Ruminations of an Online Instructor / MD

Comments vs. Junk vs. Spam in Blogs / Day 9 Should We Be Commenting on Blogs?

May 9, 2008 at 8:43 am | In 31 Day Comment Challenge, Blogging, Edublog, Ruminations Blog, comment08 |
Tags: 31 Day Comment Challenge, Blog Comments, comment08, Education Blogging, Education Blogs, spam

When is a message posted in a blog considered a ‘comment’ and when it is ’spam’? This is the task for today’s challenge.

The purpose of the 31 Day Comment Challenge was to “improve our commenting skills and draw more people into blog conversations.”

While this may be happening with this group of educators, it may not be happening with all blogs and all other groups.

Comments vs. Junk vs. Spam

Blog Comments - These are the types of posts a blogger would like to see. Messages that interact, praise, ask for clarification or sharing advice are the types of messages that build community and communication.

Blog Junk - These are the messages that are somewhere between communication and spam. They may be a little more difficult to recognize as a good comment. These may have some related information to the post but are may be more for advertising purposes or generating links to a website. I see this with some of the comments left on my lenses in the Squidoo Community.

Blog Spam or Spam in Blogs - According to Wikipedia Spam in blogs, is to include random comments on the blogs of innocent bystanders, in which spammers take advantage of a site’s ability to allow visitors to post comments that may include links.

Prior Experience with Blog Spammers

Prior to this I have not been the greatest fan of comments. My NICU Parent Support Blog fell prey to some spam bloggers who posted pornographic links (not the best thing for NICU Parents to see). I had to go in and re-publish articles to get rid of the comments.

I learned the hard way to make sure that the comments settings were set to have all comments moderated prior to posting.

Purpose of Commenting

The other part of the challenge was to reflect on the purpose of comments in blogs.

I think that commenting, praising, asking for clarification or sharing advice in a blog comment is great. This type of interaction is the type that helps to build community.

Day 9: Should We Be Commenting on Blogs?

Today’s topic was looking at commenting on or in blogs. The challenge was to answer a question, “Should we be using the commenting capacity to generate conversations between bloggers, or should we be interacting through our blog posts?”

The other part of the challenge was to reflect on the purpose of comments in blogs.

Accomplishments for Day 9

1. Following up on older posts.

2. Responding to comments that I have been getting.

3. Catching up on blog posts. (I am now only a bit behind on the daily posts).

4. Learning more about Comments, Spam and Blogging.

5. Writing and Posting Day 9 comments.

Reflections on Day 9

I think that commenting, praising, asking for clarification or sharing advice in a blog comment is great. This type of interaction is the type that helps to build community.

Another area with posting comments is distinguishing between comments posted with *just* links to other sites, rather than for sharing of information. In this case the comment is left for advertising or for increasing back links, rather than truly sharing information. I am in favor of sharing, but not just advertising.

Revelations: One of my summer goals was to learn more about blogging and the blogging community. I am doing quite a bit of that with this challenge!

Even though I’ve been blogging for more than a year, I have actually posted comments (not spam!) in more blogs this week and a half than I have in any prior month. I have also interacted more with other bloggers this week and a half than in any week prior.

I will be participating next week also in a Mom blog party with a different blog site, so it will be interesting to compare the level of activity with a different group of bloggers.

Image Source Modified from: Magic Marie. Post it. Royalty Free Use.

This blog post is part of The Comment Challenge, comment08.