Mar 28, 2008
Recently I have noticed a trend on a number of blogs. It goes something like this...Please register or login to place a comment.
Hmmm. Asking random visitors to register an account when they only want to leave a one-off comment is a huge ask. Especially when there is a good chance registration requires email based activation, which takes even more time to deal with.
Speaking for myself, I'll usually just leave rather than posting a comment when registration is required. I'm sure I'm not the only one.
I'm equally frustrated when I'm forced to register an account when I'm making a one-off purchase from somewhere. If I'm providing my name, email, address, and credit card details, as far as I'm concerned this is enough information to complete the order. I have abandoned a number of shopping carts because the registration process looked too painful.
And some good reasons
There are of course good reasons for requiring registration - maybe your blog is so popular it gets hundreds of comments on any given post, and restricting comments is a bigger issue than getting them. In this case, registration makes sense. Likewise if spam is more out-of-control than usual, then the registration also helps keep things manageable.Combining registration forms with other forms.
Some of the best sites I have used combine the registration form with other forms.Let's say the following details are needed for posting a comment...
- Name
- website (optional)
- CAPTCHA
And your registration process requires...
- Name
- Username / login
- Password + confirmation
- website (optional)
- CAPTCHA
- Opt-in confirmation for newsletter
So why not modify the comment form to create a user account at the same time?
This could be as simple as adding optional fields for username / password / password confirmation. If the user has no interest in coming back, they don't need to create an account and clog up your user database. Otherwise, you are asking for a tiny bit of extra information in addition to what they are already providing. And you could pre-populate the username field with something based on their name, and use AJAX to check for duplicates, to make the process even easier.
Shopping carts
I have also seen shopping cart systems that email you a username / password after you have completed your order to make it easier to order next time. Let's face it, placing barriers in front of the ordering process is a really expensive idea - it makes sense to get the first order paid for and finished before getting too concerned about what happens with their second order.I'm spending some time on implementing better registration features into Jojo CMS which includes easy user registration from blog comment forms and forum post reply / new topic forms. And introducing OpenID support into the mix means users can set up an account with even less typing.
9 Comments
Couldn't agree more.
And on that note, you might want to get rid of the 'post comment' button and 'Anchor text' field, as these serve as noting more than two extra hurdles in the way of you and your commenters.
Just my 2 pennies.
I am completly with you on this one, making people register to comment is a big no no. I find alot of big newspapers and magazines do this, but I would never bother to register just to say 'thanks for the info, nice post'...etc
A quality captcha is enough
I too Frustrated when iam forced to register an account to comment or post, but to get rid of the spams and to be secure the registration is must.
Barbara - Mar 28, 2009
It’s really irritating to register or log in before posting comment but its also true to safe your site from spamming registration is also must but where as I concerned providing user name, password, Country or a captcha is enough to register.
Barbara
<a rel=dofollow" href="http:// www.widecircles.com”rel=dofollow">seo</a>
Yeah, I agree with you. Registering for every single thing is indeed frustrating. But sometimes, many huge site owners do this for security purposes.
Maybe they should keep the commenting open for everyone - without registering and get a software that can detect whether a comment is spam or not.
Some commenting should be open. Every time its feels a little a sick to register and then post your reviews.
This hampers new comments i feel
It takes too much work to register just to post a comment. This is why there is usually 0 comments.
I emaailed the guy to explain, but he was totally adamant he was right and the whole world had got it wrong. <a href="http//:www.fooddietandhealth.com">Healthy Diet</a>
A few weeks ago, I came across a website which had some pretty amazing content. But there were two problems:
1. no RSS feed at all;
2. had to subscribe to comment;
3. certain parts of the website were paid-for content.
I emaailed the guy to explain, but he was totally adamant he was right and the whole world had got it wrong.
Rather unsurprisingly, I never returned.
BTW, the size of the type in this comment box is incredibly small...