horse:water::visitors:comments section?

April 19, 2008 10:32 AM

Is it ethical to fake conversation in your own blog's comments section? I don't mean stirring up controversy for the sake of it or setting up straw-man arguments. I mean chucking some "model" comments on to the end of a batch of posts to let readers know the comments are there and easy to use. As a codicil: Has anyone done this and found that it effectively enticed discussion?

My target audience isn't necessarily the most web-savvy (OK, they're old). Though I have more visitors than on any of my past blogs where community interaction was a good in both quantity and quality, now I get none. I just want to prime the pump here, nothing more nefarious than that. I know you can lead a horse to water and all that, but sometimes don't you have to get down and show them how it's done?

posted by anonymous to society & culture (31 comments total)

I can see this beening done and working, in some circumstances. But if it's ever found out, it would probably piss off users and forever hurt your credibility, so in that sense, it wouldn't be worth it.

Shortcuts are nice (and that's what this is), but sometimes you gotta the hard work of the task. You learn more, it builds character and you become more invested in what you're doing.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 10:43 AM on April 19

Why not comment on your own posts?

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Blog post....info...info...info...end of post
posted by anonymous at 1:03pm

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Comments(1)

So what does everyone think? I happen to agree with X.
posted by anonymous at 1:05pm
posted by ALongDecember at 10:47 AM on April 19

No. People aren't horses. Ethics isn't supposed to be about risk-benefit analysis; it's about principles, and even though your motives are benign, this is deception.

It's fine to post comments to try to get discussion started, but don't conceal your identity.
posted by qxntpqbbbqxl at 10:49 AM on April 19 [5 favorites]

Ask a handful of friends to populate the posts with some comments.
posted by megatherium at 10:56 AM on April 19

I would say this is not a good idea. It's deceptive, and there are better ways of encouraging comments.

One of the best ways is to purposely make some of your posts conversational. Write a post that is very open-ended, and at the end of the post, directly ask people to share their experiences. Something like "So, how do you handle [some issue]? Post your story below in the comments section".

Other than that, do you have any friends or know any other bloggers that you can ask for help? Explain the problem the same way you've explained it here, and ask them to post (real) comments on your blog for a while to help get things started.
posted by burnmp3s at 10:56 AM on April 19

If the problem is that they don't know how to leave comments, write instructions, or make it easier- some blogs have incredibly complicated steps to go through, and often I find it's not worth it. If it's easy and people still aren't leaving coments, the chances are they don't have anything to say, for whatever reason- the topic isn't engaging, there's no room for debate, it's a debate that's not worth having, etc.
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 11:05 AM on April 19

If you have enough doubts to ask, then don't do it.
posted by orthogonality at 11:22 AM on April 19

Yeah, don't post fake blog comments, instead ask a few friends to help you make a good first impression on visitors by leaving a helpful and/or smart comment or two.
posted by mathowie at 11:23 AM on April 19 [1 favorite]

I'll sometimes end a post with a question, and then leave a comment with my opinion. (Post: "Some bloggers create alter-egos and leave comments to try to spur conversation. There's a debate over whether this is permissible; what do you think?" My comment, under my own name: "Personally, I don't do that because...")

I have, for a long time, felt that there's a catch 22: posts with comments tend to get comments. So I'll often comment on my own posts, but I'm very up-front about doing it.
posted by fogster at 11:39 AM on April 19

I imagine it might be effective but I'd advise against it. Try changing the style of your posts to be more blatantly, um, discussable. Ask people what they think, jab them for a response. As pointed out above this is even more effective if you round off your post, then continue in the first comment of the comment section and invite replies.
posted by fire&wings at 11:41 AM on April 19

Is it ethical to fake conversation in your own blog's comments section?

No, it's deceptive.

If you want to encourage conversation, try asking your readers to suggest topics for your posts. If someone requested a certain blog entry, they'll very likely comment on it when it's written. At the end of an interesting post, provoke a response by occasionally posing a question to the readers (Don't overdo this, or you sound desperate!).

