New Comment Policy: No Name, No Comment
August 31, 2009 by Lillie
I have tried to make commenting here easy and beneficial to commenters. DoFollow links, monthly thank-you posts, and Keyword Luv ensure readers who leave comments get do-follow keyword links, both on the original comment and in the thank-you post. I reply to each comment so you know I read and appreciate what you write.
The only things I ask of commenters are that you read the post and say something relevant and that you identify yourself. Yet I continue to get keywords left in the place of names—even when simply writing Your Name @ Your Keywords will give you a keyword link and let me reply to you as a real person instead of an inamimate object, a job function or place, or a concept.
Frankly, I can’t relate to Printer Cartridges, Jonestown Plumber, or Divorce Advice like I can to Sue of Printer Cartridges, Joe of Jonestown Plumber, or Terry of Divorce Advice. I have requested over and over again that commenters leave their names, yet many ignore my request for what I consider a simple courtesy.
Therefore, I will no longer approve comments that are identified only by a keyword. You must leave a name. I realize that some people prefer to remain anonymous online, and I respect that. If you consistently use a nickname that I can recognize as a person, I will continue to approve comments as long as you continue to leave relevant comments.
However, if you leave a comment identifying yourself with keywords only, your comment will be sent to spam. If you have commented before, and your comment doesn’t go into moderation, I will delete it and add you to the spam blacklist. I hope you will start leaving comments wih a name or nickname.
I am sorry if this policy seems unreasonable; however, I believe it is only common courtesy to identify yourself when you carry on a conversation.
photo credit: annapmagistra
I think you’re absolutely right Lillie – I can’t maintain a conversation with a keyword either.
.-= Joanna Young´s last blog ..How Does Writing Help to Make Things Possible? =-.
Thanks, Joanna. I’ve put up with this a long time because some of the offenders leave excellent comments. But I finally reached my limit.
Hi, Lillie.
I think it’s about time that people actually listen and respect your simple request.
You take the time to sit here and blog, whereas some take advantage and spam you with irrelevancy. For the first few times, you remain patient and hope everyone gets the message sooner or later. However, they continue and then comes the frustration.
I’m really glad you addressed this issue.
I’m a writer myself, but sometimes I wonder if it’s really worth the hassle to start a project online, only to find myself being bombarded with spam.
Regards,
Joanne
.-= Joanne Richardson´s last blog ..Coupon for August 2009 =-.
Joanne,
Thanks for your support. I really enjoy comments, just with people, not keywords.
Hmmm… Why are people being so lazy and blatantly spammy? That is really odd that someone would not even attempt to put their name in front of their keyword, when it will give them the same results. The whole point of these plug-ins is to reward your readers for contributing to your blog conversation, so why can’t people do just that?
C,
I think a lot of people are just looking at the end result—getting links—and they don’t take the time to even read and understand how Keyword Luv works. And I’ve reached the conclusion that if they aren’t interested in taking a few seconds to read the clear instructions, I’m not interested in having their comment on my blog. Harsh, maybe, but that’s the way I feel.
I totally understand and agree and I have had to update my comment policies as well. Getting a dofollow link is a gift, but it comes with a request, give me your name!!!! If I was giving away a physical gift to someone, I’m sure they would have no problem giving me their name. I would hope that they wouldn’t just snatch it out of my hand and run. That’s not Keyword Luv! That’s Keyword Theft!
.-= Chris@101 Dalmatians-Lucky´s last blog ..101 Dalmatians-Lucky =-.
Chris,
I love that analogy: Keyword Theft! That’s exactly what it is.
I sometime wonder why people never take the time to read a blog when leaving comments (or spammy links) I get this all thye time on my one of my website. I like your stance and well done for saying so. Now I really hope people listen.
Colm
.-= Colm´s last blog ..How Do You Know Your Printer Is Running Out Of Ink =-.
Colm,
Thanks for your support. I’m with you in not understanding.
I must agree one must really identify him or herself in participating on conversations.
.-= Jeremy Craven@Homes in Brooklyn, New York´s last blog ..Pulmonologist unloads in Bay Ridge =-.
Jeremy,
Thank you for your support.
If people don’t read the blurb to tell them about how KeywordLuv works, then they’re just lazy spam machines anyways. Good idea to update this.
.-= RW@Free Online Speed Reading´s last blog ..What is the Average Reading Speed of Americans? =-.
