Marketing Pilgrim - Latest Comments in Testing New Plugin to Reward Top Commentators

Re: Testing New Plugin to Reward Top Commentators

Andy Beal — Tue, 20 Feb 2007 12:11:44 -0000

Ok guys, I think everyone's had their chance to get a few comments using this post. I'm going to close the comments to this post, so it doesn't get ridiculous :-)

Re: Testing New Plugin to Reward Top Commentators

Drew Stauffer — Tue, 20 Feb 2007 12:07:40 -0000

Haha...that was funny about the lottery Andy.

"Itâ€™s all interesting to watch. One strange thing. Iâ€™m starting to get a glimpse of what itâ€™s like to win the lottery. All of a sudden I have all of these friends, and I start question their motives. Iâ€™m sure Iâ€™ll shake it off."

Can I borrow 50,000 links?

Re: Testing New Plugin to Reward Top Commentators

Andy Beal — Tue, 20 Feb 2007 10:57:05 -0000

Thanks Jason. I may consider that, if it gets out of hand.

Re: Testing New Plugin to Reward Top Commentators

Jason — Tue, 20 Feb 2007 10:45:20 -0000

Wow! I can't believe the response you're getting. I woke up this morning and there were 10 more notifications that this thread had been responded to. I think I'm going to respond to this thread 4 times too!

Nah. My link doesn't even show up. There must be another Jason I'm being confused with. Perhaps, if I feel like it, I'll use my full name. But honestly, I'm not too concerned about it.

There is a plugin somewhere that allows users to vote for/against a comment's post. I'm not sure if it is compatible with the mods you have now, but if it were you wouldn't be far off from SEOmoz.

However, something else I'd strongly consider is moving to a "login required to comment" system. It will help you better manage/moderate abusive users and help you build a mailing list of internet marketers who may just be interested in a MP newsletter in the future.

Re: Testing New Plugin to Reward Top Commentators

kelvin newman — Tue, 20 Feb 2007 10:29:54 -0000

I spose if you were against the idea that the leader board would encourage excessive posting, it might be possible to incorporate some kind of scoring system. So a few highly rated comments are more valuable than a ton of rubbish ones.

Re: Testing New Plugin to Reward Top Commentators

Jason Schramm — Tue, 20 Feb 2007 10:25:07 -0000

Since I benefit from this currently I'd say it is a great idea. It does make gaming the system all the more important, because the top commentators link has a lot more juice. But it's better than turning of NoFollow completely. Every since I turned it off for my site a few weeks ago I have had to monitor comments a lot more closely. And then you have the issue of deciding whether a comment should be approved, denied, or approved with links removed. It's a big hassle that could be solved by a plugin that would let people choose whether to remove nofollow for individual comments in the moderation area.

Re: Testing New Plugin to Reward Top Commentators

Andy Beal — Tue, 20 Feb 2007 09:33:11 -0000

All good feedback. I'm not going to insist on a URL for anyone commenting - Rhea is a good example of who that would penalize.

While I agree that a single commentator could provide great value with just one comment, they would be out numbered by all the "drive by" comments from people just hoping to get a backlink.

If someone leaves a really valuable comment, I try to add it to the actual post, with a full link credit.

It's all interesting to watch. One strange thing. I'm starting to get a glimpse of what it's like to win the lottery. All of a sudden I have all of these friends, and I start question their motives. I'm sure I'll shake it off. :-)

Re: Testing New Plugin to Reward Top Commentators

Maki — Tue, 20 Feb 2007 09:25:55 -0000

I've been getting a lot of updates since I subscribed to the comments for this post. Looks like it's working! :)

Anyway, I thought about it and agree with Andy Beard that NoFollow might be better instead of Top Commenters.

Why? Everyone gets a benefit not just the zealous commenters. Someone might write an excellent comment that sheds tremendous light on an issue but write much less or nothing on other posts.

You know, the usually silent but very deadly type of commenter?

Of course, if you choose to run both No Follow and Top Commenters..you'll have the best damn blog in the world. :)

Re: Testing New Plugin to Reward Top Commentators

Simon Heseltine — Tue, 20 Feb 2007 09:19:46 -0000

Agreed, heck the winner of the mybloglog iPod/Zune contest doesn't have her own blog, but she still won :)

Re: Testing New Plugin to Reward Top Commentators

kelvin newman — Tue, 20 Feb 2007 09:04:02 -0000

I would allow people to post without urls, sometimes you might want to make an anon post or something. Plus it might discourage some of the less experienced readers from posting.

I think comments benefit from having as low a barrier of entry as possible.

Re: Testing New Plugin to Reward Top Commentators

Dave Davis — Tue, 20 Feb 2007 09:00:12 -0000

You should also take a look at Andy Beard's comment policy and set it up similar to that. It insures everyone reads it and I was impressed with his creativity. You are going to have the odd one or two abusing it.

Also, maybe you may want to exclude commenters without a URL?