When I think of (non-community) sites that consistently have great comment threads, I think of the Freakonomics blog, so you might want to see what they're doing.
posted by theiconoclast31 at 11:43 AM on April 19

From what I've seen, the thing that encourages blog readers to comment is a feeling of community. They see other people commenting and want to respond to those people. They get to know other people's style and opinions and then continue to want to respond.

I think that "faking" comments might get you some more comments initially, but it won't necessarily help you in the long run, because you won't really be establishing a community of commentators on your blog.
posted by shesbookish at 11:44 AM on April 19

As well as using 'talking point' posts that specifically ask for feedback, make sure your site's design emphasises the comments enough. You might need to make the comments links very prominent on the home page and perhaps accompany them with some explanatory text.
posted by malevolent at 11:53 AM on April 19

Not good.
posted by Dizzy at 12:01 PM on April 19

Voice of dissent. I think it's fine, as long as you don't make a habit of it...and even then, I hardly think it's the end of the world. I also thought it was stupid that Oprah felt compelled to crucify James Frey. Authenticity! Who needs it. If it gets an edifying discussion going, who's it going to harm?
posted by Lieber Frau at 12:36 PM on April 19

I'm with shesbookish--it's not good for building a real community.

My blog gets a decent # of comments from not-always-savvy readers who are in their 40s and 50s. You didn't ask for this kind of advice, but I'm in a typing mood, so here are things I've done that you might consider trying, if you haven't already:

- Use a lot of humor, which might make people feel like they can respond safely, even when the topic is somewhat controversial

- Ask a question at the end of a post or intentionally leave something out of the post and ask, "What did I miss?" (without making yourself look stupid). This is best done when you're reasonably sure someone will comment, because it otherwise looks kind of lonely.

- Change the "Comment" link to something more enticing, like "Be the first to comment!"

- Avoid captchas or however they're spelled--readers just click the link and type their comment; Akismet takes care of the spam

- Highlight recent comments in the sidebar

- In a new post, point out a comment from a previous post ("Marvin made a great suggestion in his comment on...") and then write the whole post about it

- Use "you" and "we" as much as possible

- When someone finally does comment, enter a comment in response and maybe send it to them in an email as well, along with your thanks for commenting

You could also have a contest in which the winner is drawn from the comments to the contest post.
posted by PatoPata at 1:07 PM on April 19

Maybe you'll get responses to your posts in conversation or by email; I think it's legitimate for you yourself to air these responses in the comments and respond to them, e.g. "My correspondent AB emails to ask... your response blah blah".
posted by londongeezer at 1:52 PM on April 19

There's nothing "unethical" about it. It's a blog, for chrissakes, not the newspaper of record. The medium is still in its infancy, the poster really hasn't even described what sort of blog it is he's writing, so to make claims about ethical standards in this case is ridiculous.
posted by decoherence at 2:05 PM on April 19 [2 favorites]

Yes, it's unethical. Make the comments more visible and easy seeming. Don't make them log in or create accounts or any of that BS. Then, invite readers to comment at the end of the post. And if you want to add comments to spark conversation, add your own under your own name.
posted by gjc at 2:09 PM on April 19

There's nothing unethical about talking to yourself. A bit strange, though.
posted by gyusan at 4:02 PM on April 19

While I can imagine that people can find your proposal wrong - see above - I don't: I agree completely with the minority opinion. Nothing at all wrong with it. It's all on your own website. It's for your own, productive and positive ends.

What's wrong would be if you use the fake posts for another purpose. I'd draw parallels with "passing off" or "palming off" in terms of morality. It would be okay (say) to have a discussion website using WalMart as a fun theme to structure the site - "aisles" for different topics, "checkout" for online purchases, parodies of WalMart slogans, that sort of thing. It would stop being okay when it became possible or likely that people would think you represented WalMart in any official capacity, or you used the WalMart connection to make money or otherwise benefit.
posted by alasdair at 5:00 PM on April 19

Deceptive. I'd stop reading a site that does this if I found out.
posted by Mikey-San at 5:24 PM on April 19

What Mikey-San said. There's no fucking way faking a conversation in the comments of your blog is ethical. It might be trivial, sure, but no way is it ethical.
posted by mediareport at 6:56 PM on April 19

Of all the unethical things that many (I want to say 'most', but I'll just go with 'many') people do every single day, I think this would barely fall into the category! Personally, I don't think there's anything wrong with doing this. Of course, it depends on what sort of blog you have (the topic, the tone). Sometimes it's hard to get participation, and, if your blog is one that would really benefit from comments, I can't see how a little push can hurt. I'm sure someone at some point has successfully done this.