RW,
Thanks for agreeing with me on this. You’re an excellent example of how people don’t have to give full first and last names. You use initials as your name, and that works because I can recognize you as a real person.
I can understand Lillie. I have not used my keyword in the space provided for name. Thanks for your information. I have tried to post something relevant to this topic, hope you approve.
Thank you, kraig. I’m glad for people to include a keyword along with their name. I just want the name to be there too.
I fully agree, but are there some many keyword-names since you are using keywordluv and it’s intention is to offer a pecial keyword link? So it seams people are even not reading the text around the comment box
.-= Sandra@Darlehen Rechner´s last blog ..Tilgungsplan Rechner =-.
Sandra,
That’s what I don’t understand. I’m perfectly willing to give every commenter a keyword link as long as they include their name. They just don’t read.
I’ve even had comments on this post with keywords instead of names. I sent them straight to spam.
I don’t understand, why people use keys in their names even if keywordluv is enabled? Machines?
.-= Juergen Sober@Kreditrechner´s last blog ..Ratenkredit Rechner =-.
Juergen,
I’m sure quite a few are bots, but others are people acting like robots. I’ve noticed that some spammers read enough of the headline to say something seemingly related to it, but they obviously didn’t read the post.
For example, I have a post about being bitten by a dog and having to have dozens of stitches and being in excruciating pain. The title of the post is “What I Learned from Animals.” I have received a number of comments from people who read the title and figured it was a warm and fuzzy story about pets. The comments are things like “Animals are so cuddly. I just love them.”
Naturally, those go into spam. If they took long enough to read the headline and write something vaguely related to the title, why don’t take just a little more time to find out what the post is really about. They might leave a relevant comment and get the keyword links instead of having their comments go to spam.
Hi Lillie,
After a long time I am here on your blog for my comments, I always like your blogs and I am finding this blog of yours very interesting.
As, While following a conversarion it is important to know the name of a person or a reader with whm you are conversing.
As, According to me, it is true that you will not going to converse with keywords but KeywordLuv Plugin, facilitaes you to add yourname with your targeted keywords which is according to me is beneficial.
Thanks and regards,
SNV
Snv,
As you say, with Keyword Luv commenters can leave a name and a keyword link. That’s why it’s so perplexing that they don’t.
About time you did this. Ok, I put my link here as well as many others, but why be a moron and put a keyword where the name is supposed to be when the site uses KeywordLuv? That`s plain stupid, if you ask me.
I think the rest of the blogging world should follow your example, and delete all comments without a name.
.-= John @ become taller´s last blog ..Grow tall! =-.
John,
I’m glad for commenters to leave a keyword link as long as I’m willing to link to the site and there is also a name.
I believe more and more bloggers are adopting this policy because so many commenters have abused our hospitality so much.
At first, I thought I could educate commenters, so I put a note in every reply to keyword commenters about how to use KeywordLuv. A few commenters, primarily those new to blogging who were trying to learn a lot at one time, came back, apologized for not leaving their name, and started leaving comments with their name. However, most of them never came back at all, or if they did come back to leave comments, they still didn’t leave their name!
It’s just laziness on the part of the commenters – pure and simple.
People just fire-up their browsers and try to get as many links as they can without actually taking the time to read the blog posts.
The whole point of comments is to add to the discussion, to have a conversation, not just to say “nice post” and hope for a link.
If people cannot take the time to even read the instructions for keywordluv then they really don’t deserve a link!
John,
Thanks for your support. You’re right: no one who doesn’t show the common courtesy of reading and following instructions deserves a link (especially a PR4 DoFollow link).
Too bad some can’t respect your request, maybe they just didn’t know. Seems like a reasonable request to me, makes thing a little more personal.
.-= Jonathan@Online business promotions´s last blog ..PUEBLO DRY CARPET CLEANING =-.
Jonathan,
It certainly seems reasonable to me. Many of these people probably won’t even realize their comment went into spam—they just leave the comment and move on.
I enacted this policy on one of my blogs, and it actually made very little difference to the amount of spam comments I got.
I guess they were mostly bots, or people arrogant enough to think that the rules didn’t apply to them.
Stu,
I don’t expect it to make any difference in the number of spam comments I get, but it will make a difference in the number of comments that appear on my blog. Probably 10% of the commenters whose comments I have approved have left keywords rather than names. So I will have 10% fewer comments unless some of those people start using names. Actually a couple have but most won’t, I’m sure.
