A post about commentating
There has been a few posts about commentating in the last week from myself and from blogs I subscribe to so I thought it would be best to address all of these in the one post 
On July 31st I announced that the top commentators list was being removed from Blogging Tips. I made this decision as I noticed that every month since I installed the plugin there has been one or two bloggers who have turbo commentated their way to the top of the list and have not returned to the blog afterwards.
Top commentators list removed from Blogging Tips - The Reaction
I suspected the reaction to this decision to be negative however I was both surprised and pleased with the support I got from regular Blogging Tips readers. The majority of commentators said that they understood why I chose to remove the list.
Tech Zilo was not too pleased though. He said
I am disappointed at your removing the top commentators list.
Should you really punish us, regular commentors, just for the sake of keeping those spammers away?
I do try and reward and help out those who comment here regularly but I truly believe that there are many better ways to do this than using a top commentator list. For example, this month I am giving away $100 each to the top 2 replies in my blogger vs wordpress.com debate. Not only does this reward commentators, it encourages them to take more time when they are replying to a blog post.
The Top Commentator List - Pros & Cons
Cash Quests wrote a post a few days ago entitled ‘How To Comment As A Top Blogger‘. The post referred to my post announcing the removal of the top list from Blogging Tips :-
The same people that just a few months ago were raving about “rewarding commentators” and “giving back the community” are now turning off their ‘Top Commentators’ plugin, removing DoFollow and considering disallowing signatures in comments. Why? Because the people that are being rewarded are the ones that are writing the spammy, useless comments on the blogs! I definitely sense that the positive mood towards commentators has changed in just the last few months!
I have encouraged bloggers in the past to add a top commentator list to both encourage comments and to reward those who contribute to their blog often. My opinion on this has changed slightly. I am now of the opinion that a top commentator list is a worthwhile addition to a new blog to encourage comments however popular blogs may unfortunately suffer from the same problem I did eg. bloggers who are only commentating so that they can get their blog listed on your top list.
I disagree that the only ones being rewarded are the ones which are leaving spammy comments though. For some blogs this may be the case however with Blogging Tips it was just a few bad apples who were spoiling it for everyone else, the majority of those who reached the top 5 commentator list here were leaving good comments. Infact I’m on the top commentator list for 1 or 2 blogs myself and I have never commentated just so that I can reach the top list of a blog (for example at Brian Heys blog).
The fact is, a few people can ruin it for everyone else and consequently give you a moderation headache. What is your opinion on top commentator lists on blogs?
Bloggers pretending to be someone else
In the last week both Tyler Cruz and John Chow have unfortunately had some childish bloggers with too much time on their hands pretend to be them on various blogs by leaving comments designed to make them look bad. This is something that a lot of popular bloggers have had to deal with and I’m sure it’s very frustrating.
Unfortunately, I believe the options available for a blogger which is on the receiving end of this are limited. John Chow mentioned at the end of his post that he would hate to require people to register before they can comment. I don’t believe that this is even an option. It’s very doubtful anyone pretending to be you is going to leave a fake comment on your blog as you can simply delete their comment or mark it as spam. The problem lies with them being able to leave comments on other blogs using your name.
If your blog has suffered from fake comments though, requiring commentators to register is definately something you could do ie. if BloggingTips was getting fake comments from bloggers I could require commentators to register so that it could not occur at Blogging Tips.
Requiring commentators to login to comment will definately lower the number of comments your blog gets though.
So what can you do if someone is pretending to be you on other blogs? The first thing you should do if you see someone else leaving a fake comment to make you look bad is contact the owner of the blog. Explain that the comments left were not left by you and ask if the comments can be deleted. If the post has caused you to get a lot of heat then it’s worth posting about the situation on your blog and explaining that there are people posting comments and claiming to be you.
If you are extremely unfortunate and you have someone leaving comments on other blogs on a regular basis then taking a ‘no comment’ stance may save you a lot of time and energy ie. you would only give your opinion on something on your own blog and would publicly state this.
