Comments can be a great thing about blogging, but they can also be a source of stress. In this week’s blogging chat, I wanted to talk about whether people ever choose to turn off comments on their blogs.
First off, if you want to turn off comments on individual posts, that’s in the post settings down at the bottom section called Discussion, and there’s a tick box to allow comments. To change the settings for your whole site, go to My Sites > Settings > Discussion and turn off “Allow people to post comments on new articles”.
I’ve never contemplated turning off comments for my site; I think if it was bugging me that much I’d probably just take a blogging break. There’s been the odd time where I haven’t allowed comments on individual posts, mostly when I expect that I would get sympathetic comments and I feel like that would annoy me. When I just don’t have the brainpower to answer comments, I’m usually still okay with getting them, and I just respond with emojis rather than words.
When bloggers I know stop allowing comments, I don’t have any issue with that (a couple of them did recently, which inspired this post); however, I think if I was deciding whether or not to follow a new blog, I’d probably be less likely to start following a blog with all comments turned off. I think the issue there is that comments are a way to get to know a blogger better, and if I already feel like I know someone reasonably well, whether I can comment or not on individual posts is no big deal.
So now it’s over to you. Do you ever turn off comments, either on individual posts or your entire site? And how do you react if you come across someone else’s blog that has comments turned off?
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I have, in the past, turned off comments on individual posts and I’m pretty that might happen again in the future. Some posts generate generic comments, like a birthday post, so yeah, turn them off. People will feel compelled to say Happy Birthday – why make them do that. Then there are self-pity posts – yes, you needed to get that off your chest, perhaps even let people know what’s going on with you but again generic ‘Aww, I’m sorry’ comments. I don’t need to read that and no one needs to comment to that effect. turning off comments can often be a favor to your readers LOL
I hadn’t thought of that, but yeah, I think I’d turn off comments too in that case.
I haven’t, but I haven’t had a reason too. YET.
Hopefully you won’t ever have a reason to.
I had considered turning off comments on a few posts over my blogging past; but, I have never followed through with that idea. I am glad that I did not do so. I enjoy the interaction. I love emoji’s; therefore, an emoji only reply is a delight in my eyes!
Great share Ashley Leia. Thank you!
Thank you! I enjoy the interaction as well, and emojis help facilitate that. 🌼
👍😊Yes, they do.
I don’t get many real comments on my blog (but the spammers love me). I think if it was a new blog, I’d not follow if there wasn’t the option for engagement. Of course, I’d rather comments be turned off if the blogger has no intention of responding to comments (despite including a call for action in the post 🧐).
The call for action plus no comments is a weird combo, and it makes me wonder if the blogger realizes they’ve turned off their comments.
I don’t turn off comments, although I wouldn’t rule out turning them off if I wanted to write something that I thought would go down badly, perhaps something really political or maybe really personal. But, being conflict-averse, if I was that worried about something, I probably just wouldn’t write it.
I also find I only want to read blogs, and often other things, where I can comment or interact in some way. I’m used to internet communication being two-way now (although I can remember when it wasn’t) and find it vaguely rude and off-putting if someone posts something and doesn’t allow replies (as is often the case with professional blogs) or even if they allow replies, but never respond to them and I feel they don’t read them.
I do sometimes read some blogs on The Times of Israel website, but not as often as WordPress blogs, partly because I don’t think I can get them to appear in my WordPress reader (although I haven’t really experimented), but also because the comments on those blog templates are only through Facebook and I won’t use FB, so I can’t reply.
Oh, I think I turned off comments on an old post once or twice if it was getting a lot of spam, but that’s a slightly different situation.
I know a couple of bloggers that have adjusted their settings to close comments after a couple of weeks to avoid spam.
I’m used to the two-way communication as well, and I find the combination of no comments and no “like” button very off-putting.
I’ve never turned off comments, and didn’t even know you could. But I don’t think it’s something I’d like to do.
Yeah, it’s nice to have the interactivity.
I don’t turn them off. I think I would switch to having to approve them if I was getting comments that I don’t want on my blog.
Yeah, that’s a good option to have available as needed.
As I am still trying to grow my readership, I see comments as vital to interacting with my readers and attracting new ones. I honestly am less likely to read something with comments turned off. This is because my time to read posts is limited and I’m interested in fostering conversations and connections-comments are where those happen.
I do think if I wrote something about a very intimate or controversial topic, I may consider turning off comments as a way to protect myself.
Certain topics do seem to be troll magnets, and I agree that turning off comments on controversial topics could be good for self-protection.
So now it’s over to you. Do you ever turn off comments, either on individual posts or your entire site? And how do you react if you come across someone else’s blog that has comments turned off?
I have utilized the ‘turn off comment’ thing once or twice. Both times it was because I wrote something that I was conflicted about sharing, and didn’t want to start an argument via comments with folks. If someone has turned off their comments, that’s okay. It is frustrating if there is a really good post and the reader has something to say though. It also could convey that the blogger is only in it for what they get in terms of writing. The interchange and chat from comments is at least half the fun IMO..
I agree. Blogging would be much less enjoyable for me without the interaction.
I have turned off odd comments on posts whether from the start before I published the post, or later down the line, for different reasons, depending on the post.
I don’t think I’ve ever turned off comments after publishing, but there have been occasions where I’ve deleted posts because I could tell from the comments that the post wasn’t coming across the way I’d intended.
I’ve never turned off comments. If I do, it’ll probably only be on an individual post that’s getting hateful comments or has people fighting in the comment section who won’t stop when asked. I’ve been lucky enough to avoid anything like that so far.
There has been the odd occasion I’ve deleted comments because of people sniping at each other, but I’m glad that’s been very rare.
🙂 I do things a bit differently where comments are concerned; I set them to be closed automatically on articles that are 21 days and older.
Why?
Because spam-bots and human spammers tend to target older blog posts.
As a result of my action, I have seen a significant reduction in spam.
You probably know by now that I love comments and view them as being vital in the area of sharing our opinion on the topic that we perused.
Do enjoy the rest of your day (or night). Ashley.
That’s good that you’re getting less spam that way.
That’s a wise approach, I think I’ll do that as well because I have been getting more and more spam comments on older posts. Thanks for the tip!
🙂 You are welcome, Lizi Rose.
I have never turned off comments. But I rarely get comments. Until you started reading my blog, it was once in a blue moon. I do have it so I have to approve the first time a person comments. But I don’t know that I did that. If so, I have no idea how. 🤷♀️
If you ever want to change that, it’s under My Sites > Settings > Discussion, in the “before a comment appears” section.
I’ve only turned them off on poems that I don’t want people to waste their time trying to be polite and interpret. I contemplate turning off comments on other things because I get very nervous about what certain people will say. Sometimes I want the freedom of having no comments so I won’t be afraid. But generally speaking I value my commenters and have made a lot of good friends, so I prefer to keep them. It would be good to turn off old posts because of the spam issue, but sometimes I get legit comments on ancient posts and I like those, so I just deal with the spam.
I prefer to leave comments open on older posts too. And I agree, comments are a good way to make friends.
Yeah, you did not make it easy to comment on your awesome poetry! I loved “Get your mangers here”- I care enough about poetry that I don’t comment just to be polite
Well if there’s one person I appreciate commenting on it, it’s you. I’m happy you remember that one!
I turned comments off on a post not long ago due to stress and time.
That’s good that you were able to be proactive in managing stress.