@Lillie:
I can totally relate to you about not being able to connect with ‘inkjet printers’
I have switched to keywordluv on three blogs so that people can give me their names though they would like to get backlink with their preferred anchor text.
I am not sure about your policy of ‘not approving’ comments that don’t have names. I do a quick edit in wordpress and simply remove the URL. If the comment doesn’t have a name, I might still approve the comment but I will not give them a backlink. I hope you will think about that policy
Adam,
Thank you for your suggestion. At this time, I don’t plan to remove links and approve comments, but if someone leaves several relevant comments without a name, I might e-mail them and invite them to comment following my policy.
I had the do-follow plug in enabled on my blog but ended up spending an unnatural amount of time dealing with ridiculous comments. I’ve never tried KeywordLuv but it looks at though it provides the best of both – the ability to leave both a name and a keywords. I applaud your perseverance in carrying on with do-follow commenting. It would be all too easy to remove all the plug-ins.
Chris,
Sometimes it is tempting to remove DoFollow, but I have so many really great commenters that I want to show my appreciation. This no-name business has been the most annoying challenge, and I think this new policy will resolve that.
The policy’s not unreasonable. It’s just fair that you do this kind of action.
Also, Adam’s suggestion of removing the link is a good one. Not removing the dofollow is a blessing, and at the very least they should leave their name as a courtesy.
Personally, I don’t know what’s bad about leaving their names in the first place.
.-= Marq | UPrinting.com´s last blog ..Get a Free Proof Before You Pay — and Avoid Extra Cost and Delays =-.
Thanks, Marq. I don’t understand why people don’t want to leave their names, either.
Lillie, you’ve done a right thing here. We shouldn’t approve those comments didn’t have a proper name at all. It sounded like we’re all talking to robot or products, instead of human being!
.-= wilson´s last blog ..You Shouldn’t Let Your Baby Eat Too Much Eggs! =-.
Thanks for your support, wilson.
Thanks for the morning laugh! I just deleted a comment I previously approved by Mr. Foreclosure Las Vegas. Although not entirely on subject, one liners don’t get it with me.
Besides, if you want a juicy back link you have to work for it. That means using your real name while staying on topic.
.-= Matt Keegan´s last blog ..Deliciously Frightening: When Clients Go Bankrupt =-.
Matt,
How would you like to meet Mr. Foreclosure Las Vegas at a Chamber of Commerce event? Someone might introduce himself as Joe Blow, also known as Mr. Foreclosure Las Vegas. But he would never fail to give his real name as well even in an elevator speech.
I don’t think you’re being unreasonable. That is the least the commenters can do, since you otherwise have one of the most keyword and user friendly (alltogether!) policies there are. I would feel terrible if I left out my name, even by mistake.
Thank you, Andrej. I appreciate your support and your comments.
That is very frank and honest solution. If the person wants to stay anonymous – well he/she will not get a link. I have a blog myself and when someone uses “cheap toilet seats” or something like that as a name – well that is really stupid and such a comments is deleted at once.
Paul,
“cheap toilet seats”—a great example.
I don’t even mind if people remain anonymous, not using their real names. I understand some people, especially single women, want to protect their privacy for security reasons. All they have to do is come up with a nickname that sounds like a real person. I don’t care if someone is Susanne, Sus, Tootsie, or SK—just so they’re not “cheap toilet seats.”
I don’t think there is nothing wrong in this policy. You have every right to save your blog from spammers. People who generally leaves comments with keywords as their names are leaving comment just to get a targeted link for their website
.-= Anil Gupta´s last blog ..99 ways to make money using Twitter book by Geekpreneur =-.
Thanks for your support, Anil. I sometimes get good comments left by keywords, but it’s stressful trying to decide whether a specific comment is relevant enough to approve. Now I just delete all comments left by keywords, and it’s much faster and less stressful.
Ah, you’ve happened across the downside of do-follow! Frankly, I think the people who are leaving keyword only comments must be a bit dim – this is a keyword luv blog ffs!
Oh, one possible reason people might be doing this (I’ve just noticed), is that the little preview of your comment (below the comments box) doesn’t separate the name from the keyword. Ie in my preview it show the “Ste@” part as part of the link.
Ste,
I don’t think Comment Preview recognizes KeywordLuv. I explain that in the instructions above the comment box. I don’t know what else I can do. People have to do a little work to actually read the instructions.
