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169 thoughts on “A Quick Survey About Comments”

  1. DTI

    Yes.

    Though since you're hosting this blog on BlueHost the more engagement you get the more the server is likely to suffer. Caching tools and content-delivery networks aren't very optimized for logged-in users so requiring accounts could compound the load. I hate 3rd-party comment platforms like Disqus but if you get lots of engagement you might want to consider something like that.

    It wasn't that onerous on (one of) the older Mother Jones platforms. And once you've got an account it's pretty trivial to keep going.

    Asking for an account creates a barrier to participation but the investment of time tends to produce higher quality engagement. Which in turn means less moderation from you. (If you're going to have comments you sort of obliging yourself to do some form of moderation.)

    If you add an upvote/downvote plugin for comments it can help crowdsource moderation. A good spam filter can help weed out bots and brigading.

    Best of luck, Kevin!

    1. MontyTheClipArtMongoose

      Agreed on almost all counts.

      Ain't nothing wrong with disqus, though. (But no Coral! (Things you can say at MotherJones-dot-com or if you're The Miz.))

    3. Beef with broccoli

      Yeah. 500+ maybe a 1,000+ users on his wordpress site would definitely be a problem. Also allowing people to register with wordpress is less secure than allowing no one to register through your wordpress.

    4. Haddock Branzini

      Not to mention the bloat of the comments table. It will make the DB huge in very little time. That's going to make back-ups and updates problematic down the road.

    5. Citizen Lehew

      Agreed! Disqus is what the doctor ordered.

      Aside from being a little annoying for users, with this much traffic the “no registration” option would be a maintenance nightmare, in terms of troll management and spam (even with spam blockers).

  4. E

    I would suggest trying it without registration and seeing how difficult/annoying the moderation is. Crooked Timber is one example that still manages reasonably good comments without registration but I cannot speak to how much effort the moderation requires.

  7. Diane Silver

    I have no idea what you should do. I just want to say hello. I've read your blog since your earliest days and have always loved it, but never registered to comment. (Humm, maybe this is a kind of answer.) At Mother Jones, it just seemed like too much of a hassle, although I know why it's a good idea to get people to say who they are. But... I'm here whatever you decide. Thanks for the new blog. I like the organization, and I love a place to go to get a cat photo when I need one.

  9. Rory Wohl

    Yes.

    Defector.com requires that you purchase a subscription to comment on their site and that really helps keep up the quality level of the discussions.

    Not sure if you want to go that far, though.

    1. MontyTheClipArtMongoose

      Doesn't really compare. Defector is the successor to post-Bollea, venture-capital-scarred Deadspin, & functioning as a full-on sports news & culture site.

      This new Drum site is a one man operation, just his opinions & charts. Would be more like if National Treasure: Book of Ratto had gone it alone after the old site got Spanfeller'd.

      Anyway, if Li'l Kev wanted to make us pay for his mixtape, he would be on substack.

  13. MetaForehead

    Happy to follow you! Don't have any great love for cats, but charts made understandable!!?? Hoo boy.

    Best of everything, keep writing.

  16. Michael Martin

    Way back in the day we commented via email! Too often I find sites where comments become conversations among commenters that number in the hundreds so I don't read them.

  23. Michael Lewis

    It depends on what you want comments to do for you. If you see it as a service to readers, you might use a more automated approach. If you want to read most or all comments and join in a conversation with commenters, then a more open, moderated approach might be more effective.

  25. MonkeyMan

    Yes. I've followed since CalPundit days and enjoy the usually great comments. Anything to reduce trolling is a plus. I'll be anonymous with my name though. Sooooooooo glad Coral is gone!

  27. Haddock Branzini

    Yes. Plus, a system like Disqus has great notifications. On the old MJ blog I could have long discussions with others directly from Disqus long after the original post was buried under dozens of new ones.

  29. Beef with broccoli

    I hope Drum didn't do the admin123 and password123...

    Doesn't appear to be a captcha or any type of security to stop a script from trying to log in. Not sure what the host provides but it seems possible a script with a million word database could try logging in several times a second until the word database is used up. A big drain on resources.

    1. theAlteEisbear

      CAPTCHA is a two edged sword. In Goddard's Political Wire blog, Disqus can require you to enter a CAPTCHA anytime you exit the open site and return.

  30. Jasper_in_Beijing

    I think you should. Otherwise, impersonation is possible. Right? Also, it would be nice not to have to enter name/email address every time.

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