Open Discussion: How Long Should You Wait Until You Stop Replying to or Disable Comments?

A friend sent me this question a couple days ago:

How long should you wait before you stop replying to comments?

He said he had un-replied-to comments from last November he still hadn’t gotten around to.

My thoughts are: if it’s gonna bother you that much that you don’t reply to a comment, then just reply, already! I’m not saying “phone it in,” but if you’re that pressed for time, a simple “Thanks for your comment” or “Thanks for sharing your thoughts” will let commenters know their efforts are acknowledged and appreciated.

But this prompted another, related question: do you disable comments after a certain period of time?

I think this depends on how much traffic and comments a post received on average (and specifically, what percentage is comment/trackback spam).

Where do you draw the line?

Filed Under: Blogging

http://www.Escapingthe9to5.com/ Maren Kate

It drives me MAD when I go to a blog and there is that 'comments closed' wording at the end.. .don't know why but I feel as if, no matter HOW old the article is, the owner of the content is saying “all that could possibly be said was said, so whatever you have to add just isn't important enough to matter”. It takes NO skin off people's noses to keep comments open, maybe once in a blue moon go back through from post 1-50 and reply… but if you don't then just don't… but I think regardless you should leave comments open, because isn't the whole point to encourage interaction?
http://www.Escapingthe9to5.com/ Maren Kate

It drives me MAD when I go to a blog and there is that 'comments closed' wording at the end.. .don't know why but I feel as if, no matter HOW old the article is, the owner of the content is saying “all that could possibly be said was said, so whatever you have to add just isn't important enough to matter”. It takes NO skin off people's noses to keep comments open, maybe once in a blue moon go back through from post 1-50 and reply… but if you don't then just don't… but I think regardless you should leave comments open, because isn't the whole point to encourage interaction?
http://www.EclecticChange.com/ Roberta Hill

I agree with Maren but when I started getting 10 spam comments a day . . . it is time. That is on an inactive blog so I have closed all comments after 30 days. On the newer blog (and where I imported most of the original posts), I have better spam checkers and leave it open.
http://twitter.com/IAC_Heather Heather

I agree with Maren too, but I understand what Roberta is saying as well. I think 30 days is a good time frame for closing comments. The ones that aggravate me are the blog posts that are a week old is all and the comments are closed.

Personally, I don't close comments at all. All comments have to be approved first and those that are spam just don't get approved.
http://www.diary4life.com Paul

I agree with both Maren and Roberta's comments. Reading a blog where comments have been closed or never even been there in the first place, can be very frustrating. Many blog readers love to 'say their piece' after spending the time reading a post. so why shouldn't they be able to add their comments? I guess that's up to the blogger, if they choose to close or not allow comments, so be it. As long as they're consistent with it, you know what to expect.

I believe Steve Pavlina has no comments but he has a forum where blog readers can discuss to their hearts content.

Personally I've no problem whether there are comments or not; if the post looks interesting I'll reading. If there's the opportunity to comment and I feel the urge, I'll leave a comment.

Thanks for a great post.

Regards

Paul
http://nathanhangen.com/blog Nathan Hangen

Funny you mention it, considering I've thought about doing this lately. I don't get a ton of comments, but I've changed the way I think about blogging and in some cases, comments can become a distraction.

Still haven't decided, but I'm curious how people view a blog that turns off comments?
erika

I think the post should never be closed for comments, but in terms of replying to it, it should depend on how busy you are. I think it's the matter of how soon or how often you are replying, not for how long.
http://evengrounds.com/blog Julius

I think disabling comments after 60 or 90 days would be all right.
http://wahmbizbuilder.com/ Melinda | SuperWAHM

I have my comments set to close after 90 days because I'm trying to limit the comment spam that I get. I'd love to leave them open, but the spam is annoying.

After 90 days there's another 25+ more recent posts for people to read and comment on, it's not like I'm closing comments on everything.

I try to reply to comments as soon as I can, so that's usually within 24 hours. Very occasionally it gets to be a few days. If for some reason it's longer than that then I don't worry about replying at all – I think that's only happened twice and one of those times was over Christmas!

Really enjoying reading everyone's thoughts here, the differerent viewpoints are really interesting!
http://www.ridiculouslyextraordinary.com KarolGajda

I don't mind if a blog doesn't have comments enabled or turns them off after a while. What is frustrating is when a blog has open comments but the author doesn't respond to them. Especially when there are questions. That's not only rude, but shows the author doesn't care about their audience. (There are a lot of big bloggers that do this. If it wasn't for their readers they wouldn't be big, but that point seems to go over their heads.) If a reader is going to spend (waste, in this case) their time commenting on a blog and the author can't be bothered to respond they should turn off the comments.
http://www.my-credit-cards.co.uk/ Anne Kingston

my simple opinion the best tool for commenters and also for the bloggers if all the blogs get disqus plug ins thank god that would be a great news for me!
remarkablogger

Great stuff, folks. A lot of varying opinions. There's no right or wrong answer for this: there's what works for your audience (and thus for you) and what you feel comfortable with.

I don't have the levels of traffic that would threaten to shut down an entire server from comment spam. If I ever do, I might close comments after a time. But for now they remain open always. A great blog post often provides immense value to people who find your blog via search almost indefinitely after it's published. These posts can rack up a lot of comments.

The number of comments on a post is a rough indicator of the post's usefulness or popularity. It's a form of social proof on blogs we all navigate by.

I don't respond to every single comment every time (like this one). But as best as I can remember I respond to comments on every post at least once (often more).

It's the quality and nature of the comment — not the age of the post — that determines whether or not I reply to it. Some comments don't really leave me anything meaningful to to say as a reply, so I don't and I don't worry about it.

That doesn't happen often. I usually respond. Especially on older posts to let the commentor know I'm listening. Sometimes I miss comments or can't reply until a later time than I wanted. I quick “sorry for the late reply, but…” works in these cases.

Letting people know you're listening, that you value their opinions and their contribution: this is what matters. Engagement matters. Sooner is better than later, but later is better than never. If a commentor is clearly making an effort to engage, I'll meet him or her halfway.

If a commentor is not really trying to engage, It's not likely I'll respond. And I may even delete the comment if it's particularly empty, irrelevant, or overly self-serving.
john143

Great article, found the information really useful, thanks for posting.
Pingback: Conversation Starter Pistols | Morpho Designs