I know the feeling. I’ve installed Keyword Luv on one of my blogs but some people seem to ignore it – if only they’d read the conditions they’d realise that we’re all happy to give out backlinks. Having a conversation with a real person is so much nicer that responding to the “Colon cleanser”!
James,
You gave a great example of why people should use real names.
Obviously, the people who leave comments with keywords like this don’t read—they just dump their comments. 
Yes keyword is a very important thing in the internet. But most people doesn’t understand the importance of it.
Suzane,
I think a lot of people know it’s important, but don’t know how to use keywords effectively. They don’t understand the importance of building relationships. They just want to drive by and drop their keywords without adding any value.
I understand exactally how irritating it is to get nothing but spam. The least people could do is actually read the article and say something more than “great post.” In my opinion, that’s the worst.
Warren,
I actually get a lot of great comments as well as a lot of spam.
And for me, for the worst spam are comments that copy and paste from other comments or even from the post itself!
I like your vigorous movement in your blog. Maybe I’ll use it on mine in purpose to separate spammers from real posters. Good luck!
.-= bondy´s last blog ..This printer drives me crazy! =-.
bondy,
I’m glad you like my policy and are considering doing the same thing on your blog. Maybe the combined efforts of all of us will slow—I know it won’t stop—the keyword spam.
I don’t know what is wrong with you people.
I had lunch and a few drinks with a keyword yesterday. We had a great conversation for almost two hours.
And yes, I agree, not leaving a name is flat out rude.
Greg (my real name)
.-= Greg @ John Lennon T Shirt´s last blog ..Imagine =-.
Greg,
Ah, now I see the problem. I haven’t been including the food and drink. That would make a conversation with a keyword better.
Lillie the food is not that important. It is the drinks that make a conversation with a keyword easy for me.
Just give me a few drinks and I will talk to anyone.
.-= Greg @ John Lennon T Shirt´s last blog ..Imagine =-.
Greg,
After a few drinks, you don’t know or care who you’re talking to. Even a keyword becomes a fascinating conversationalist then.
Now I know the secret.
No name, no comment policy? This is okay with me. But what about your other visitors?
.-= Elizabeth@personal statement medical school´s last blog ..Using Ethos and Mythos as Types of Evidence When Writing a Personal Statement Medical School =-.
Elizabeth,
I’ve had wonderful response from my visitors. No one has complained, and many people have said they agree. I don’t think readers enjoy reading comments from Cheap Toilet Seats or Liposuction any more than I do.
haha im sick of spamers all thogether. i do enjoy your blog and the time you have put into it. thankyou for your time.
.-= greg @ horsetacksaddlesupplies.com´s last blog ..Billy Cook Saddle Review =-.
greg,
I think we’re all sick of spam. I’m sure the people who don’t leave their names are sick of spam, also. Some of them just don’t recognize they’re spamming.
Lillie, this is a fair comment usage policy and i appreciate your views on this, especially with the naming part. I know how vague it would be to address somebody as “hi las vegas foreclosures”
. Enabling keywordluv makes it convenient for the blog owner as well as it encourages the blog visitor to post something meaningful and relevant to the original post. I myself being an ardent fan of the dofollow movement have all these plugins enabled in my blog. I would like you to take a look at our blog when you have spare time. I am thinking of reviving the comment policy at my blog.
Regards,
Mack McMillan
.-= Mack@Foreclosure Las Vegas´s last blog ..Commercial Real Estate Bubble =-.
Yay, Mack. This comment appeared just the way it’s supposed to! Finally.
I was ready for a short—very short—break from the manual I have to have finished by tomorrow morning.
So I took a quick look at your blog—looks like you have valuable information for anyone interested in the Las Vegas real estate market.
You seem to get a lot of comments from “City Realty” and “County Homes.” I am certainly enjoying my blog more now that I have “Joe from City Realty” and “Beth from County Homes” instead of just the keywords. Sometimes I feel a twinge when I mark a comment as spam when the comment itself is relevant. However, if commenters can’t be even bothered to read my policy and be courteous enough to give their name, I get over the twinge very quickly.
Can you believe I’ve even had a bunch of comments on this very post saying things like “great idea” and “I agree” … and left by keywords.
