Recently I asked myself a question: How come that some blogs, like Lifehacker, ZDnet and other technology blogs get dozens of comments per post, while comments on other sites that I hold even dearer are close to zero.
Some articles here on Ghacks for instance receive dozens of comments. A lot of the giveaway (which is totally understandable) but also articles that are of interest to many readers (Windows Firewall Notifier is a recent example). Other articles here receive one, two or maybe even no comment at all. The same is true for sites like Addictive Tips and even Freeware Genius.
I’d like to discuss why it is like it is. Why are so many users commenting on company backed websites and less users on others? Is that a numbers game? Do those sites receive more visitors which then results in more comments? Or has it something to do with “trusting” those companies?
While the majority of blogs that get lots of user comments and interaction are company based, there are others run by individuals like the German tech site Caschy’s Blog with ten, twenty and even more comments per article.
I’d like to get there, get more users involved here on Ghacks. I can think of a few reasons why Ghacks receives less user comments than other sites. It could be that the process is to complicated (which I personally doubt since I do not require registration), that my articles are to boring, or that they “say it all” and leave little to discuss. Could also be the public perception or “image” of the site or that Ghacks visitors are more the passive type.
I’d like to start this discussion to get a better understanding of the reasons. Is there anything that I can change on site that would entice you to comment more often? Or is it something that is completely out of my control?
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Personally, to me, it’s three reasons.
1) Having to register
2) Relevance
3) Exposure
1) If I have to register to leave a comment, I’ll more than likely not bother.
2) I use RSS feeds to capture my news, and while at a time, I tried reading a bunch of smaller blog sites, most of the articles weren’t relevant to me. I use sites like yours, slashdot, lifehacker etc a filter to only see the best articles
3) Exposure, there are far more people commenting on the lifehacker post than the actual blog itself, makes it easier to find more opinions & have a better conversation
You have too many false positives from spam filtering. I probably lost as many comments here as got through over years. I have no resolve left to bug you to fish them out of spam anymore. :) So I am somewhat less likely to comment overall.
I hate fake spam ;)
I follow You on a RSS reader so I do not visit much your site. But I like your blog a lot.
Thanks from Mexico.
I write comments every time I have something to say or when author asks my opinion.
I think it’s ok to not have many comments: many people don’t like to write them, and do this only when engaged by something (holywar casus belli :) )
With few comments I read the comments too.
Hey Martin!
Here’s my two cents-
I think giving users the ability to create identities would help cultivate a more active gHacks community. Unique user names and/or avatars would require some sort of registration, but you could always continue to allow anonymous comments as well. Maybe a poll like- “If gHacks offered registration, would you be interested?” I mean, this article, which is directly engaging the site’s readers, is generating quite a few comments, so there must be some sense of community.
Also, Bart suggested minimizing the space between the article and the comments. I think it would be helpful if the author of each article was shown before the content instead of after. I sometimes find myself scrolling to the end to see who wrote the article, then scrolling back to the beginning to continue reading. Moving that bit of info to the top would please both Bart and myself. :)
And for what it’s worth, I also use the gHacks RSS feed in my live bookmarks, right next to Lifehacker, and I definitely read more of gHacks, though I rarely comment on either site.
I hope you got what you were looking for from all of these comments Martin. I wish you continued success.
Cheers
Ed
Hi Martin,
Thanks for your great blog. I visit daily, and usually read (or at least skim) every post.
I don’t write a comment, unless I think my comment adds something relevant. So no “nice find” comments from me (though your finds often are nice!).
When I have to log in to comment, I just don’t. It’s too much bother, it’s yet another login and password to remember.
So keep up the good work, and don’t worry too much about the number of comments.
Well..
i like Ghacks its the only blog i have in my Thunderbird RSS list
i add it like 3~4 years ago and still check your posts daily
thy are really useful and well updated
the reason i don’t comment i guess because my lazyness xD
Thanks and keep up the good work
Never had a need to comment…your articles are well articulated and very thorough. Which is why I like this site more than others.
In retail, or the restaurant industry – one may receive many negative comments before action is taken, but only one positive comment can result in an on the spot reward.
Everyone (except politicians maybe) knows that you are more motivated to comment when you are pissed off than when you are happy. For every good comments on LH, you get 4 complaining about the content, or the grammar.
“Why is this post on LH, I only want to read articles about Apple” – “STFU Apple fanboy” – “Boy that chick in the picture sure is hot”
So the good news is, your readers are generally happy with your posts. The bad news, you plainly need more hot chicks in your pictures. I guess…
Hi Martin, I would suggest reducing the number of ads on each page to one or two. I realize that ads pay the bills, but I find it discourages visitors from staying long enough to comment.