If you do opt to do this, I would do it very sparingly. Like once, and then see if that sparks anything. But, I think, perhaps, burnmp3s's example of ending a blog post with a request for readers' experiences (or whatever would be appropriate to the post) might be worth a try first. If your tone is typically more professional and you don't want to get all, 'hey, what do you guys think about..?,' I think that would be a friendly way to let readers know that you're open to discussions.
posted by Mael Oui at 8:56 PM on April 19

I would personally never do it, because it wouldn't sit well with how I want to behave. So I would say unethical. More importantly, however, I think it's both unnecessary and might make some potential commentators hesitate to post comments in the future.

There are some good advice above. I would suggest that you 1.) Post as yourself in response to a post. 2.) Ask a friend or two to make some additional comments. 3. ) Contact anyone you would like to see posting a comment, and ask them to do so. IMHO, it's a method that is more likely to generate a good discussion than your doing it yourself, and as a bonus you don't have to worry about if it's ethical or not.
posted by gemmy at 10:48 PM on April 19

If you found out any of the mefi admins did this, how would you feel? I mean, I'm not saying that all of us are just hollow creations and attempts at building community spirit, but I sure am.

Don't do it.
posted by oxford blue at 1:07 AM on April 20

I think what you are finding here is that your question is being answered by a handful of hard-core blog-obsessed cranks. The majority opinion, if a true poll were conducted, would almost certainly be "no big deal, do whatever it takes to promote your blog." The problem is, the only people who think this question is worth answering are the ones who haven't been away from their computers in a while.

FFS, it is just a blog. Anyone who is saying "don't do it," "it's not ethical," takes blogs way too seriously.

Plus, if nobody is hurt by it, I don't see how anyone can find this so offputting. People do all kinds of crazy, over-the-top stuff to promote themselves. Was it ethical for Walt Whitman to write reviews of Leaves of Grass? No. But do I eschew reading Whitman's work because he did so? No.
posted by jayder at 8:51 AM on April 20

I understand the people who say, "No, don't do it." It sounds a little sketchy. While I can't say that I would stop reading a useful or interesting blog if I discovered this was going on, it would make me question the sincerity of whatever actual conversation followed the efforts to "prime the pump."

But Jayder is right, too. It's a blog and people do all kinds of things to get on their feet. It might not be strictly ethical but unless you're Christ and Buddha wrapped in to one it probably won't be your worst transgression of a given day.
posted by the christopher hundreds at 6:08 PM on April 20

I see that it's a way of getting things started.

Think of seminars where people are asked to put up their hands, or say something. Nobody wants to be the first, and I've seen it where people who I later learn are staff members of the company holding the seminar make a point or two, and people open up a bit, and then everyone sees that it's okay to talk.

In some sense you could think of it as the street musician throwing a handful of coins into their own hat before they start, it gives people the idea that they should be contributing.

Just don't start threads and reply to yourself, that would come across as a bit weird.
posted by tomble at 7:05 PM on April 20 [1 favorite]

I agree with Tomble, that would be a bit weird.
posted by tomble at 7:05 PM on April 20 [2 favorites]

It's unfair and mean to broadly dismiss all the people that think this isn't right by calling them obsessive cranks who haven't been away from their computer for too long. Such attitudes and borderline vituperations do nothing for the argument they are presented with, especially if the remaining arguments seem to be rather logically flawed (i.e. If you asked most 'other' ('normal'?) people that aren't the people you are, in fact, asking they will all say what I want them to say.)
posted by oxford blue at 8:33 PM on April 20 [1 favorite]