Yes! Lillie finally I have made it and I believe my comments wont make you to feel the twinge anymore. I am glad that you can spend your valuable time on other productive things instead of digging out my comments from the spam
I hate one liner comments especially “super post” “good post” a mere “thanks” and YES i too have so many of them in my approval que, to their dismay i will never approve them. I have become a fan of your blog and especially your commenting policy and special thanks for looking onto my blog despite your busy schedule. Please drop a line when you feel like.
Thanks!
Mack McMillan
.-= Mack@Foreclosure Las Vegas´s last blog ..Commercial Real Estate Bubble =-.
Mack,
I’m glad to have you as a fan, and I’m glad you can now comment without moderation.
Thanks Lillie. I have just started using keyword luv on some of my sites and appreciate your comments. Looks like I will have to do something like you are doing to get contructive comment. Instead of nice site!
Nice site though!
Regards
Darren B
.-= darren@mortgageloanmodification´s last blog ..Avoid Foreclosure- What Are Your Options =-.
darren,
Those “nice site” comments are difficult. Sometimes a reader just wants to give a word of encouragement, but most of the time it’s someone wanting a link.
I frequently make a visit to sites I know that are worth reading even though my comments are sometimes rejected. Maybe for some reasons the remarks I left weren’t that convincing as sensible enough to the site owner. Yet as someone who also owns a site understands the different policies each site owner would introduce.
.-= Jeff@Avoid foreclosure in Las Vegas´s last blog ..Hard times for Hi-Rise lender =-.
Jeff,
Your comments may be going into spam and the site owners simply deleting all spam. I believe your earliest comments here went into spam, but I retrieved and approved them, and now they are going through without moderation. One of my commenters had problems with Akismet tagging his comments as spam when he used Las Vegas in his keywords. He was able to contact Akismet and get off the blacklist—I’m not sure if he had been erroneously blacklisted or if something about Las Vegas sets off alarms for Akismet.
I appreciate relevant comments from real people. As you probably know from your own blog, sometimes it’s hard to be sure if the comment is relevant or not. I usually don’t approve a short comment like “Great post;” however, sometimes a regular commenter leaves something like that on a particular post, and I know it’s a sincere compliment from them rather than spam. But if it’s the first comment, I suspect it’s spam.
Yes, I read that. I think it was Mack from Las Vegas? Though I’m not that sure. However, I appreciate I’m not being put into moderation.
Sometimes, decision making is quite difficult in the moderation of comments.
.-= Jeff@Avoid foreclosure in Las Vegas´s last blog ..Hard times for Hi-Rise lender =-.
Jeff,
Yes, I believe it was Mack who had the problem of having his comments sent to spam.
[...] few months ago, I instituted a new comment policy: No Name, No Comment. If you leave a comment without a name or nickname that I can recognize as a person, the comment [...]
I can understand where you are comming from, trying to wrestle, the dofollow, nofollow, name, link, problem to the ground is difficult to do
lee,
Yes, and it’s a shame that spammers have to complicate the effort to reward commenters.
Your blog is a pleasure and your requests are very reasonable to say the least.
Thank you, Robert.
using keyword luv is already with name and our keyword so it will be benefit for both…
Agung,
Thank you for cooperating.
Those that don’t follow the rules are usually spambots. They don’t read the blog, they just post annoying automated responses. I’d just delete their posts.
don,
I have no problem deleting the obvious spam. Sometimes, though, I get relevant comments obviously written by a person–but still using keywords instead of a name. Those are the ones I hate to send to spam. If I’m not really rushed at the moment, I will email the commenter and point out the policy and give them an opportunity to give me a name to edit the comment and approve. Several commenters have responded favorably to this–they really didn’t intend to spam; they had just listened to some bad SEO advice.
Lillie,
Looks like the D isn’t showing up on my name on my last post. I don’t know if I accidently put a D or ?? lol.
I see you all over the internet, you must blog a lot. You do a great job replying to all the bloggers too.
I like adding my name to my posts. Luckily keywordluv makes that easy.
Weird, Don. I checked and it’s correct in the entry but somehow is not printing out correctly.
The other great trick (besides calling lazy comment spammers out in posts like this) is one you’re already doing: answering every commenter. It’s a welcome reminder that blogs are the honest thoughts and expressions of genuine human beings, not free advertising space.
In an active, two way comment section like this, breaking the rules is like interrupting a real world conversation by shouting “LOWEST MORTGAGE RATES” in their faces.
Thank you for keeping us accountable!
Great point, Alice, about interrupting a real world conversation. Some people just don’t consider that this is a two-way conversation.