Building a Community Through Comments

Randa Clay Designs encourages everyone to turn off settings in blogs which keep search engines from allowing their bots to add comments. I believe the main purpose of this is so that Technorati and other similar sites will pick up comments and back links to count them. So, the more you comment on other sites with this logo, the higher your ratings will be. There is also a Bumpeze community for it.

I think the little logo is a bit deceiving as to the true purpose to alert people that the blog has the "no comment" search bot settings turned off.

I am not ready to turn off my settings. Personally, I do not like the idea of someone being able to search and find every single comment I made. I like the privacy. Seeing this logo sometimes makes me hesitate to comment instead. I wonder if they realize the reverse effect it has.

In addition, I am not too concerned with ratings.


MeandMyDrum has a similar concept, but more true to purpose.

I have already long ago been following the practice he suggest. I always try to follow back as best I can and return a comment when someone comments here. It just plain 'ol makes people feel good to get comments! Warm fuzzies abound!


I am not sure I need another logo in my sidebar (making the page load even longer), although it is well designed, to alert people of my practice. I think people will figure it out on their own over time through my activity.

Sometimes I feel bad as it seems wrong to be the one always "following." Often I would like to be the one to leave the comment first, but by the time I get done "following," I have no time left to even read my RSS any more.

Other Blogger users are easy to track back and comment, but often those with other blog platforms are harder to follow, especially if they do not fill out the comment correctly.

There is the ability to enter a link to your own blog in the comment box, but I have to travel to the post itself to get the link as I cannot easily access it from the e-mail notification. I try to check this, but I am afraid sometimes I miss it.





If you are not a Blogger user, the best way to leave an easily trackable link is to create a free Blogger account and add your website address and e-mail to your profile. Thereafter, log into Blogger when you comment.

Even creating a Blogger blog with one post sending people to your blog would work.

It is just much easier to follow through the e-mail notifications of comments.

For those that do not have a blog, having the e-mail filled in would allow me to reply to a question privately too. There are a few of my readers that are SO good with comments that I wish I had their e-mail to at least thank them for their kindness.


Did you know that if you put the url in my shoutout box, I can also easily follow that, as well as an e-mail address?