Last Updated on October 18, 2016
A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about roadblocks on your site that might keep readers from leaving blog comments. It’s time for a second take.
Here’s where it started: a couple of weeks ago I wrote a post that a friend of mine commented on. He didn’t comment here on the blog where the post was. He commented about the post on Twitter.
That’s fine. No problem. Other social media has grown to be a part of blogging.
He explained that he would have commented on the blog if registration had not been required, adding that he didn’t mind providing an email address, but that was about it.
I wrote about his reaction in this post, suggesting that blog owners should eliminate roadblocks.
Looking back on that post and going back and forth with Livefyre’s support team, it occurs to me there might be more to add since that post.
Livefyre, the comment system I use, allows multiple ways to comment:
- Livefyre: If you want to create an account with Livefyre, it’s a very simple registration process. You stay logged in until you choose to log out, so assuming you keep your browser open, any blog that has Livefyre will allow you to comment immediately once you’re logged in.
- Twitter: If you have a Twitter account, you can use that screen name to comment.
- Facebook: If you have a Facebook account, you can login with that account to comment.
- Google+: Google+ members can also comment by using that account.
- LinkedIn: If you prefer to use your LinkedIn login, that’s another way to comment.
- OpenID: OpenID is an open source protocol that allows you to be authenticated by participating sites so that you don’t have to specifically create a new account.
Some of my regular commenters created Livefyre accounts at some point. Some may have created an account with Livefyre just so they could comment here, which would be very flattering; others may have created a Livefyre account to comment on other blogs or to use it on their own, but also use it to comment here.
For those regulars, forcing them to log in another way, even if it’s just to type their name and email address every time, is a roadblock.
I briefly allowed what Livefyre refers to as “guest commenting.” Guest commenting asks for your name, your email and any URL you wish to use, which is just like the default WordPress comment system. But there’s a problem: Livefyre doesn’t allow a site administrator to specify which of those fields will be “required.”
If I were using the default WordPress system, commenters would have to leave a valid email address because WordPress allows me to set that as a required field. Even if I have that selection made within my blog settings, Livefyre choses to ignore this, overriding the required field as an optional one.
I’ve received several “anonymous”  comments from people who mean well and added to the discussion.
But I’ve also received several “anonymous” comments from spammers as well as people who wanted to hide behind that anonymity to be rude, either to me or my readers who had left comments of their own.
That’s not acceptable.
I reached out to Livefyre about this issue and their solution was to suggest that readers who don’t want to use one of those login options is to have them create a “dummy”  email account that they can then use to comment.
Creating a fake email just to comment is a roadblock for some as well.
Unfortunately, I have been unable to prevail upon Livefyre to add this functionality to their form because, from their perspective, apparently, requiring an email address for a guest comment is the same as “registering.”  I certainly don’t see it that way.
If WordPress allows something to be a required field, I would think a third-party service that works on that platform would, at the very least, support that platform’s pre-built options.
Their flat-out refusal to negotiate the possibility of such an option honestly has me rethinking Livefyre. I’ve looked at other commenting systems like Disqus, which doesn’t seem to work well with my blog and whose technical support team doesn’t seem as good as Livefyre’s. I’ve also looked at Epoch, a relatively new commenting system that essentially mirrors WordPress’s comment system but adds social media logins as well.
But for those with a Livefyre account, it would still be more work because they wouldn’t have the convenience of that login option.
The Livefyre registration option, by the way, is about as uncomplicated as it can be: a screen name, an email address and a password. That’s it.
If that’s a roadblock, and using an account you already have is a roadblock, I don’t really understand why you think of it that way. I don’t really see why it’s such an inconvenience to be part of a conversation that in which there’s a better chance you won’t be attacked by more anonymous commenters who are trying to hide behind that anonymity to be rude or vulgar.
I don’t understand it, but I will respect your roadblock.
I hope you will respect the fact that I’m trying to serve all of my readers as best I can. If you really want to participate in the discussion, I hope you’ll reconsider what you define as a roadblock.
