Posted on by Steveark

Comments Rant!

It’s Rant Time! I love comments.  I love getting them and I love making them on the blogs I write and the ones I read.  But what I don’t love is the fact that some of my favorite blogs don’t let me comment at all!  Take Humble Dollar, that is a pretty entertaining site but you have to “log in” to comment.  And every attempt I’ve ever made either wants me to log in with credentials that reveal my identity or just fails only providing me some obscure coding reference.  I see others making comments on those sites and feel left out because I can’t figure out how to join in on the fun.  And yes I know when I comment I do provide my email to the site, but it doesn’t attach that to my comment. So I’m only exposed to the person owning the site, and that’s OK with me.

Other sites, lots of them, try to identify me with my WordPress sign in.  And I’m not sure what would happen if I let that go through, but I think it might specifically identify me in the comment.  So I just pass on that when it happens, even if I’ve spent ten minutes making what (to me) was the most insightful comment in modern times.  Also I can’t seem to log in to WordPress directly, I always just log into my Bluehost account and it logs me into WordPress when I access my blog site.   But logging straight into WordPress doesn’t work for me.

Then there are all the sites that don’t allow any comments.  What is with that?  I know some people have restricted comments because they were being trolled by jerks and idiots, like Sherry of Save. Spend. Splurge.  I get that, and I’m not ranting at them, I’d never rant at Sherry.  But there are lots of other sites that just don’t want my opinion.  And I take that personally. I’d insert the meme but I’ve always been afraid of Michael Jordan.

Worst of all there are a handful of sites that tease me into thinking I’m good to go with dispensing my indispensable knowledge in their comments section.  I can fill their little box with my wit and wisdom and put in my email and “name” and website address. But when I hit the “Post Comment” button I don’t get the satisfying sight of my wonderful words  added to their post.  Instead I get a message telling me the site is not accepting comments.  Really?  Now you tell me? 

So what about you other frequent commenters.  Do you experience the frustration of commentus interruptus in your daily life? 

Or am I such an irrelevant Ok, Boomer that I’m simply missing the easy way around the comment barricades.  I’m simply  being culled from the commenters herd by Darwinian selection.  

And because I never want anyone to find it difficult to comment on my posts, if you don’t see a comment box then try clicking on the title of the post up top. That should make it appear.

27 Replies to “Comments Rant!”

  1. Ok, Boomer. Let’s start with which web browser and version you are using. Are you still running Windows 98?

    I’M KIDDING my friend. I love how you share your opinions, encouragement, praise and constructive feedback on other people’s blogs. You are helping the internet become better, not worse. Thank you!

    I think people turn off commenting for many reasons. I turned off commenting on my personal website (5amjoel.com) because a) nobody visits it, b) I was getting 50x more private responses from people vs public ones, c) one less thing for me to check, and d) if i’m being completely honest… sometimes people feel that the # of comments they get equates to how successful their blog is. And since I don’t like playing that game, I just turned comments off. There are 10 other ways to reach out to me, and I respond to every single email/comment elsewhere.

    For Budgets, I LOVE reading and responding to comments. I will never turn that off, and anonymous comments are accepted. As a much bigger site and “community”, it’s important to hear what everyone things and share ideas. In this sense, I 100% agree with your rant and frustrations and think sites should make it more easier to comment, not harder.

    Thanks for doing what you do. Have a great weekend!
    – Joel

    1. Thanks Joel, I agree there are many reasons to not allow comments. I’m my sure why some sites require logging in, but there is probably a reason for that, too. I enjoy your posts Joel, thanks for commenting!

    2. Oh, and my computers, tablets and phone are entirely up to date, I might be a Boomer but I’m also an engineer who wrote his share of code. I fix my millennial kids’ phones and computers instead of the other way around.

  2. I love your comments over at AR. So please, let me know if there are ever any issues.

    BTW – your site has the WordPress.com comments, which I like, because I am logged in and don’t need to re-type my information.

    And I agree – it is frustrating when I got to comment on an article and they aren’t allowed. WHY?

