Commenting Made Easy

Yesterday Salz from Salz Dummy Spits wrote a great post about how to comment on a blog. It got me thinking about the other side of the coin.  What can bloggers do to help make commenting on a post that much easier?
 

1.  Firstly...get rid of damn capture. The codes are damn near impossible to read. When I get one fist go I feel like I have cracked The Da Vinci Code or something similar.  If it doesn't work the second time then I give up. I have a short attention span.  Like toddler short.  If you don't know how to get rid of it, I've gone to the trouble of googling it for you. http://www.ehow.com/how_12101876_rid-captcha-blog.html
 

2. If you have captcha, don't have moderation as well. It's just overkill. Do one or the other. Moderation is easier for everyone. You get to scan the comments before they go live and the people who want to comment on your blog don't have to jump through 1000 hoops to leave a comment. If things are too hard, people won't comment.
 

3.  Interact with the people who comment on your blog. If someone has asked you a question, or even taken the time to comment on your blog, make some kind of effort to reply to it.  It makes your readers feel included and that's how you start a community, by not being an Ice Queen who thinks they are holier than thou.
 

4.  Ask questions to get people involved.  I know that sometimes I don't know what to reply to a post beyond 'great post'. Talk about things that make your reader want to engage with you.
 

5.  Don't leave comments in moderation too long. I'm really bad for this because I forget to check moderation.  As a reader though I know how frustrating it can be to go back a day  later to a post that you have commented on, to find that your comment still hasn't appeared.  It can make you feel that the comment has been deleted or completely ignored on purpose. Or maybe that's just my paranoia.
 

As a commenter on blogs...what is your suggestion to bloggers to make things easier for you? What are your pet hates when you try to comment on a blog?