Online Marketing

Don’t EVER Have Comments Queue For Approval

April 28, 2012 by Aidan Bradley in Online Marketing with 12 Comments

One thing that irks me online, is blogs that require comments to go through content moderation before approval.

Even if a site moderator or admin only goes to the site daily, this stifles the conversation that could be going on. To myself, the conversation that ensues is almost as important as the post itself.

I haven’t deleted a comment from this site in over 3 months, and for those familiar with The Web Executive, they know that the only comments you will ever find on here are from intelligent, relevant, human, (and probably very good looking) individuals.

My other trick is that you won’t find any annoying CAPTCHA systems, because personally, trying to read those to me is like try to read a Dr’s handwriting. Impossible…

So what’s the secret? I host my site through MediaTemple, and have had a server with them for many years now, and I decided to switch on their free CloudFlare CDN service. This not only acts as a standard Content Delivery Network, but also has a very nifty layer of security on top.

Ever since switching this on, I read the reports CloudFlare generate for me, and I can see that every bot, scanner, and complete idiot get blocked. If the system finds that they are coming from an undesirable IP, or the traffic or headers coming from it are dubious, then it puts a landing page in front of them which they must pass through manually.

Long story short, it is a very worthwhile service to look into, it means I have to spend less time monitoring, and more time providing.

Tagged CDN, cloudflare, comment moderation, content delivery network, DoFollow, mediatemple

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About Aidan Bradley

Aidan Bradley is an Enterprise Solutions Architect with a keen interest in emerging technologies and Business Consulting. His passions include Web Design and Development, and he is an avid supporter of the Australian Start-Up community.

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12 Comments

Damon BillianApril 28, 2012 at 9:35 amReply

Glad to help we could help cut down the spam comments to your blog. Definitely let us know if we can do anything better at CloudFlare.
Damon Billian recently posted..App: Panopta Provides Advanced Server Monitoring and Outage Management Services
Aidan BradleyApril 28, 2012 at 9:40 amReplyAuthor

Thanks Damon. Will be looking at upgrading to a PRO account soon to see how the extra functionality performs.
May pay to wait until we start generating a higher level of traffic.
Aidan Bradley recently posted..Should I Switch From DropBox to Google Drive?
LinxMay 1, 2012 at 12:54 amReply

Thank you very much for this very valuable bit of information. I have already (just now, actually) visited their site – such an attractive, open and trustworthy page. Love the look and feel of the company – clever and catchy name too.

Will definitely be working with them in the very near future. Again: thank you. One wants it all to flow…and be protected at the same time – this appears to be a big part of the answer!
TashWordMay 1, 2012 at 11:01 amReply

I will check them out as making things easier for readers and myself can only be a good thing!

I do moderate my blog but once a comment has been approved, subsequent comments are automatically live. By moderating, I also can see when new comments arrive and therefore can answer them as I think it is important to reply to people taking the time to respond to my posts.

I hate seeing spam comments under a blog post (and sorry Aidan but I have seen them here recently) as I think it shows inattention from the blogger and it wastes my time to read their nonsense instead of a potentially valuable comment.
TashWord recently posted..How you communicate is important
Aidan BradleyMay 1, 2012 at 11:25 amReplyAuthor

Tash that’s fair enough if you do check right away, and I have noticed that on your site. Unfortunately not a lot out there do, I’ve run into a few sites recently whereby it’s taking up to 3-4 days before comments come up.

News sites I understand need to approve all comment due to the nature of some of their articles, but The Herald Sun, an Australian paper can take a day or so before a comment is put up, by then the world has moved onto the following day’s problems.

(And yea I saw a spam comment the other day Ironically the day after I posted this article, I still get comment notifications so that I can remove them)
Aidan Bradley recently posted..Skype To Be Accessed Via Browser
investorMay 7, 2012 at 2:03 pmReply

Thanks for the posting. I never actually thought of it like that. On all my blogs i currently have comments wait for approval because I have had many spam bots just posting links.

Off topic a little here, can i ask what plugin you have here that sows the last post’s of people? I love it and would like to add it to my blogs!
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Aidan BradleyMay 7, 2012 at 2:34 pmReplyAuthor

Hi there, thanks for visiting. As Tash pointed out there are advantages for it, but I will rarely revisit somewhere if I don’t see my comment go up promptly.

Also, there are a couple of plugins available, or you can get some code here:
http://www.wpinsite.com/code-snippets/display-latest-comments-wordpress-sidebar
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VellaMay 11, 2012 at 11:20 amReply

Interesting.
But I think most bloggers do that to cut down
on spam and trollers.
youtubedominationJuly 8, 2012 at 6:26 amReply

I would have to agree with you, when I have something to say and want to contribute, I want it to be posted especially if it’s a witty comeback.
BreakfreeJuly 9, 2012 at 8:45 amReply

Wow, your articles are really helpful to me. It turns that I barely approve any comment because I think that its just a useless loss of time. Now that I know about this I will certainly change my attitude towards comments.
theaaaJuly 18, 2012 at 4:24 amReply

I agree. I hate it when I post my comments and there’s a note saying, “your comment is awaiting moderation.” It’s such a turn off for sites to do that. A lot of people should probably try that service you’re using now.
PaladinOctober 5, 2012 at 9:09 amReply

Thanks for the posting. I never actually thought of it like that. On all my blogs i currently have comments wait for approval because I have had many spam bots just posting links.
Off topic a little here, can i ask what plugin you have here that sows the last post’s of people? I love it and would like to add it to my blogs!
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