    1. I never have trouble at your site, AR. Which is nice because you content inspires lots of comments!

  3. Sherry from save spend splurge is actually notorious for being a bully blogger, at least in the past. So it’s no surprise people “trolled her.” She is a mean person.

    1. Rachel, I’m only going off my personal interactions with her. Those have been thoughtful and extremely kind on her part. I don’t read all her posts because the fashionista topics are out of my wheelhouse. And admittedly she has strong opinions, but I find that appealing in bloggers when they support them with reasons.

  4. I hear you! But you don’t have to use a log in that identifies you if you set up an account that specifically relates to your blog. That way you keep your blog persona separate.

    I also find my comments don’t always get posted but I’m pretty sure in those cases it’s because the blog owner has it set up to not publish without their approval first.

    1. I have tried that but the times I did it turned out the comments weren’t really functioning when I tried to log in with a different account. I’ll have to try that again.

  5. I agree comments are fun. It allows me to spout out my knowledge (nonsense) to a wide audience without needing to grow my own large reader base. I also agree with you about commenting in Humble Dollar. I do read those posts less often cause I don’t find it easy to rant there.

    1. Phillip, I agree that I tend to read sites less often that I can’t comment on. I wonder if bloggers consider that it may cost them page views?

  6. I LOVE commenting as well! I hope it’s only a matter of time before I start getting troll comments. I like it when people love or hate my website, I don’t like it when people are indifferent towards my website. It means no one cares about my existence.

    Keep up the good work, Steve. I’m also with you that some blogs’ comments are just a bit impossible. I enjoy reading your posts and commenting.

    1. Thanks David, I haven’t been trolled much if at all, I have had people strongly disagree and have had my mind changed a few times, which is good,I think.

    1. I’m glad I’m not alone Fritz, I had a couple of other WordPress accounts related to my consulting and I think that may be part of the problem.

  8. That would be me!
    I’m not actively writing on my blog and had to turn comments off because of the trolls and hacks. I was getting tired of spending time cleaning up the comments.

    It got worse when some people started pasting links in the comments. With the popularity of Pfishing, I decided to shut the comments down.

    On side note, I get a weekly security report and shock how many attacks my firewalls block probing for any leveraged weakness.

    1. Francis, aww, I bet that’s because you have more than six readers! My small audience has kept me off the trolls’ radar.

    2. I have moderation turned on so these types of posts end up in the “suspected spam” area. I recently discovered there were almost 90 of these phishing posts waiting for me to check.

  9. Nice entry!

    I also find extremely annoying that either I can’t comment or need to insert credentials to do so. However the internet has become a very violent and scary place (ironically, an accurate reflection of real human physical society) so things like that happen. I believe a pretty good tradeoff is comments moderation, but I guess that doesn’t scale very well if your blog gets a bit popular (never had to experience this last part xD).

    Not that I have too much wisdom to share, but I do like expressing gratitude when I come across something that I found interesting.

    Anyways, good reading, thanks for sharing!!!

    1. I get that too, plus if its your blog its your right to run it any way you want. But like you I enjoy commenting and when I feel like I’ve got something meaningful to say its kind of frustrating when I can’t. Thanks, Juan.

  10. Yeah our local newspaper changed to Facebook only commenting so a ton of people are left out in the cold including myself. I find myself torn though, I understand not wanting to invest the time in heavy moderation that would be required on most blogs of any profile. It is a shame though.

  12. In many parts of the world, the Government can impose fines, arrest with or without bail and deliver a death sentence based on a blog post. The Government can conveniently ignore the difference between your original blog post and a comment that a reader has posted on the blog post.
    In such situations, it makes sense to disable comments or turn to comment-censoring.
    On a slightly unrelated note, I convey my highest respect to the US society, which has enabled the most fearless and free society that human civilization has ever known. I do hope that the US stays that way.

    1. One improvement I would like in the comment section is to have the ability to edit after posting. For example, I just realized that I would have wanted to omit the last word in the penultimate sentence of the first paragraph, and it seems that I cannot do that.

    2. Wow. I had not considered that though most of the posts I read are US, UK, Canadian or Australian. But yeah, you’d have to block comments and be very careful with posts!

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