As a “Thank You” to Those Who Comment…
By Matt McGee on Apr 18, 2007 | comments (10)
… I’ve made a couple changes to how this blog handles your comments.
1.) I’ve installed the Do Follow plugin by Denis de Bernardy. I’m willing to risk the drawbacks of someone spamming the comments in favor of letting those of you who comment here regularly get some “link love” in the process. If I end up spending all my time deleting/editing comments, I’ll obviously need to reconsider.
2.) I’ve installed the Comment Rankings plugin by Gary King. This one rewards frequent commenters with stars next to your name, like this:
You get one star for every 10 comments you make. I just installed this tonight, so other than Patrick, I have no idea who already has a star(s) next to their name. Only way to find out is to start commenting! 
Recap: Followed links and pretty stars next to your name. Who loves ya, baby?
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On Apr 19, 2007, Mariusz said:
I like this idea. I wondered to implement it at my blog as well. Is this going to work with the newest WordPress?
On Apr 19, 2007, Hawaii SEO said:
Sweet! I got rid of the nofollow a long time ago as well.
Now all you need to do is get rid of the need to log in requirement. It’s one less roadblock for spontaneous folks like me who are top commenter’s on several blogs.
I love threaded comments. I also like the my avatars plugin. It helps people who comment get to know each other.
On Apr 19, 2007, Mariusz said:
I do not think so. After opening commenting in this way, spam in comments would be serious problem.
On Apr 19, 2007, increseo said:
That gives me a stronger reason to comment.
Btw, I don’t think spam will ever get their hand here because of the registration requirement.
On Apr 19, 2007, Mariusz said:
I am not sure, but I had forum, where I discarded registration requirement. The spam increased like 4-5 times…
. I did not have time to build special solution for this forum, so I came back to the registration.
On Apr 20, 2007, sheseltine said:
I have a star, I’m a somebody
On Apr 20, 2007, Mariusz said:
Congratulations, so you are the star
On Apr 22, 2007, SeanMcGinnis said:
Matt:
Nice work. A side benefit is these two tactics assembled in series are likely to increase site visits to feed reader ratio. I’m interested to hear how this affects your visits to the site over time. You might want to publicize this in some way graphically to let new visitors know your policy as well.
On Apr 22, 2007, Matt McGee said:
Dave (Hawaii) — I think I’ll always require login/registration. I have to. I’m sometimes away from the blog and even the Internet for several hours at a time, and with traffic increasing, I think there’s a better chance of being hit with comment spam.
Sean – thanks for the ideas there. I’ll keep an eye on those numbers for sure.