Originally Posted by peteuniverse

Hey guys,

I wanted to ask if you could think why ALL of the replies i get on my blog are SPAM! not even one constructive reply or comment...
I know i can block comments but i actually want visitors to be able to interact and express themselves.

Cheers!
Pete

But if all of your visitors are spammers! So what you can interact with them?

Originally Posted by denysaputra

But if all of your visitors are spammers! So what you can interact with them?

How can you "interact" with spammers??

They are only there to drop links, and have no interest in what is being discussed.
Most of them are posting bots or cheap labour "drones" doing "data entry work" usually from "airtelbroadband.in" IPs.

Really big amount of such replies are spam. It is seen even if you are not a blogger yourself. It is reasonable to set some premoderation for blogs, I suppose.

Originally Posted by chrishirst

How can you "interact" with spammers??

They are only there to drop links, and have no interest in what is being discussed.
Most of them are posting bots or cheap labour "drones" doing "data entry work" usually from "airtelbroadband.in" IPs.

Yupps thanks. Then, whether the resulting link is still counted by the search engines? And is it helps for that sites?

Originally Posted by denysaputra

Yupps thanks. Then, whether the resulting link is still counted by the search engines? And is it helps for that sites?

Link drops get deleted on any forum, so you know what that means.

Comments are great to build a community.

Install the Akismet widget, get the key. It is very good, and gets its information about the most recent crop of spammers from highly visible sites (who are always the first targets for comment slime/spam).

Originally Posted by chrishirst

How can you "interact" with spammers??

They are only there to drop links, and have no interest in what is being discussed.
Most of them are posting bots or cheap labour "drones" doing "data entry work" usually from "airtelbroadband.in" IPs.

I hear what you say..
Thing is, some of the issues i discuss in my blog and the short clips I link to are intended to spark awarness and disscussions, not only express my mind (some links are pure 'fun')
I started blogging with the intention to meet people and share ideas, i really don't want to give up on that..

btw, this thread is proof for the existence of some decent people and their will to interact and contribute! now i need to find a way to get people like y'all in to my blog

Cheers!

btw, this thread is proof for the existence of some decent people and their will to interact and contribute! now i need to find a way to get people like y'all in to my blog

There are but 'blogs' are not the place for true public discussion, a blog is merely one persons view of the world or the topic.

Forums are the meeting places for discussion, as they have been for centuries. With a blog YOU are in control of who is allowed to "speak" and who is allowed to join the discussion.
Blogs are by their nature an autocracy (controlled by a ruler), forums when run properly, are democracies (run by the people, for the people)

very interesting! never thought about it this way.

I guess under this notion i am trying to run a 'forum' with a 'blog's' layout

Originally Posted by peteuniverse

very interesting! never thought about it this way.

I guess under this notion i am trying to run a 'forum' with a 'blog's' layout

Which is likely to be unsuccessful, simply because of people's perception.

The very word "comment" does not mean "discussion" or "dialogue" , it means "say what you think, and leave it at that" it

Originally Posted by chrishirst

There are but 'blogs' are not the place for true public discussion, a blog is merely one persons view of the world or the topic.

Forums are the meeting places for discussion, as they have been for centuries. With a blog YOU are in control of who is allowed to "speak" and who is allowed to join the discussion.
Blogs are by their nature an autocracy (controlled by a ruler), forums when run properly, are democracies (run by the people, for the people)

There are blogs that have shaped a great community, and there are lively discussions.

Go to aphotoeditor.com, a very popular blog for professional photographers. He has the spam magnificently under control. Never saw a single spam post there.

That blog is more edited, not "ruled" by its owner. He also gets invited to speak at photographer's events and conventions.

A good blog is like a magazine, written by one person. A bad blog are just asides by one person that is of very limited interest.

A good blog has more interaction than a magazine. Not only can the readers write to the editor. They can also discuss among themselves.

Sure there are exceptions to every rule and you will probably find that those "blogs" are being managed and run as an "online magazine" because that's the expertise of the author. The comments take the place of "letters to the editor" pages.

Not all "blogs" are run as "blogs" some simply use the blog software as a publishing tool

Blogging tools simply arrange things in chronological/categorical order and as such lead themselve to be used a "magazine" style publishing tool.

Forum software keeps "threaded" discussions together, and as such encourages discussions.

How you structure the site pages and the page layout will be a contributing factor to building discussions.

But If you want a "blog" to be a discussion forum why not use the software that makes it easy to discuss the topic?

A blog is about the specific world of the blog author, and all those who join in with comments take part in this particular world.

When I go to David Airey's design blog I'm not interested in taking part in the discussion in the same way as David Airey does. He's a designer, I'm not. I also wouldn't want others to have the same weight as David Airey.

I go to Airey's blog because I'm interested in his personal and professional views and because I appreciate his taste and knowledge.

Blogs are about individuals, and it gives you a great chance to connect to those worlds.

Originally Posted by chrishirst

... the only people likely to comment are the clueless link dropping clowns who think it is "SEO"!

Not 100% true (as Pete will find when he next goes to moderate his comments!)

Originally Posted by C0ldf1re

Not 100% true (as Pete will find when he next goes to moderate his comments!)

I have to agree with you on that one......

One of my blogs gets around 3-4 hundred comments a day.....
Many are indeed spam......
But some are very legitimate...from real sites.....

Originally Posted by C0ldf1re

Not 100% true (as Pete will find when he next goes to moderate his comments!)

Yiiiiiihaaaaa! nice one! thanks for dropping by