When I post something of substance to this site, I usually post links on social media, typically Twitter, Facebook and Google+ to make the world aware of it. I notice that people are far more willing to leave comments on those social media links than they are against the blog posts themselves.
While I appreciate feedback and engagement via any route it would be nice if the conversations weren’t fragmented across multiple sites. I have done a bit of superficial research to see if there are any WordPress plugins that let me synchronise comments between WordPress and this blog, and to date (like Bono) I haven’t found what I’m looking for. It may well be that Facebook want to keep things within their walled garden for monetisation purposes, so such a plugin would defeat their evil plans for world domination.
So, those of you who tend to leave comments on Facebook rather than here on the blog, why do you do this? It can’t be to do with privacy, because I usually make links to my blog public, and unlike Facebook this site allows you to comment pseudonymously. Are there things I could or should do to make you more willing to leave comments on the actual blog?
Note that the first comment you leave will go into a moderation queue purely as an anti-spam measure, but once that one’s been approved, all subsequent comments will go straight through.
Have a read of http://onlyagame.typepad.com/only_a_game/2013/05/the-extinction-of-blogs.html and about the next four posts and see what you think.
For myself, I reckon comment aggregation is at least as important as article aggregation. Like you, I’ve not yet seen a sensible solution.
Comment aggregation is really the solution I’m looking for, and I suspect the problem isn’t so much technical as clashing with Facebook’s walled-garden business model.
Install Disqus. I’ve been using it on my site to excellent effect. You can fine-tune the amount of integration, and you get to keep copies of all your comments via the WordPress plugin.
Disqus replaces the native WordPress comments, doesn’t it? I’ve seen Facebook WordPress plugins that replace native comments with FB comments, which is even more sub-optimal…
On the other hand, I’ve finding the responses over in Zuckerville rather disappointing.
It replaces them, but the contents of the comments are always echoed back to your native WordPress installation, so you can uninstall Disqus and the comments remain.
I set up Disqus with MT, where it works the same way. And if you install it on a site that isn’t directly supported by Disqus, they let you export all your comment in an XML format file.
TBH I find Disqus’s comment system better than the native WP or MT systems for a whole variety of reasons.
In general, commenting on Facebook is always easier because it’s instant (no initial approval required), you’re already logged in (no need to spend precious seconds typing in a name and email), it has a greater audience for appreciation (as FB throws up your witty comment into the newsfeed, for all to see) and it’s easy to check back to see responses (without having to check email or return to the page to see if anyone else has commented). Makes it feel like more of a discussion, rather than just a notice-board posting of your opinion, as a reader.
That said, I comment on this blog (when I get chance) rather than FB because we’re not FB friends… presumably because you hate me
Did you ever send me a friend request which I forgot to accept?
Looks like the WordPress Add Link To Facebook plugin might do what I want – Anyone used it? Any pitfalls?