Comment Control for Websites

Admitting time: every time someone receives notification of a comment online they get both excited and nervous. The fact that no matter what, positive or negative a feedback, someone reading work or opinions means more than a comment ever could. But there's still the fact that some use this feature as a means to harass and "beat down" those who may have a negative opinion or in the worst case, nothing better to do. After observing users and comments, along with receiving some feedback in regards to comment control, I came up with my opinion on what comment control should be made available to all websites where you can write or express an opinion, as well as how this would help (as well as how each may hinder as counterpoint) make any place that allows comments to be more safe and secure.

Ever had an article or blog written and it was amazing by both your standards and perhaps others even praised you? Blockbuster, astounding and rated at least a five star written piece only to receive a slew of negative feedback from a few 'agitated' users who didn't share your opinion or at worst didn't LIKE your failure to mention a detail in your writing? This can be stating a prediction for a new movie or even the newest Harry Potter book. You don't remember something from the previous and get attacked because of human error. So apart from the few gutsy commentors who remain signed in to express opinion, you also have well over twenty "spam" comments which in most cases are malicious. What is there to do? Not much in the current state but repeatedly check back a "hot" article and keep blocking or deleting these comments.

My first idea is simple and based off of blogs, but as we all know blogging is far different than writing articles. But the idea of comments on there intrigues me. It keeps "drama" low (let's face it, there is drama on here, be it in the forum or via comments) and gives people some sort of "padding". This is where blogging and articles differentiate. You may get a fact wrong (such as a soap opera episode or even an actor's name) and someone wants to alert you to this innocent error. Having that help available to those in comments is a blessing.

Allowing the owners of a blog or writing piece to determine what comments they can suggest is what I first came up with when looking over commenting features on various places. This would be the "ultimate" feature, which would break down what users may receive as comments into several categories. Once this option is selected, it can only be changed via the users own control panel (namely where you edit your information, upload an avatar... you get the idea) You'd simply click a box allowing one of the following options.

No Comments

No Comments at all. This means that those 'spam' ones aren't left and members to a site can't leave comments either. This is the least favored idea I came up with out of all of them. Constructive criticism is a blessing at times. Sure it can also be a hinderance but the good often outweighs the bad in most instances. There are always the exceptions. Allowing no comments means you also don't get notified of any errors you may have made and on the opposite side you also can't display any 'praises' you get for your writing. However, this option has no control over sending a private message to a writer (or e-mail), which is always good. If they implemented a no comment feature writers could still be made aware of errors in private and still receive positive feedback. Honestly, I feel that is why people DO delete comments - they're embarrassed or afraid the simple slip makes them look stupid. Yes, this can include when you blog about your favorite moment on American Idol and slip up a name.

Disabling comments can provide too much of a padding, though. If you're blatantly throwing "garbage" out into the scene and looking for the easy fix to avoiding being told flat out "No, you're wrong.." you may be abusing the commenting system to avoid seeing where you could improve on writing. But if utilized for the right reason, it could do some good. Not much, but some to certain users.

Writers/Friends Only

You want to comment? Sign up and become a producer. This option would at least give people the name of he or she commenting so that they can at least respond to any comments privately or publically for whatever reasons someone fancies. The positive of this is you can sometimes learn amazing things from others who comment. They leave you something nice, you may peruse their published content and discover the most amazing things. This also can allow you to report to those who are blatantly out to cause problems. Most blogs or writing places have a 'contact us' feature for just such an occasion. With all things, however, this has a definite drawback. Users create an account to be able to "harass" others and soon there are many producers out there who never publish because they're "dead" accounts, so to speak. They're used once or twice to comment, troll, leave negative feedback and cause problems before being abandoned or what have you. The space taken up on the server side can become an overload. All this would do is resolve the nasty spam comments.

Notification of ANY comments

I've noticed a lot of users state they have a slew of spam comments and they're never notified of these comments. Some are legit, positive comments and some are the most negative feedback you can receive. This option would mean you receive notice of any and all comments that users may leave, including the spam so you can clean it up. It appears that a few writers feel that the negative spam can unfairly give legit readers opinions before given a fair shake. This also can give the writers a chance to remove the nasty or irrelevant comments and know that they are accumulating. Since they are comments, just like members leaving comments, users should be notified of these. Either any comments or no comment notification. Some just don't care what feedback they get. This would allow those who like to monitor comments to do so and let those who just don't care continue to write without receiving e-mails they tend to just delete. Of course, we all know that sites can easily have a glitch in a mailing system, so if you aren't getting notified of blog comments, just let them know of a possible bug.

The next issue I noticed was should users be able to delete comments? This is a tough situation. I've left comments about a 'wrong' fact and it was deleted by the user. I wondered if it was read and why it was taken down. The material you write is yours, but also isn't in the fact that a site may have bought it off of you(as many may do). So it's a 50/50 situation in regards to authors being able to control comments in this aspect. Spam, yes indeed. Any and all writers should be able to control these kinds of comments. Besides, that is why there is the 'block user' or 'ignore user' option in regards to these comments.

But what about legit, member comments? Should these be left able to be deleted or make "official" comments unable to be deleted? Having the option to delete comments by producers can resolve the issue of being harassed. You can merely click the x on their comment and problem solved. However, if a user repeatedly uses the article or articles as a means to harass you, perhaps a "block user" comment would be useable there as well. This won't mean the user can't read your material, but, just can't comment. Some feel this would be unfair. It would be as equally unfair to remove the option to control comments all together.

No matter what a blog site or any writing site does next to improve, there will always be those who wonder when comments are the next to be overhauled. Be it because of 200 plus spam comments on an article or just plain dislike of your take on why so-n-so should have left Big Brother sooner, more sites should implement features that allow users and bloggers (among other site users) to make their comment control allow them to feel comfortable in writing. Nobody should be chastised for an opinion on a blog or even a personal website ever.