Show your commenters that you appreciate them!

[ses5909]

I published a post today about thanking your commenters. (http://www.theblogexperiment.com/blog/2007/08/13/let-your-commenters-know-you-appreciate-them/) I am curious to know what everyone here does to show their appreciation!

[deronsizemore]

Nice article. Great minds think alike! (maybe you're not losing your mind after all...or maybe that means I'm losing mine?)

I just wrote a similar article but not just geared toward comments.

[pbradish]

Responding to their comments is huge in my opinion, it shows that you are human and are reading what they have to say. I had never thought of sending an email out - how do you guys feel about using those 'top commenter' plug ins?

[Cedric]

Sara sent me an email thanked me for participating in this forum, later i found out that she talked about me in the blog, how sweet!!! i feel appreciated and it makes me wanna contribute more to this forum.

So if I wish to feel appreciated, I'm sure a lot of people wanna feel the same too! So we should appreciate our supporters! :)

[deronsizemore]

how do you guys feel about using those 'top commenter' plug ins?

I like it. I use one on my blog. I think it promotes more interactivity because readers know that if they comment they get a link in my sidebar for doing so (if they are in the top five that is). I'm trying to figure out to reset the top commentators plugin for ExpressionEngine so that I can start from scratch every month and thank those who were in the list at the end of each month in the form of an article on my homepage.

[ses5909]

The only reason I'm not crazy about the top commentators plugin is that it only rewards those that comment the post. This could encourage spammy comments but that isn't the reason I don't use it. I would rather give back to all my commenters rather than a select few.

[deronsizemore]

The only reason I'm not crazy about the top commentators plugin is that it only rewards those that comment the post. This could encourage spammy comments but that isn't the reason I don't use it. I would rather give back to all my commenters rather than a select few.

What other ways did you have in mind to give back to everyone?

I have all links in my comments set to dofollow plus I have the top commentators add on installed, and I always try to respond to people that comment on my blog usually in the form of a comment in that same article.

So, technically anyone that comments gets some link love but the top ones get a link on every page, so a little more exposure.

I agree though that it does encourage spam but as of yet I've not received any but I guess if it gets to bad I'll remove the to commentators.

Is there anything else I'm not currently doing that I can do? I guess sending an email to all commentators would be a next step, but that could be time consuming as right now EE doesn't have any way to automatically generate an email to people that comment.

[Jewel]

I like to reply to some comments, as well as take feedback close to heart. If somebody requests a certain type of post, I'll try to find out about it as much as possible and come up with something. I really take my commenter's ideas seriously. Sometimes I will also mention something they've said or brought up in a post.

[samwoodfin]

I probably reply to comments a little too much. Roughly half the "Latest Comments" listed in my sidebar have my name by them. And if commenters become "regulars" I tend to end up posting directly to, or about, them. That's not so much a "thank you" type of thing, though. It's mostly because I want to, or, in some cases, it's just the easiest way to communicate with them.