Re: Testing New Plugin to Reward Top Commentators

kelvin newman — Tue, 20 Feb 2007 08:15:26 -0000

You've got to admire the effort! I imagine that's a side effect of announcing the leader board. As it sinks in people will calm down to normal commenting levels.

A bit like the the YouMoz Blog was chockha block when it first launched but seems to have settled down to a more reasonable level now.

Re: Testing New Plugin to Reward Top Commentators

Andy Beal — Tue, 20 Feb 2007 08:09:20 -0000

Well, look for a comment policy coming today. I already have one person who commented on half a dozen posts in just 6 minutes!

Re: Testing New Plugin to Reward Top Commentators

kelvin newman — Tue, 20 Feb 2007 07:22:06 -0000

It will be a interesting experiment, mainly cause I'm reasonably high up the list at the moment!

Mainly because there are plenty of stories worthy of comment here.

Re: Testing New Plugin to Reward Top Commentators

Terry Ng — Tue, 20 Feb 2007 03:25:05 -0000

Wonderful idea. Another incentive would be to include the person's avatar next to their name in the top commenters list. :)

Re: Testing New Plugin to Reward Top Commentators

Dave Davis — Mon, 19 Feb 2007 22:15:19 -0000

This also gives a great incentive to comment. I post on many forums and my reward for contributing is a link in my sig. Not powerful by any means, but a link back nonetheless.

I think it's great you have taken these steps Andy.

Re: Testing New Plugin to Reward Top Commentators

Jordan Glogau — Mon, 19 Feb 2007 21:53:21 -0000

Me Too
Me Two
Me Three

Sorry, just couldn't resist.

;-)

Jordan

Re: Testing New Plugin to Reward Top Commentators

AndyBeard — Mon, 19 Feb 2007 18:03:13 -0000

I appreciate the backlink, but think it would be much better to use nofollow on comments for a number of reasons.

1. It is permanent
2. It is less of a juice leak if you structure your single pages with plenty of internal links. You are already using internal tagging, and a tag cloud to do this - you could easily increase the cloud size on posts that get a lot of comments
3. If people are smart when leaving comment, they will use the link for deep linking to related content, which makes it a win win situation.
4. Lots of Meme trackers are not very smart - there is a chance that sitewide link helped get me on Techmeme today (ok so I shouldn't complain) - true I deserved it for my Polish Poets coverage, but you didn't really link to me.

Re: Testing New Plugin to Reward Top Commentators

Chris Dohman — Mon, 19 Feb 2007 17:58:55 -0000

Thanks for the heads up on this wordpress plug-in. I've been toying with the idea of getting rid of the no-follow on my comments but have not done that at this point. This added incentive to attract comments should be good for newer blogs like mine which do not have a solid base of readers or comments yet. I might have to plug it in.

This is also a great way for us new bloggers to contribute to other blogs, introduce themselves (hi, I'm Chris), plus you can't ignore the chance for picking up a decent link in the process.

Thanks again,

Re: Testing New Plugin to Reward Top Commentators

Maki — Mon, 19 Feb 2007 17:57:18 -0000

There's an element of competitiveness involved in using the Top Commenters plugin which can be fun or irritating.

I would love to be a top commenter of the month, but somehow I guess I do feel a little pressure (motivation?) to comment on every post that now appears on Marketing Pilgrim.

Discomforting? Not really. Fun? A little. :)

Allenation.com recently had a short discussion about this and Allen suggested that the plugin was a comment-incentive which made commenters comment out of their own beneficial interest, instead of adding to the conversation.

I don't entirely agree with him but I feel what he means.

Re: Testing New Plugin to Reward Top Commentators

Andy Beal — Mon, 19 Feb 2007 17:44:15 -0000

Evan - I never thought I'd hear those words from you. ;-)

Re: Testing New Plugin to Reward Top Commentators

Evan — Mon, 19 Feb 2007 17:38:00 -0000

Andy, you are the coolest blogger in the blogosphere. (that the kind of brown-nosing you want?)

great idea btw

Re: Testing New Plugin to Reward Top Commentators

Andy Beal — Mon, 19 Feb 2007 17:15:42 -0000

Brian, you're welcome to! Just remember to link back to me (without a nofollow). :-)

Jason - I get rib-jabbed enough, more brown-nosing would be nice! ;-)

Re: Testing New Plugin to Reward Top Commentators

Jason — Mon, 19 Feb 2007 17:06:56 -0000

ooh ooh. Me too. Me too!

In all seriousness Andy, I think this is great. I've seen another plugin that enables no-nofollow on all commentators' links for those who leave more than X number of comments. But I like the one you're using. It seems to promote commenting more because not only are you getting a linkcondom-free link, it's a sitewide too.

Watch out for more brown-nosing and rib-jabbing to come!

Re: Testing New Plugin to Reward Top Commentators

Brian Clark — Mon, 19 Feb 2007 17:03:01 -0000

Great idea... I think I need to steal it. ;P