WordPress Plugins Spotlight: Comments

When I come across a sharp new blog I often wonder what kind of plugins they’re running under the hood.  I’ve always believed seeing a slick plugin on a live site is a million times better than any review you could read on WordPress.  When I first started out, I shared the plugins used in Cuban Nomad and followed it up a couple of months later with more cool plugins I had discovered.  This time instead of a bucket list of everything under the sun, I wanted to focus on a specific aspect of my blog and the plugins used to enhance it.

Ease of Use

Commenting isn’t always a straightforward activity.  There are forms to fill out or logins to enter and then you have to decide what you’re going to say.  For newbies just the thought of trying to format the comment can trigger panic attacks.  What if you screw up and your comment is forever engraved with broken code?  Are they all gonna laugh at you? 

That’s a lot of stress for a newcomer looking to add their two cents.  If you want people to participate then you have to make it as easy as possible.  For me that meant leaving comments open to just name and email.  Yes, anonymous trolls can jump in and cause trouble, but why should I punish my readers for someone else’s anti-social behavior?  Here are the some other ways I’ve tried to make it painless to participate.

• Comment Form Quicktags: Adding flair to your comment or including a link should not involve memorization of HTML code.  This zero config plugin adds handy icons that anyone familiar with a word processing program will instantly recognize.
• Live Comment Preview: Real time preview of your comment as your write it.  Works well with the above Quicktags and is seamless to the commenting process.  No more buttons to click or worries that your epic comment will appear as a garbled mess.

Adding Features

Folks with blogs love to share and interact, so give them more opportunities to do just that when they come to your little slice of the web.  Comments can take an article to whole other level, sparking conversations between author and reader that only arise from organic interaction.  Adding functionality which strengthens these connections gives even more incentive for people to join in. 

• CommentLuv: I first came across this fantastic plugin when Dave Doolin wrote about CommentLuv tricks on Website in a Weekend.  With one single checkbox you’re allowing folks to pimp their own blogs without feeling spammy or sleazy about it.  You’re also increasing your understanding of the people reading your site by partaking of theirs.  Win-win situation.
• Subscribe to Comments: One of the oldest and most used comment plugins for WordPress, this rock solid addition is a must have for any blog.  Not everyone can make it daily to their favorite blogs and some who stumbled upon your site might have–gasp!—lost the link after commenting.  Letting them receive email notifications when more comments appear not only pulls them back into the fold, but makes it ridiculously convenient to engage again.
• TwitterLink Comments: Twitter is one of the strongest growing communication channels on the Internet.  Cutting it out of your site only limits your reach.  This allows readers to include their Twitter handles when commenting.  I’ve been able to start relationships through my blog posts only to see them further solidified on Twitter and vice versa, some of my daily reads stemmed from a single tweet.

What’s in your wallet?

I’d love to hear what plugins are tweaking your knobs or making readers foam at the mouth upon arrival.  Feel free to leave a comment in the easy to use and feature rich comment form below

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