Has anyone ever pretended to be you on another blog? If so, I would love to hear how you handled the situation
Glen Allsopp | August 6th, 2007 at 5:38 am #
This is a huge subject at the moment but I dont think any less of you or this site if my links are no-follow and i dont get credit for commenting, I come here to give some feedback and hopefully make some friends in the process
Good summary of events
TechZilo | August 6th, 2007 at 5:39 am #
My real name is Sumesh, so if you dont mind…..change the name please
My concerns seem to be alone.
But the fact remains - there are only so many people you can link out to - commentators plugin is a better idea. Maybe others are looking at it from a blogger’s perspective. But we’re readers here, so I cant think differently.
There are some alternatives - I’ll get back to you in a day or two.
Kevin | August 6th, 2007 at 7:14 am #
Sumesh - I agree, there is only so many people I can link to. I think you are implying that I need to make sure I link to everyone who comments. A blog which solely caters to rewarding commentators is failed to doom in my opinion.
The way I see it, the best commentators will be rewarded with links back to them as I frequently post about issues brought up in the comments area on Blogging Tips ie. if you make a good comment or bring up a good point you will get a link back through my post which addresses the question.
You mention that everyone else is looking at it from a bloggers perspective. Thats how I hope everyone does see it, Blogging Tips is targeted solely towards bloggers
Rhys | August 6th, 2007 at 8:27 am #
I have no problems with top commenters, as usually the spammy ones are my regular readers.
I think the benefit of being on such a list is negligable for the commenter, but beneficial for yourself.
Look at it this way. If you display it proudly, and somebody chooses to comment 20 or so times, you’re not going to put people off commenting (maybe the spammers), but instead you may get people thinking “Bloody hell! He’s popular, I want to read what he writes!”
I’ve been on the top list at John Chow, and I doubt I got one person visiting my blog.
cooliojones | August 6th, 2007 at 9:37 am #
Well I too have been on the top list for John Chow and others, and I do get people coming over to Da Hustle to see what it’s all about, so I’m surprised to hear that from you Rhys! I see some people jumping to the top of some lists in record time, and sometimes they surprise me by leaving relevant comments. I just hate the one liners and the people who use mistakes to leave a extra comment to clarify repetitively.
The biggest tip to not be seen as a fly-by-night Top Commentator wanna be is to just peek your head in every couple of days and add something to the topic.
Adnan | August 6th, 2007 at 9:39 am #
Great post Kevin. I definitely agree with you in some respects. Since I installed the top commentators, I’ve definitely noticed a sharp increase in people leaving comments left, right and centre. Most of the time these are 1 liners which don’t add that much to the conversation - but at the same time, they are comments none the less.
Unless the comment is an obvious peace of SPAM, or as you suggested if someone was imitating another blogger, I wouldn’t hesitate to delete it - but if someone genuinely hits me up with a “Nice post” type of comment, I leave them on.
But, it’s each to their own, and I’m glad you’ve put your foot down on all those trying to game the system.
pablopabla | August 6th, 2007 at 10:02 pm #
Somebody tried to pretend to be me by using my nickname to post an inflammatory comment in one of my buddy’s blog. My blog buddy alerted me to it and I posted a notice in the comment section saying that anyone who is caught posing as me would be liable to a potential legal action for defamation. It stopped there and then.
Rich Minx | August 6th, 2007 at 10:04 pm #
I am not famous enough yet to have people pretending to be me
I think you did the right thing by removing Top Commentators if people were exploiting it. Bloggers have the right to change their opinion on a plugin over time if things don’t work out. You still have Recent Comments and MyBlogLog, which is what I use too. And you have a forum so people can participate in that as well.
Gary | August 9th, 2007 at 10:35 am #
The answer is to reinstall the top commenters plugin with an extra line of SQL that makes the top comments work on a rolling 1 day basis. Or 5 days, or 30 days, or whatever…
In other words, comments older than the “timeout” will not count towards the post count. Hence the commenters list is being updated in almost real-time.