For the past few years I have been quite a bit critical and open on tackling blog comments. In fact, there’s even a dedicated category of it here just with that topic. Anyways today I would like to touch on something that I know people have mixed opinion with and that is comment subscription.
One of the guys I really look up into named Neil Patel has this enabled in his blog QuickSprout. What he basically has done is automatically have people commenting on his blog subscribed to their own comments. What happens is that if Neil (or some dude) replies to my comment, I would be notified vial email that someone has replied to my comment. 88 replies to my comment would then mean 88 notification emails (I know its unrealistic).
I’ve first seen that tactic on Gyutae Park’s blog at Winning the Web where the check box is automatically checked. To be honest with you, as a blogger myself, I find this tactic insidious and annoying. Why? Because of uhm, uhm, getting added emails and probably just really not caring to know if the guy replied or not. Both of which are lame reasons as well.
I was checking my subscription to comment plugin stats and I was surprised to learn that I’ve actually had a good number of audience here subscribing to comments. I was like wow. Over the past few years I’ve realized a couple of handful things on blogging generally. Maybe replying to majority of comments is not silly at all, or maybe this, maybe that.
So since we are talking about this topic, I am going to ask your opinion about. I would also like to say that by now, I’m discerning on following that tactic where each and every one of you who will comment will automatically be subscribed to comments. I’ve realized it’s not really annoying at all! But again thats just me…
[poll id=”5″]
Please let me know what you think by voting in the poll and also interacting in the comment forms below. Your feedback about this topic will largely affect my decision on whether to use that or not.
I put in a vote for ‘it’s fine with me’, but that is because commenting is one of my major traffic strategies and being subscribed to comments allows me to involved in the conversation of the posts that I have added too.
But I can definitely see how they could become annoying. I personally wouldn’t automatically subscribe my blog commentators.
.-= Tom | Build That List´s last blog ..The 4 Reasons People Unsubscribe Mailing Lists =-.
I think it depends on the quality of the blog and the types of comments. If there are valuable comment that adds to the conversation, it would be nice to subscribe in that way you’ll get in touch and add value. Sometimes you subscribe then you get tons of email alerting you of new comments, but you’ll get upset when you check to find some spammy comments like thanks and so on ones…
.-= Zak Show´s last blog ..Understanding Debt Management =-.
i hate automatic subscriptions and make sure the check box is unticked…..its very annoying to see lots of mails just because i am subscribed to it….SUCKS
.-= IndianCashMaker´s last blog ..How to Hold a Successful Blog Contest =-.
Some times it become irritating when our inbox gets filled up with comment replies… right bro? 😀
.-= Pubudu Kodikara´s last blog ..TechHamlet Forums :Latest Forum Topics (9th of March 2010) =-.
First it was annoying to me too but I now think its OK, if there is an option for not subscribing.
I recently has enabled subscribe to comment feature on my blog myself.
.-= Agent Deepak´s last blog ..Best Advice Ever – Term Planning =-.
Honestly, I once thought about this strategy — to automatically register the commentators — but then i am in my busy state and forgot about it. And now, it seems i should thank that i forgot to apply it because some my readers my be irritate about it.
.-= Dana @ Blogging Update´s last blog ..4 Things That Slow Down My Blogging and The Solutions =-.
Yup, i guess it okay for you because you tend to get notification of each commenting that you do.
.-= Dana @ Blogging Update´s last blog ..4 Things That Slow Down My Blogging and The Solutions =-.
It may be annoying to some but there is no denying that it can help drive a lot of repeat traffic back to your blog.
.-= Steven Richardson´s last blog ..Asset Allocation Better Than A 401k =-.
it depends on the type of comments…still it is true that it might be annoying at times
.-= infopediaonlinehere´s last blog ..Google App Engine technologies, Google App Engine SDK, Google cloud computing google app engine =-.
I think it’s good to give people the option. Probably having them have to uncheck the box to opt out would do better for you than having them to check the box to opt in. Since I got Outlook which makes managing things easier I subscribe to comments – but with the cpanel email options, it was a pain to do so.
