How many of you have done this same thing? Commented on a friend’s status or item then almost immediately you started getting emails from Facebook alerting you to other people that had commented as well.
This is perfect if you want to see what everyone else is saying. But what if you didn’t? What if you just wanted to leave a comment and move on. And the constant stream of unwanted emails will now make you think twice about leaving that next comment on a Facebook update, won’t it?
Which is ironic, because Facebook is sending you those emails to try to ENCOURAGE you to go back to its site and check the updates. To comment again. But often, the persistent emails can lead to FEWER comments, not more.
I hate am not a fan of Disqus. Partly because I always seem to have trouble getting the comment form to load properly to begin with, but mostly because it always seems to send me emails about new comments on a post after I leave a comment. Even when I tell it not to. It’s sending me these emails because it wants me to go back and re-read the comments to see what I have missed. Instead, it makes me less likely to comment on blogs that have Disqus installed.
Everyone is buzzing about FourSquare. But if you’re active on Twitter, you’ve no doubt seen that some of the buzzing is coming from people that are sick and tired of seeing constant FourSquare updates in their Twitter stream. Seriously, I’m expecting someone to say they are at the right cushion on their couch, then the following tweet to be “I’ve just ousted my wife as Mayor of My Living Room”.
As with Facebook and Disqus, these updates are designed to get people to check out FourSquare. The advantage to the user, and FourSquare, is obvious. But what benefit do these constant updates have for the rest of us? Often times, they are simply a nuisance.
And when you are trying to build awareness for your online community, you need to consider this. You need to make sure that in attempting to build that awareness, that your efforts are also CREATING VALUE for the people you are trying to reach.
Hey Mack. You can actually turn off that setting on Facebook. It’s not the default setting, though, but I’ve turned it off and haven’t been bothered in months.
But Tamar I am LAZY! 😉 And I really wish it would be Opt-IN instead of Opt-OUT. But thanks for the reminder, I’ll check into changing it.
Even though I think Disqus function can sometime be useful to keep you updated about confersations you took part to, I agree with you many services should need to cut their messaging, in order to reduce the noise and make their own signal more effective.
Too much clutter can lead to the need to escape, rather than to engagement.
.-= Stefano Maggi´s last blog ..Social Media influence purchase decisions (Stats) =-.
Yes and I’ve also had commenters at The Viral Garden complain that Blogger doesn’t always load the comment form properly for them. Which is a big reason why I’ll be moving to WP. Eventually…
Mack –
Hmmm. Interesting points you make about Facebook and Disqus comments. First off, I think all social media tools need to learn a bit from what email marketers have been doing for years – create a preference center where the user can control the frequency of emails they receive. It sounds like Facebook has this (Thanks, Tamar) and I think Disqus does too. The issues are that:
1. Their default is “receive all email notifications.” – similar to a passive opt-in in the email world.
2. They don’t give you the ability to turn off notifications for a particular post. Then again, I think that Disqus does allow this, but I could be wrong.
Either way, as you’ve said, they are doing what is best for *them* and not necessarily for the user.
Oh, yeah. I’m a big fan of Disqus. Then again, I really like to see (almost) always what others are saying in the comments. Also, I use gmail so the conversation all bundles into one email thread.
Ironic? I just clicked the button below this comment to “notify me of followup comments via email.” Isn’t that (kinda) the same thing? Other then the fact that I actively checked the box…
You’re up! I’ll be following the comments in my inbox. Ha ha.
DJ Waldow
Director of Community, Blue Sky Factory
@djwaldow
.-= DJ Waldow´s last blog ..Life Without Twitter =-.
DJ the biggest thing I…..dislike….about Disqus is that sometimes it never asks me if I want to sub to comments and STILL get them. And other times it asks me, I click NO, and I still get them.
I seem to have the most problems with Social Media Explorer, for some reason.
But seriously, what functionality does Disqus offer that makes it so great? I see that it’s pretty (when it loads), and has a Like button. Otherwise, what?
And now I’m waving at DJ in his Gmail! 😉
Dude. Gotta give the @Disqus folks props for listening on Twitter and commenting below, right?
I like Disqus for the threaded conversations.
I like that I can manage multiple accounts/comments through their dashboard – http://disqus.com/comments/moderate/
I like that I can edit a comment that I make (I sometimes type fast – typos!). Wait, I can do this right?
I currently have it installed on my personal blog – http://socialbutterflyguy.com/ – as well as the BSF blog – http://blog.blueskyfactory.com/
Shall I continue? Ha ha.
DJ Waldow
Director of Community, Blue Sky Factory
@djwaldow
.-= DJ Waldow´s last blog ..Life Without Twitter =-.
Yeah but I can do all that here with a couple of simple plugins.
But yeah, Disqus is prettier 😉
And I agree, Giannii does deserve props for here and Twitter. It’s like when your car messes up and you take it to the mechanic and it runs fine. Giannii tweeted me about a blog I was having trouble getting a comment through, and sure enough I went to reload it, and suddenly it worked. It was Suzanne Vara’s blog.
Hey Mack,
Did you have a full Disqus account? You have complete control over your notifications here: http://disqus.com/account
If you are willing to give us another show I can help troubleshoot your comment embed problem, just keep me posted.
-Giannii
.-= Giannii´s last blog ..Welcome to the Disqus Help Center! =-.
Giannii you mean if I register with Disqus I can change the notifications to stop the emails?
Ok thanks, I didn’t know that. But why not just kill the emails and let them be opt-in?
Either way, thanks for stopping by and letting me know that!
When leaving a comment you do have the option to opt-in or as we say subscribe or not. You just need to uncheck it.
Hey Mack,
I’m really glad that you wrote this post. Have been thinking on how to phrase similar thoughts lately – as much as social media is a two-way conversation, people are in so much of a hurry to get their opinion out that they throw user experience out the window.
Maybe comment social networks aren’t the wave of the future. Sure, it is winning most of them “engagement points” but there is definitely a loss of importance. If everything is an important notification, nothing is important.
It’s cool that Disqus and others jumped on this thread though it is important that you have stressed that these services should in fact be opt-in. Other permission based marketing systems have been required to do this for years…why should social media be different?
.-= Brian Wallace´s last blog ..Chicken Suits, Killer Dust Bunnies & Branding: Why Good Content Is Crap =-.
All the extra email is my biggest complaint. I get enough email without having to wade through all the Facebook and other email. It’s another reason I don’t care for Disqus as well.
However, I do like to check back up on comments left in case I should reply again, so what I do is just make a note of the url of the blog/article I comment on in notepad and then take a moment the next day to check them out. It only takes me a few moments to do this – and no emails 🙂
.-= Heather Villa´s last blog ..What Your Business can Learn from Video Games =-.
I’ll go check that setting on facebook. I didn’t know I have a choice of not receiving comments I didn’t wanna see. Thanks for the info.
As for Disqus, I’m still new at this but I’m liking it so far.
Hi Mack – I’ve had a similar situation to what you’ve described with the Problogger example. My solution is that I’ve just become pickier about where I comment. My rationale being that if I care enough to comment I will care enough about the follow-up conversation and will want to stay informed. Another side effect is that I tend to stay away from the larger groups and gravitate more towards smaller groups with more in-depth conversations – by default this leads to fewer notification e-mails, but they are generally of higher quality.
Similar to Heather I have also tried noting which blogs I’ve commented on, but I’m not always disciplined about that and likely miss out on some good information. I’m just getting used to Disqus and don’t seem to mind the follow-up comments as it serves as a reminder to follow-up if need be.