An example would be the five banner style ads, plus what appear to be three mouse-over ads in this page. I think it busies the page up too much to make for easy reading. That said, I do visit the site several times a week to catch up, I just don’t always make it to the end of every article.
I hate the notify comments thing.
Yes I want to know when people comment, but I hate the fact that it just spams me. I would much rather prefer the disqus system where I can control the notifications. I used to comment a long time ago, but the constant spam of emails made me stop.
I like the notify system.
i can read all the comments direct on my e-mail and if want to reply i got a link direct for the post.
Martin,
There was mention of a ‘popularity’ or ‘likeability’ gauge earlier in the comment stream, with a following comment by you. I don’t know what software you are using – too lazy to check, I guess – but if it happens to be WordPress, there are a number of plugins to accomplish that, and they’re fairly easy to install. Most of ‘em are per article, so you can get a feel for what your readership likes/wants.
One of the better ones, to my eyes, is a bar chart that displays only after you have made a (radio button) selection. With a choice of, say, five (5) options, you could get a pretty good idea of how a particular post is received.
If you’re using something other than WordPress, there will be similar options, I’m certain, but WP is all that I’m familiar with.
Upside of such plugins is that installation is minimal effort, and you get a real feel for how interested your readership is in any particular post. That can help to guide you in future endeavors.
(It’s also a bit of interactivity that requires little effort on the part of the reader, so is more likely to be used.)
OK, I’ll shut up now .
Hi Martin and Ghacks crew
I am a LONG long time reader of your website and articles. also an inactive members on the forums :( however i do APPRECIATE your site it has helped me out of a jam many many times. I can honestly say that if there was a donate button here on the site i would donate plain and simple.
so please keep up the great work!
Reckon the post by URKidding sums it up for me. On other sites I’ve seen good articles ruined by comments which go off-topic / turn into a slanging match between commenters. Few but ‘good’ comments are far better than a load of crap comments.
I read almost all of the ghacks articles, and find them very interesting. I will definitely do more to comment ! Most of the time I don’t think to comment because I think the article “says it all” (or nearly all). Like others have said some of those other sites have articles which say .. “What your favourite X?” .. thereby leading people into a comment.
Maybe the comments can be authenticated via Twitter, or Facebook, or Gmail? If that would help attract people to be themselves?
Hope that helps,
Thanks
Rob
we should be able to comment using open id/ fb id/google id
this is very hard
I follow Cnet’s “news” section, too. Most of the articles there are blatant attempts to stir up controversy for the sake of generating page views, and the number of comments reflects the number of idiots who are easily swayed into engaging in Internet arguments. the most obvious “eyeball-grab” is multiple posts using the words “Apple,” “iPhone,” or “Steve Jobs” in the subject line, all of which are substantively-identical content.
Fewer comments can reflect either fewer page views, less controversial blog posts, more intelligent readers, or some combination of all three. I tend to think that last is the answer here, Martin, but I hope you’ll continue to post. I don’t read everything, but what I do read is usually informative, well-written, and not a “click-through bait” type of post.
A lot of the articles on ghacks aren’t really “controversial”. lot of other sites might post about something that is a choice. Like Ubuntu made toolbars black instead of brown. One guy hates it and another loves it. So when they see post talking about the change they want to jump in with their opinion. Ghacks seems more to post helpful notices and how tos. Perhaps the ghack posts that have lots of comments are more “controversial”?
Sooo sooooo agreee with u.
I really like the look and setup of Ghacks and hope that it doesn’t change. It’s very clear and readable as it is now.
The only thing I would say to increase the number of comments is to second one thing which has been said already: move the comments section (“Responses so far”) up closer to the end of the article, between the “Related Articles” section and the “Enjoyed the article?” section. My guess is that many visitors never make it down far enough on the page to know that there is a place to leave comments.
i can only speak from my perspective, but i, for one, have given up commenting on the internet. a few years ago i could spend hours discussing articles (and world-views!) on golem.de and engadget.com, but in the end there is little benefit to it and too many trolls out there.
so ghacks is the last site i comment on, due to the lack of trolls and the fact that my voice doesnt drown in the masses of comments here.
If there are too many comments, I generally read the first 10 or so and then skip the rest. Most people just regurgitate what has gone before by swapping a few words around because they like to see themselves post something.
So no, a lot of comments isn’t necessarily a good thing.
And since this thread is getting a lot of participation and I don’t want to get an email notification for EACH new post, I have unchecked the Notify me of followup comments via e-mail”, so I may not see your reply (if any).
Blech, don’t go trying to emulate Lifehacker. This site is SO much better as it is now. Not saying ya had any plans to, heh, just saying! I really despise the hipster-friendly vibe of that place…and the name is stupid too. Call me pedantic.
