Creating a courteous and constructive comment culture

1. Creating a courteous and
constructive comment culture
Or “Why do some apps have a great comment
culture but others don't?”
By Daniel Rhodes of Warp Asylum
Www.warpasylum.co.uk

2. Introduction
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I'm fascinated and baffled about why some apps
seem to generate rubbish user comments but other
apps don't (and to a lesser extent why some apps
generate more comments than others)
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Sometimes even with different apps of same type!
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Let's look at crap comment culture first:

3. Crap comment culture
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YOUTUBE
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Many one line responses
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Many one word responses
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Many off topics responses
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Juvenile insults and bickering
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Chain letters
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“Press Ctrl-X to see boobies”

4. Crap comment culture
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ADDICTINGGAMES.COM (Flash games)
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Short, one wordy answers
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Lots of “this sucks, too hard”
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Lots of “this sucks, doesn't work”
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Mostly negative comments
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Positive comments short like “good game,
thanks”

5. OK, so what is “crap” comment
culture
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Crap comments are:
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Short
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Negative / unhelpful (to both creator and viewer)
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Off topic
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Let's look now at cool comment culture:

6. Cool comment culture
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VIMEO
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Tend to be at least two sentences
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Mostly positive
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Almost zero spam / abuse etc
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Some negative comments but well explained and
maybe “compliment sandwiched”

7. Cool comment culture
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KONGREGATE.COM (Flash games)
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Mostly positive, considered comments
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Very on-topic
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Negative comments point out specific flaws (eg.
“the jumps control are tricky”)

8. OK, so what is “cool” comment
culture
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Cool comments are:
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Not too short
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On-topic
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Never hateful – even if negative
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Interesting to creator and other viewers

9. Yeah, so what?
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People are just gonna spout any old gibberish
aren't they?
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Yes, but why do some apps have much nicer
comments?
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We can't control the people, but we can control
the mechanisms:

10. Mechanisms for commenting
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Need be logged in [yes/no]
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Moderated [yes/no]
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Spam checking [yes/no]
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Sub-comments or flat level?
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Can be up or down voted [yes/no]
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Rewarded for commenting [yes/no]
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Punished if comment is down voted [yes/no]

11. Kongregate.com case study
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Must be logged in
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Get a point for commenting
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Can up and down vote comments
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Comments with -VE votes are hidden (but u can
click to c)
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Flat level BUT developer can do an official sub-
comment

12. Conclusions
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Not needing to be logged in will increase spam
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Rewarding commenters will increase the amount
of comments
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Allowing downvotes can be a way to discover /
hide crap comments...
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...but will be abusable
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Allowing upvotes can be a way to discover the
coolest comments – with no side-effects

13. Conclusions
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[OPINION] “reply to” and subcommenting may
encourage bickering and off-topic discussions
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Too short comments can be easily detected, but
then what to do? (fail and ask for more text or
simply don't add the comment?)

14. The end
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This presentation is mostly an ideas starter
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Took less than 10 minutes to make so please
forgive ;-)