This is the quote of the week.
It’s HBR’s (Harvard Business Review) blog commenting policy, and a case study on how not to build community around blog conversations.
HBR, as an organization, is obviously no dummy, but setting themselves up as relevance police and the anti-conversation Ninjas is retro at best, certainly misguided. For a blog that pontificates on heady web topics, it’s showing its academic, out-of-touch side.
The scary fact that they think it is OK to take your comment, edit it for ‘relevance’ and publish under your name is just wacko.
I’m on the opposite side from HBR in both intent and execution. Actually in every way.
When I think of blog commenting guidelines this is my list:
1. Not all blogs have comments. Not all aspire to be a community
If your goal is simply to push out information and you don’t want to chat with anyone, don’t.
Seth Godin’s legendary daily epistle of marketing advice is a case in point. Useful, always entertaining and astoundingly consistent, he has comments turned off. It suits his needs as an author and public speaker. He is a brand and marketing master and I’m happy to have him in my inbox daily as is.
2. Some blogs can’t handle comments, they should just fess up and airlift community elsewhere
If you start with comments and just can’t cut it, just close it down.
The best example of this is The Pour by Eric Asimov. It went commentless a while back through a blanket NY Times policy change (I think). I was truly unhappy, but still more content that they pulled the plug rather than HBR’d it. (I’m also somewhat mollified to have Eric on Twitter more often to interact with.)
3. Comments are the true content
This is a basic web truism. If you are fortunate enough to have readers who care to comment, recognize that they, not you, are the core of the conversation. People don’t reread posts often. People scan comments all the time or follow commentors around on Disqus threads.
4. The most dynamic communities simply police themselves
The best blogs have only one rule: respect each other.
Nothing more. They don’t prequalify your comments. They don’t define themselves by what is not allowed.
The community itself will encourage the behavior that defines it. Sounds simple, but it really is that simple when it works.
5. Spam is just that, and should be treated as such
Ads dumped in comment strings for-work-at-home-fortunes, or real trolls, are both simply garbage. Just remove them.
The hard part is not how to remove them, but in knowing when not agreeing and being confrontational is just part of the conversation. We want diversity but no one wants to be needlessly and nastily offended. Tough call at times.
Moderation and community management is both a learned skill and a powerful talent. It’s a wonder in the hands of the very few who excel at it.
6. Ignoring the inane is a powerful strategy
People comment to engage. You may not agree with what they say. You may not like how they say it, but you learn more by opening the door to diversity and different ways of thinking than by sanitizing the dynamics.
Some people don’t quite cross the line to be considered spam, they are just unpleasant. Don’t dignify what you don’t like with a response.
My rule of thumb is that a jerk that nobody pays attention to doesn’t really matter. They will take their hostility and go home in most cases.
In blogs, the most liked and commented on rise to the top of the thread. The uninteresting, the truly nice but non opinionated and the ignored sink to the bottom and out of sight.
7. Lack of response is rudeness personified
If you have comments attached to your blog you are inviting people in to chat. It’s that simple.
If you have many comments and a community of people, the dynamics of the string takes care of itself.
If you put up a post and I just like it or +1000 it, all is good, This is an enthusiasts upvote.
If you spend 90 minutes writing the post and I spend 15 minutes thoughtfully responding, I’m important and ought to be acknowledged. People want to be rewarded for contributions of substance. Why not reward them, by simply engaging?
8. Randomness is goodness
This is the most misunderstood one.
Most Q & A sites are boring, and fail even though they are conversational. They lack community and the human touch. They sacrifice the interest footprint of people for the hard edge of context.
Comments are the natural language of the web. The more you set the scene for people to be themselves, the more fun it will be, the more honest the communications and the more interesting the exchange.
When I see that someone is commenting from Aspen, and I ask how windy it is on the top of Highland Bowl, is that useful and relevant? For absolutely certain it is, and it greases the cordiality of the exchange that follows.
Lightening up and letting go is a good strategy
The power of the web as a social platform to connect people to others and companies to people who might care about their products is key to its magic. It’s inspiring, limitless and powerful, even when used badly.
It’s really hard to create content that matters. It’s amazingly rare to actually have community develop under your leadership. But it’s just common web sense to not lead with what you don’t want and simply let people sort themselves out.
It’s just a conversation! Be glad that it’s happening at all.