Lifehacker is shiny and pretentious, like a mac. But you, ghacks, you’re a PC, and I love you for it.
Also, I like having the option to post as anon if I like, but I usually do not. Not having to reg is a beautiful thing.
Why do I not always comment? Laziness. Given your target audience, this may prove impossible to overcome, heh. I’m sure some tweaks to the overall feng-shui could possibly boost comments, though.
I usually only comment when I find something wrong in an article, disagree with the view of the author or miss an important aspect about the topic. I`m checking your blog on a daily basis and like its focus and the style of your posts. They helped me in different situations and I got suggestions for checking out tools I didn`t know before. Lifehacker on the other hand has a completely different concept. The site design is annoying and the pictures sometimes hurt your eyes. And the content is even worse. It`s not an IT site anymore, so you can`t compare it with your blog. Your content is excellent, no need to change anything about it. But I have some suggestions for changing your blog design (which won`t do anything about the number of comments):
- On the startpage, shift the recent posts over the section with the categories, or put the categories to the side. Your new posts are what matters most (and what most visitors are interested in), so they should be on top and get more space.
- Get rid of the the three columns and use only two. As a regular visitor, I won`t click on any of the links presented in the sidebar anyway. I read the latest postings or use the search box.
And a last suggestion: if you still want more comments, just write about software you don`t like from time to time. Tell where crappy stuff falls short and what alternative you suggest. This will start controversies and debates.
I like the simple idea mentioned earlier (can’t find the post now to reply directly to it, unfortunately) about moving the comments section closer to the article itself. The “Related Articles” and “Enjoyed the article?” bits could be moved BELOW the comments. “About the Author” could be better placed between the title of the article and the body. And with that more prominent placement, “About the Author” could also go with a smaller font size while retaining its distinct blue background.
Also, it would be nice to see the current number of comments at the beginning of the section (3 Responses so far, 27 Responses so far, etc.) as well as on the main page, beneath the author, date, and category info. For those who land on the main page, seeing that an article has even a single comment may entice them to add to the discussion.
Other than adjusting font sizes and white space a bit and reducing redundancy on the main page, your site’s design is actually ahead of the curve. It has a light feel, loads quickly, and scrolls as smooth as butter.
It’s funny you mention Lifehacker. Although I started following Lifehacker in ’08 or ’09 I’ve never once commented there (and the amount I read it has dropped off sharply over the past year). Conversely, I began following Ghacks maybe 5 or 6 months ago and I’ve already commented on several articles.
Here’s what Lifehacker and other sites get wrong that you get right, Martin:
- Require registration or a disqus account. No, thanks. I have more than enough accounts to keep track of, and Lifehacker/Gawker proved they didn’t adequately secure those credentials anyhow.
- Cripple the site’s performance with a script-heavy design full of tacky visual flare, including Facebook and +1 buttons and scripts and other social embeddings.
- Require many clicks to actually see all the comments. I like to see ALL published comments. Clicking “All” beneath a Lifehacker post is only the first of possibly many clicks for someone who wants to read the entire discussion.
- Write “articles” that are two sentences long, intentionally antagonistic, erroneous, poorly researched, or any combination thereof.
Keep up the great work, Martin! I’ll try to do my part and make comments– hopefully of some value– more often.
Matt, thanks for the kinds words. I just need to note that I had to restrict comments to 50 root comments (plus their replies per page) as page loading times went through the roof otherwise. This should not have an effect on the majority of posts though.
Oh, of course. That’s totally understandable.
I should’ve elaborated on that point. I was actually referring to (1) how tedious it is to expand all the collapsed replies on Gawker blogs and (2) the “Show Earlier Discussions” button that dumps more comments inline. I’m sure some people think it’s clever or neat, but I much prefer “paged” comments like here on Ghacks.
This is a fine website, interesting articles, well written and clearly run by someone who understands what they are talking about. Feel free to leave it just as it is, and be assured that your readers will let you know if you start getting it wrong.
Thanks for a good read.
I love reading the Ghacks news but I just don’t comment. Not for any other reason than simple boredom of writing my thoughts I guess !
I’ve started visiting Gawker sites less nowadays. since they change the layout, that is. It’s just a lot slower(on older machines and netbook) than the previous design (more javascripts and all that stuff i guess)
Just pointing that out, so when you’re considering about changing the design of the website, keep it simple. But please, do change the design.
Also, I usually don’t mind about ads, but these type of ads: http://bit.ly/npYwVY which I really don’t like. It just doesn’t make sense.
Create a new logo? or logo competition? and try adding an element of humor when posting.