When leaving comments on someone’s blog, how do you usually identify yourself?
By your first name, a variation thereof, full name, a nickname, your blog or website name, or your company name?
Do you think the latter, that is a website or company name, may be a little too impersonal, even aloof though?
If I left a comment on your blog referring to myself as say “Internet Services” or even “City Web Hosts”, (just for argument’s sake) wouldn’t you more than likely think it was spam?
There’s been a bit of that sort of commenting here lately, and while those leaving comments under such “names” have made some sort of effort to say something contextual, their comments have just about always been scooped up by Akismet and thrown in the trash.
It’s had me wondering though, is someone more likely to be blacklisted, or added to something like the Akismet spam database, because they use a “business like” identity when leaving comments?
Are bloggers more likely to hit the “mark as spam” button the instant they see a name like “City Web Hosts” sitting in their moderation queue?
While something like “John (disassociated.com)” could work around here as a commenting identity, given this is a personal, no-niche sort of blog, I’d prefer to relate to my visitors on an individual basis.
And given that the majority of blogs are individual efforts, I’d also say that’s how the majority of other bloggers would also like to relate to their readers as well.
In my individual and humble opinion, that is!
Wheew! You made me nervous.
I had to come over and check the last post to see if you were talking about me :)
Heh, no not you Ady :) For a start none of your comments come through on Akismet!
I honestly had no idea that Akismet picked those posts up as spam….very interesting. As for me , I believe that leaving a first name with your comment is more than adequate because
1) It is more personal and your are more likely to build quality connections that way.
2) People will warm up to you more quickly
3) Other readers will not just pass it off as spam theirself and might actually look into who you are and what you are about(assuming you leave a worthwhile comment ofcourse lol)
Very interesting. Keep up the good work.
Good points Bunk. I think bloggers are more likely to see comments left with non personal identities as spam and then mark them as such.
I imagine if someone like “Internet Services” was posting in industry related blogs or forums, then using the “company” name might be appropriate.
When they start using those of identities in other, or personal, blogs I think it increases the perception that the comments may be spam.
I think there is some grey area, but if someone uses something that isn’t part of their blog title (e.g. Make Money Online) as their nickname OR if their site is a scammy landing page they get the boot. If their site is a business site but they use their own name, or a personal blog but the title isn’t their name they get more consideration for sure.
I use Scott, mostly because that is my name.
Nice blog btw.. first time visit and I am quite enjoying myself
SB
@ Kurt – there’s definitely a gray area about it, but I get the feeling that unless a blogger knows a certain commenter goes by a certain business nom de plume they’ll be more inclined to regard their comments as spam…
@ Scott – welcome to disassociated and thanks for the compliment :)