For me, there arises a need to track comments that I have made on other blogs for several reasons.

• It may be the first time I visit that blog and I would want to track the conversations on an interesting debate.
• It is a contest on a blog, which I may like to keep track and check to see if anything new has come up.
• It would be better to track the comments and reply when necessary instead of visiting the post and scrolling through dozens of comments.

For these reasons, I find comment tracking services very useful. Here, I am making a list of three sites to track post comments and one other way to do it, which most of you may be familiar with.

1. Bloppy

Bloppy is the latest of the the blog comment tracking services. You have to enter the post location and your email address and the service automatically sends emails whenever a new comment is posted. Another interesting feature is that the tracking can be done for a specific time. That is, you can choose to be updated about new comments for, say, 1 hour, 1 week or 1 month etc. After that time frame, the updates are stopped.

But the downside is that only email updates are offered and nothing else. One can very well use the plugin for this. Also, a bookmarklet for firefox and a widget for Mac OSX is available as well to add posts for tracking. Currently only posts from wordpress, blogger.com, blog.com and sapo blogs are supported but more support is expected.

2. Commentful

For using commentful, you need to register at Blogflux. After registering, you should head to your watchlist page. Here you add the posts that you want to track. Once you’ve added a post, the list auto updates to give you the current status of comments on the post. The other ways of adding a post to track include installing the Commentful Firefox Extension or using the Commentful Bookmarklet.

The bookmarklet seems the easiest way to add posts without much clutter like the Firefox extension. For tracking the comments, or for getting notified about new comments, you can simply use the extension which will place a bulb status bar that indicates new comments. You can also subscribe to the RSS feed of your watchlist to get updates. You are also able to subscribe to daily email updates about the comments.

However the disadvantage seems to be that (more…)

Most bloggers would be having an idea about what the comment relish plugin is. Now, for those who are unaware of the functions of the plugin, here is a quick recap. Comment relish is a wordpress plugin that sends an e-mail message to users who comment on your website who have never commented before.

This message that is sent can be customised by you to your liking. Also, it is possible to add links to your site in the message. This message to the commenter is basically a “thank you” message in most sites using this plugin. From all I said, most would conclude that it is a very useful plugin in bringing back visitors and encouraging them to comment. Having used it for quite some time now, I decided to quit using it after a discussion with a friend.

Why have I stopped using it?

Because of the following reasons:

1. People hate auto responders:

Most bloggers would already be knowing about the plugin or may already be using them and so, they would know that a similar system exists on your blog. Other visitors, who do not know the plugin by name would have experienced the same “thanks for visiting my site” message elsewhere. By this, they can easily conclude this is automated. It is highly unlikely that many blogs would have such similar “thank you” messages.

And automated messages do not elicit any appreciation from users. When I get an automated mail from any place I’ve been to, I simply know that my contribution was not acknowledged by a person but by a computer. And I also know that a computer would probably acknowledge a contribution even if it was made by a laboratory rat. So, that scores no points with me. On the contrary, I feel disgusted because the blog owner has treated me like a bot and not a human. I certainly will not feel inclined to visit a blog like that again.

2. Looks like a desperate attempt to publicize the blog

Publicity is good when done the right way. Most of the blogs using this plugin that I’ve come across send emails to me that usually consist of a two line thank you message and one full paragraph of how good the blog is and why I would not be cool if I didn’t subscribe to it. Those people, who think the mail you sent is not spam and who bother to read the mail, would certainly have another reason not to visit your blog.

3. Not the best first impression 

The fact is this. A person comments on a blog, expecting interaction with the blogger or other visitors/commenters on the blog. Nobody is expecting a personalised “thank you” for commenting. Since it was the visitor’s first comment on the blog, a good impression is needed to gain his trust.

By sending an automatic message, you are simply not sending the right signals to him. The message would imply to many that the blog is trying to spam. Some may simply not bother about visiting the blog the next time, thinking that they may be subjected to another piece of spam. And when the first impression is nowhere near the best, as in this case, you have just lost another potential subscriber.

What are the alternatives? 

• Reply to the visitor’s comments in the post and thank him for visiting your blog if it is the first time.
• Visit his blog and make quality comments.
• Develop a working relationship with the visitor in the long run.

Remember, blogging is about building relationships and not only about increasing the subscriber count and the no. of unique hits . You may never know, you can make a friend for life on the net.

Do leave your opinions and suggestions regarding this post.

Part of the Daily Blog Tips Blog Project 3.