New Comment Policy for B!C!
I don’t consider keywords in the name field of comments necessarily as spam, but I have decided to put an end to it. This is largely an aesthetic decision because I would rather see a name or a nom de internet than “Make Money Online”.
From now on if I encounter a comment using keywords in the name field, I will contact the poster via the email address provided. I might also do one of the following: delete the comment, remove the keywords or assign a generic name in the name field. This new policy is also written on the comment page.
I don’t think this is a very draconian measure and it won’t affect the majority of posters. I use DoFollow and links are generated with every comment. I just don’t like the keywords.
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January 12th, 2008 at 10:29 pm
I agree. Comments, that I see to approve (which are those that get through the automated detection), with a real name are maybe 75% of the time reasonable (not just spam). Comments I saw with keywords (before I changed to say a real name is required) were basically spam 95% of the time.
Since I said real names are required - those continuing to list keywords instead of real names (which is many many people - can’t they read???) are spam 99+% of the time. Now in fact they are really all spam but a few at least have a comment that is not irrelevant.
January 13th, 2008 at 10:20 pm
thx to visit my blog.
January 14th, 2008 at 1:28 am
Hi El,
First off, thanks for those nice comments on my blog.
I feel you. I do get irritated by those comments who leave keywords as their nickname.
However I do keep them as long as the comment is relevant. This practice gotta stop though. Really gets on my nerve!
You have a good day El!
Cheers,
Jag
January 14th, 2008 at 8:55 am
Hi, I just responded to your comment over at Randy Clay’s blog about keywords in the comment field. Here’s what I wrote about it on his comment field.
“I think it really depends on the comments though. Even if someone uses a percieved keyword, it doesn’t mean they are not reading the blog or spamming. For my blog or store I don’t want to reveal my real name, so I use Ghillie Suit Guy. I guess I could use a fake name like John or Mike but would that make any difference to the content of my comment?”
I will understand that if you don’t agree with my reasoning you can change the name field to John or Mike or even delete this comment. Thanks.
January 14th, 2008 at 10:55 am
I did say that I keep all comments that are relevant, i.e., that look like somebody actually read the blog.
Ghillie, I don’t see it as spam. It’s just something that has kind of gotten under my skin. I have a recent comments widget in my sidebar and I don’t like seeing it filled up with “Make Money Online”, “Cheap Pharmaceuticals”, etc. I don’ t advertise on my blog precisely because I don’t want that kind of thing cluttering it up. So when I started seeing it far too often on my front page, I just got fed up.
I don’t have a problem with Ghillie Suit Guy as a name. That seems like a nickname to me like Zoot Suit Larry. I would probably feel different if it said Cheap Ghillie Suits Online.
I also had no idea what a Ghillie Suit was until I went to your site.
January 14th, 2008 at 5:45 pm
I also think i need to remove dofollow in comment from my blog
January 14th, 2008 at 10:38 pm
Thanks for visiting my site and blog!
January 15th, 2008 at 6:08 am
There is a plugin you may be able to use called Akismet that will help with this problem.
January 15th, 2008 at 10:45 am
“I don’t like seeing it filled up with “Make Money Online”, “Cheap Pharmaceuticals””
that’s the point. A blog is a brand, my own brand. I don’t like it when commenters use the name of their web or their keyword. Use actual name, commenting should be a little bit more personal, treat it as if you were talking to my face, you wouldn’t tell me your name is “Cheap Steroid” , right?
January 15th, 2008 at 11:12 am
I also had to add a “no seo keywords in the name field” policy after joining the No follow list
Doing that and installing the lucias link love plugin means that most people on my blogs are once again commenting with their real name or nickname
January 16th, 2008 at 12:23 am
I promise to never to never name a teddy bear, “ghillie suit”.
January 16th, 2008 at 10:52 am
I find that I am getting far more responses in favour of this move than against it. I’ve also noticed a trend of many other blogs doing the same thing. I’ll ride it out and see how it goes.
Indigo, that gives me an idea. I was disappointed to see that none of the ghillie suits would allow me to sneak out of work early, but a bear suit might.
“Who’s that sneaking out the back door?”
“Looks like a bear.”
“Oh, must be new then.”
January 17th, 2008 at 7:43 am
You guys should make a ghillie suit that resembles your home. Check out this video of a ghillie suit. Safe for work.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RH2XsAkjYw0
January 17th, 2008 at 11:37 am
Even better!
“Did somebody just sneak out the backdoor?”
“Nah, just a bunch of A4 sheets.”
January 20th, 2008 at 10:02 pm
I would also hate to see all that spam on my blog no matter how good the comment it is or not. I understand a nickname or the domain name, but not a 4 words key phrase …
January 31st, 2008 at 5:49 pm
[…] just recently changed the comment policy here at b!c! to exclude keywords in the name field. I like the change and have decided I […]
August 6th, 2008 at 10:36 am
Its an easy way for people to spam!!!
October 28th, 2008 at 5:22 am
Sometimes comments can be good whether spam or not. We can some weird long tail hits because of the comments.