I think QuickSprout’s thing is pretty cool, I wouldn’t mind being subscribed to replies to my own comment as that means someone’s addressing you. Will have a look and see how he did it. 🙂
.-= Jason @ Make Money At Home´s last blog ..A Preview Of The New Design And Site Updates =-.
I agree and when I was first get caught by these automatic subscriptions I was so upset. That is something that blog owners really have very little control to. Great point Zak
Right and thats why I’m asking my readers here about it because I have plans of putting it here to increase the ‘stickiness’ of the blog
I think email notifications should be treated like any other, which is by consent. If bloggers and webmasters have the decency and privilege to check through our comments one by one to prevent spam, I think readers should have the same rights too. I mean it’s bad enough we get tons of SPAM in our inbox. Then there’s FaceBook emails, Twitter followers and updates.
Like what you said about having 88 email notifications just because a popular article on a high traffic blog gets 88 comments. Honestly in my opinion, if I got something like that, I don’t even WANT to comment on that blog anymore. Isn’t auto-subscribing to comments illegal? I thought you could only email someone after he/she decides to receive notifications or via double opt-in.
Then again, that’s just my opinion.
.-= Faiz Suberi´s last blog ..Affiliate Blogging: Worth a Start =-.
I’m amazed that they “Nays” don’t have this one. Getting automatically signed up for blog comments frustrates the heck out of me, and I generally get turned off of blogs that practice this method. However, if people really don’t care (as evident by the poll)… maybe I should switch that feature on, eh? 😛
.-= Jimvesting´s last blog ..Welcome to the New Face of The Net Fool… Jimvesting dot com! =-.
thanks for your opinion Faiz. Actually that was how I felt too when I first experienced that but as I get used to receiving a lot of emails, I just adapted to that.
But you’re right, its really not fair and right now Im really thinking of a kinda custom way of doing that w/o really being too much annoying.
hehehe. isn’t that sounding unfair Jimmy? 🙂 well maybe you must hold a poll too on your blog.
I love subscribe to comments because I want to hear what people say and what people reply to me though I will receive many notification emails which is quite annoying. But I can unsubscribe anytime
I am not against automatic following to the comment I’ve made as long as the comment form provides a way to decide whether or not to accept notification. If anybody implements auto-subscribing without the check box displaying and without letting visitor to decide, it is unethical and its not good. If you have a check box to mark or unmark, it is not problem if it was checked already or unchecked. The visitor has the right to mark or remove mark from the check box.
As a blogger, it would be nice to enable the check box by default. Most of the commenters will finish typing the comment and hit the Submit button. That way, though they did not intend, will miss what was replied to the issue or view they have left unattended?
If it is marked by default, they will be subscribing automatically with an always available option to remove subscription. But if the check box is not marked and they hit submit by accident, they hardly will ever find back the responses to their comment.
People may disagree, but this is what I believe.
.-= Suresh Khanal´s last blog ..Why Infolinks Reduced Payment Threshold? =-.
I would rather not be automatically subscribed. I think it’s best if they give you the option of subscribing but not automatically doing it for you.
.-= Mathew Day´s last blog ..XHeader Pro New Release – FREE Header Graphics Software =-.
I think that having a comment reply is beneficial. However, an email should only be sent if the comment is in reply to yours (based on a hierarchy). If the commenter were not interested in the reply to his comment, his original comment could be construed simply as spam. All in all, I think emails should be sent (only if it is in reply to my comment).
.-= Victor @ PinkishBlue.com´s last blog ..Katana-Ya in San Francisco =-.
Hey Melvin,
Great article – you bring up a lot of interesting points. On Winning the Web, I check the “subscribe to comments” box by default but I don’t think it’s really deceiving or anything like that (they can easily un-check before submitting. I figure that if they’re taking the time to leave a comment, they’d be interested in seeing any replies or additional comments.
Being updated to the comments is equally important to the commenting on a post. After all comments are the source of ideas of new posts.
.-= Suresh Khanal´s last blog ..Will Twitter ban me for following too many =-.