Blog Discussions

1

They are a little impersonal (well, a LOT impersonal as you're sending the same message to x people) but they do work.

Thanking someone for commenting first time, and letting them know a little more about your blog (best articles), why they should subscribe to your RSS feed can be the different between a one time visitor and someone that keeps coming back.

Re automated messages on forums, I've put one up just to let people know that should they need help, they can contact me - as well as welcome them to the fray. :)

2

I think they are a little impersonal, and kind of unnecessary. I don't mind the personalized notes responding to my comment, but the ones telling me I commented and thank you just aren't needed.

3

i don't like impersonal generated notes. but then i've never recvd one like jason stated.

btw, ben, never recvd your email regarding my majestic questions. musta been eaten by the web.

4

I haven't received too many of these, and I didn't mind them. One even made me smile because it was a really nice thank you note. But I wouldn't want every site I visit to have the feature. I don't visit too many forums so I'm not too sure on that one.

What I do want to hear about though is this eating of emails by the web. This is a very scary thought. Only because someone sent me a rather personal email about 2 weeks ago, and I still haven't gotten it (checked spam and everything)! :( Not cool.

5

I leave thank you notes to people that advertise their advert on my blog, it's just a way to connect. The internet and blogging can be so impersonal if we let it be but can also be a great socialization tool if we take a few extra minutes.
I'm continuously amazed at how blogging has helped me reach out.

6

It's very impersonal. To me it seems they are too concerned with what other seo/ money making blogs tell them they should do. I don't return every comment, I don't answer every question. But I never send robo-notes. Every last stupid word is personally from me. :) Imperfection is part of the personal touch.

7

Jason - I'm undecided. I see your point about notes sometimes encouraging people to come back to a site, but there are people who would rather be left to make that decision on their own without feeling pushed into it. I'm somewhere in the middle - if I get an auto-reponse I usually delete it - but it wouldn't stop me from going back to the site if I wanted to go. The thing that might stop me is if I received multiple messages with a few days of each other as I hadn't gone back to the site immediately.

Monique - there are boundaries, certainly. Some notes can work better than others. It varies from person to person though.

mlpieters - not sure what happened to the email, I'll try sending it again. Sorry about that.

fragileheart - that's a good point - if every site sent lots of messages we'd be overwhelmed. Each site could consider whether it's the right thing to do, and ask readers for feedback on it. Better that than just turn it on because it's an available feature. As for emails, maybe the web was hungry? I'll resend the email to mlpieters and see if it goes through this time. At least I have a copy in my Sent folder.

Mamaflo - I don't send thank you notes to people who advertise via Entrecard or Project Wonderful, but I don't mind if people thank me (as you did). If I was running private ads I'd already be dealing with people via email, so I'd thank them directly once the exchange had taken place. Many of the people who advertise on my site via Entrecard already read my blog and possibly comment on it, and I always thank people for comments, so that's enough for me. I don't mind either way though.

Laura - the funny thing is, some of these automated notes have mistakes in them too! I may publish blogging tips, but I try to focus on the things that I think will help people the most. I'd still advise people to consider whether the tips they read would be appropriate for their site before using them. Different methods work for different sites - if we all did exactly the same thing, the web might be a bit more predictable, but some of the differences give each site its own identity. Not that I can ever make excuses for sites that use autoplaying audio though, to name one gripe... ;)

Thanks for the comments, keep them coming. :)

8

I posted my list of tips for blogging greatness as a Thursday Thirteen post, on Thursday even. :) It's just a teeny bit sarcastic. It was fun to come up with the list.

9

Waste of time in my view, especially when everyone jumps on the bandwagon and you get dozens of them. Its like "have a nice day" from shop assistants ... may have meant something once but now its just a formula saying with no personal meaning.

10

I think they are unnecessary. Ways to track the comment thread are more important to me.

11

I'm not keen on the automated responses. If I leave a comment on someone's site - unless it's a trade enquiry or a question made to a helpdesk - I expect personal responses either in the form of a comment or email.

Now that I think about it, I don't even expect a return comment if I've made the initial comment on a site I frequent often - like yours, Ben.

Interesting post, I'll have to think about it a bit more!

12

I like responses to my comments, but I don't like auto-response emails.

13

Laura - I saw those tips, it was a good list!

Ian - I know what you mean. People should think instead of just following the crowd.

Periapex - the thing is, I'm not a fan of subscribing to comments by email, and RSS can get a bit out of hand if you subscribe to lots of posts. I do provide a "what's new" item list on my site for people who register and log in - I'm not sure what the best way is, though.

Amy - I agree that replying to comments is very important. Not sure I understand under what situation you wouldn't expect a reply, though. Are you saying that once one of your comments has been replied to, subsequent comments of yours don't need a reply?

beeker - agreed!

Thanks for the comments. :)

14

I'm not a big fan of them at all. All they do is clog up my inbox. :(

15

Subscribing to comment feeds is cumbersome for sure. I've been trying out cocomment(.com) and find it helps a bit. It's a little flaky as they work out the bugs, but it's a good attempt at a decent way to track my conversations.

16

Lightening - well, it's not that hard to delete them, but I do try to stop this kind of thing at the source. Prevention is better than cure. :)

Periapex - coComment looks interesting. Thanks for the link.

Thanks for the comments. :)