I got a lot of responses for Fake Comments Part I, and I want to share some with you. I’ve picked some of the interesting or more insightful ones. (I’m sure you don’t want to read responses like, “No I don’t.”) The author of the comment is linked.

Angie Hartford said:

Fake comments are kind of like voting for yourself in order to win the Miss Congeniality award in the Miss America Pageant.

jerrydrussell said:

If you wrote a fake comment, then you’d have to answer said fake comment, which would lead to answering the reply…..

Ack.. Makes my head hurt. It’s the blogging version of time travel paradox

Brown Baron said:

I think the best advice for that would be to just keep writing. The comments will come eventually.

teddY said:

Hmm well sometimes when I get no comments for a post I’ve spent a lot of effort writing I got tempted to write fake comments so as to attract others to leave comments. But I’ve never done it before because thinking twicee about it, leaving fake comments is just meaningless. You can deceive yourself that someone actually left a comment but then you can’t hide from others - because the writing style is almost identical, unless you’re really good at impersonating others’ styles.

I completely agree with what Brown Baron said: “…just keep writing. The comments will come eventually.”

Thirft Shop Romantic said:

No, that’s sort of sad. It’s like Mr. Bean sending himself Christmas cards.

incinq said:

Kind of related… I have run across other community project blogs, where I’ve suspected that the “anonymous” entries (usually confessional in nature) are fake/written by same person.

stoneman said:

Not “fake” comments, but I sometimes add a comment as a kind of footnote with additional information. I sign it with my own Blogger initials, so it should be pretty clear that I’ve added the information myself.

dharmagypsy7 said:

I read somewhere that getting the first comment is the hardest and when you have comments it means people are reading your blogs so some have resorted to leaving comment count up than what it is.. i.e

0 Comments but you put in the value of say 10 comments. This will make it more likely that the person will click on the comment box because other people have commented on it.. but of course when they go to the comment box.. there’s no comments…

I guess you can just leave comments for yourself. That would work too.

SiteProPlus said:

Do more women write fake posts than men?

BrentD said:

The amount of shocked and negative feedback to this question leads me to believe that most of the respondents are very serious people with very serious blogs. But what if you have a very humorous blog? What if you are not trying to provide technical information or punditry, but instead trying to entertain?

I have a couple fictional characters who post on my blog and who occasionally heckle me in the comments when I post in my name. They all track back to my site however, so any diligent seeker of Truth in Blogging can tell in an instant what’s “really” going on.

I put a lot of effort into this personas, so I do not consider them fake.

Just fictional.

thereyoucome said:

Isometimes post comments to make sure the commenting function works well, because it seems long time no comments, and sometimes comment as a footnote, all in my comment ID.

BrentD, I agree with you to some extent, just like a scene often used in comics, an angel side and an evil side of you, or a strong side and a weak side of you, they can play debate on a thing you’re not decided or not certain.

Comment posted by dharmagypsy7
at 6/20/2007 12:29:57 AM

I have noticed that the superstar bloggers out there doesn’t allow for comments. Sites like Dooce and such. I am not sure that comments are all that important. Yes its nice to get recognition and all that but you also get haters too..

Comment posted by Brown Baron
at 6/19/2007 9:39:57 PM

One of the best ways to get people to comment is to end a post with a question. One could also go on whatever social network site they’re a member of and ask people to leave a comment. I think that the most important factor is that people feel welcome.

Comment posted by LISTIKAL
at 6/19/2007 2:59:44 PM

I refuse to use Fake Comments. It’s more of a mental thing then anything. I’d rather go onto a forum and pay someone to post comments as opposed to making up your own.

Comment posted by Bush Mackel
at 6/19/2007 11:25:33 AM

Gotta agree with Brown and Teddy, just be patient. I think we’ve all been there at the beginning where it feels like no one will comment, but if you write something interesting and ppl are seeing it, they will. Writing fake comments can give the air of desperation, obviously if discovered that the comments are fake.

Comment posted by Mariah
at 6/21/2007 2:34:41 AM

Yea comments are sometimes nice to hear and alot of people get a little crazy to recieve them like they must have them or else they’ll close their site. Lol. I don’t think theres a need for fake comments, it just takes patience.

Comment posted by Grace
at 6/20/2007 6:33:46 PM

Sometimes commenters leave very insightful thoughts. Those are always nice to hear. It just depends on what you like.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 19th, 2007| Category: Blog and Design Tips, Blogging Tips, Reader Feedback, Writing | Comment | Trackback