Making the most of blog comments: Part 13 - 'The best of' comments on currybetdotnet

I recently published the 2000th comment here on currybetdotnet, which was ironically an apology from me to regular comment contributor James Cridland. Reaching that milestone was one of the catalysts for thinking about the ways that comments can be brought to the fore on a blog, and writing this series of articles.

I wanted to finish the series by picking back through some of those now 2000+ contributions to the site, remembering some of my favourites.

Every now and then I deviate from the usual diet of websites, search and the BBC, and venture into the supernatural, to recount some of the ghost walks that myself and my wife have taken around the UK (and, indeed, also in Malta).

These often generate interesting comments, with people adding other ghost tales from nearby or recounting their spooky experience in the locations we've visited:

"I lived in the Grange Flats Lynmouth Road Walthamstow i saw a ghost in my bedroom it was 1970 I was Eleven years old this ghostly woman was solid with pale skin she was dressed in black had long dark hair long black dress with a white cord around her waist she looked like a nun her sleeves were wide she sat at the end of my bed and tried to get close to me but was pulled back by an un seen force this entity said Do You Know who I am this happend very early hours of the morning I have never for got this experience" - Susan, March 31, 2007

And sometimes the comments even come from people claiming to be leaving messages from beyond the grave...

My name is Mary,im a ghost I live in 1 of the most haunted places in Britain..where I can't say im trying to write on this weird thing,getting used to this life.All I can tell you is we do exist,we are out here,we are living,I am waiting for someone to rid me of this nightmare..........

One very nice comment thread that evolved was about the TV show 'Distant Shores'. My original post mocked ITV for not being able to spell lead actor Peter Davison's name correctly in their press adverts.

In lieu of the show not having an official message board, my page became a de facto chat room for fans asking more about the series. Simon Jobson, who ran a website about Craster where the show was filmed, helpfully joined in and answered lots of queries about the location shooting, and a couple of the cast members left messages as well. Though sadly not Peter Davison himself.

One person related to Doctor Who who did leave a message on currybetdtonet though was Paddy Kingsland. He wrote and arranged music for the show in the 70s and early 80s, and he left birthday wishes for Tom Baker on my post celebrating the fourth Doctor's 70th birthday.

Well, it was someone claiming to be Paddy, anyway. That seems a more credible claim than the 'Simon Le Bon' who left a comment stating that Sony's DRM system was rubbish, and that Duran Duran should have known better than to sign to the label.

Avoid all that nasty cheap software they ship with the CD. Avoid pre-ripped CDs. Limewire. Sharp 'n green. Green because you don't fill the world up with hard copies of stuff you'll rip anyway. Sharp because you know better than to support the likes of Sony.

cheers

Si

Two articles that generated a lot of readers, but didn't prove to be very popular with them, were about football. My claim that the system of allocating tickets to England's home games was, frankly, a bit rubbish, had members of the englandfans group leaping to its defence. I got a lot of referers from an englandfans members only message board, which I can only assume encouraged them.

In fairness, one of the earliest comments pointed out some factual errors in my article, which I duly corrected.

The other football post to rouse a lot of passion was my criticism of Kaka. I objected to the fact that he was promoting his religion on the field, whilst playing for a team that had been found guilty of match-rigging. I consider it somewhat hypocritical to be lectured on the correct moral and spiritual way to live my life from someone who doesn't mind taking his wages from cheaters AC Milan. ^[1]

Unlike Jesus, his fans didn't turn the other cheek, and instead opened both barrels at me. Literally, in one comment.

"if not for freedome of speech i think a person as mean spirited as you could of been shot in the head for a bullshit article like this... SHUT DA' F#&* UP" - NewYork99

The posts that have attracted the most comments on the site over the years have often been the ones that have gained a large audience of tweenage and teenage readers via search. The epic thread on my MSN ditches chat post is mostly from uninformed kids alarmed that Microsoft might shut down instant messaging.

They got a couple of exquisite put-downs:

"For f%(*$ sake, is everyone here blind...? Or just morons? The lack of grammar and spelling on this page burns my eyes..." - Mitch

and

"I have lost all faith in humanity after reading these comments. Whatever Microsoft's motives are (money or market share, obviously), if it stops you f*%^wits from jabbering to each other like monkeys over MSN's half-assed chatrooms then I'm all for it. You people should be ashamed of yourselves for even existing, and your English teachers need shooting in the face. " - bongfish

Likewise, the debate on my throwaway post about seeing a bizarre news item about Sea Lions and Dolphins trained for war mostly seems to be by 10 year olds either shouting "Go USA! Go dolphins! Kill those baddies!" and "OMG! don't hurt the dolphins!". Meanwhile, young fans of David Blaine labelled me a 'hater' and all British people as 'snaggle toothed ugle deformed people'.

The most recent comments I have published include a spat between John and Eugene about the merits of the sound quality of The Beatles CD issues, which featured the fantastic put-down:

"then you sir have the ears of a dullard."

It all seems a very long time ago that I was approving the first ever genuine comment on the site. Back in February 2003, about two months after currybetdotnet had opened for business, Ricky asked for some clarification about the London Congestion Charge.

"I am not sure if you are the right person to contact, but if I drive into Congestion zone I pay £5 however, if on the same day I renter the zone so I pay another £5. Please let me know. Thank you."

And finally...

That marks the end of my series of posts looking at how to implement comments on blog sites. Comments can be a very crude linear format, and, thanks to the army of spambots out there, one that sometimes demands that both users and blog-owners jump through hoops to get it working well. Nevertheless, adding comment facilities to individual posts is one of the things that helped define blogs as the emerging communication medium they have become.

I hope you've found something in the series useful - Andy Dickinson flatteringly thought there was. If you did, then why not leave a comment and let me know ;-)

[1] The fact that I am an Inter fan had nothing to do with it. [Return to article]