prestipino — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 01:00:00 GMT

Google’s Blogger platform announced recently that it is now offering threaded comments.

While other popular blogging platforms (most that I've come across recently in fact) already have threaded commenting as a core feature - or at least offer plugins to support it - it's a neccessary addition with such a heavy emphasis on social these days.

Threaded commenting, for those unfamiliar, makes it easy for users, and the blog owner themselves, to tell the difference between whether a reader is making a general comment about the post content iteself or if they are replying to another comment in the comment thread. Threaded comments are a great way to let users socialize amongst themselves and discuss the content. For many weblog owners it has done wonders in the "community building" department.

Google has actually made several enhancements to Blogger over the past few months including improvements to Adsense, custom domains and of course integration with the Google+ platform. In early December, Blogger made it possible for users to link a blog to their Google+ account and access a prefilled Google+ share box after publishing a post.

Make Photos Interactive on Your Website

Mike Phillips — Mon, 27 Sep 2010 18:20:00 GMT

We all want our website visitors to spend more time on the site and interact with our content. Photographs are a good way to keep people interested in your content but, traditionally, have not offered much in the way of interaction. Phlook has a solution.

By uploading your photo to Phlook, you then get an embeddable piece of code. This is then entered into your content and the photo appears with several interactive options - such as the ability to leave a note, vote on a photograph, zoom functions and photos can be e-mailed to others.

While this might not be for every website, for some, it could prove to be a good way to keep people engaged and give them a reason to come back often. After all, people like the opportunity to have their voices heard and they will often check to see if their comments have resulted in any discussion on the site. This might also be an interesting way to gather feedback about new products or even website designs. Think of it as a way to build community with your photographs and to give people the opportunity to "have their say" about the content on your website.

See a Phlook demo here.

Stipple is another, related service. Here, users can tag photos anywhere on the Web, including using their Facebook accounts, via a mouseover. And beyond people, items within the photo can be tagged. Not only can items be tagged, but particular items within the photo can actually be purchased by users, directly from the photo. The publisher can then earn a portion of the revenue or earn per click, depending on the set revenue model.

Multiply Blog Comments with BackType for Wordpress

Mike Phillips — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 14:28:00 GMT

As a general rule, the more comments a blog post has, the more authoritative it appears to be. And that does good things for your brand and overall traffic numbers.

The BackType Wordpress plugin has the potential to take commenting to a whole new level on your blog. In short, BackType will pull the conversation about an individual blog post from multiple sources on the Web and publish them in the post's comments section. You set up the sites from which you want to import comments and BackType does the rest. Current supported sites include Twitter, FriendFeed, Digg, Reddit, Hacker News, and comments from other blogs that link to your post.

Ultimately, the BackType plugin's value will be determined by relevence. If comments are not 100% on topic, you stand the chance of having an irrelevant comment section, and even the appearance of spam.

However, if it works correctly, there could be some major benefits. Immediately, you are getting fresh content on a continuous basis. And that means the search engines will likely index your page more often. The post also stands to generate even more insightful comments from regular site visitors, in a kind of watershed effect. More comments also means more page views. Users want to view the conversation sparked by their comments, and will come back to see follow up comments and to make more comments. It also increases your page's time-on-site; the more comments, the more people read. Finally, a widely-read post with multiple comments has a way of getting linked to from other sources - SEO gold, and possibly starting another round of commenting, so the cycle starts all over again.

Commenter Anonymity

Pete Prestipino — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 17:37:00 GMT

A ruling Friday by the Maryland Court of Appeals reversed a lower-court decision and said NewsZap.com, an online forum run by Independent Newspapers Inc., does not have to disclose the identities of participants in a 2006 online exchange about the cleanliness of a Dunkin' Donuts shop in Centreville, Md.

Now that the courts have ruled in favor of Internet anonymity (at least partially and perhaps only for now), websites involved in defamation suits will not have to reveal the identity of readers who post comments on their sites. Instead, those that think they are being maligned actually will have to convince the anonymous poster to share their information, because the courts will not.

I'm not sure how far anonymous commenting might extend to other issues like safety or threats, but it's clear that disclosing the identities of people who choose to remain anonymous while actively commenting at your site would have a negative effect in building community. So this is good news for all Web professionals!