Is there any chance that the comments will come back?

1. 100

   DrMark1961posted 3 years ago

   Since this feature was deleted, HP staff have told us that this would be reinstated. It does not matter to all of us, but I know that in my case the readers find it very helpful.
   A former staff member told me last year that this would become a reality in June of 2021. That did not happen. If it is never going to happen, please let us know.

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      Kyler J Falkposted 3 years agoin reply to this

      I believe that some dude with HubPages who recently became more active in the community again, as well as Matt, stated that they are working on a model via another site, and they plan to implement it here with an indefinite timeline as to implementation. It'll happen eventually, but it's probably very low on the list of priorities.

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      1. 91

         lobobrandonposted 3 years agoin reply to this

         On the whole debacle of them running affiliate "best" reviews they said we are scrapping that idea and working on other things at the moment such as Comments. So I think it is on the list of things to do.

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   2. 91

      Kenna McHughposted 3 years agoin reply to this

      My bet is "Yes." Like MacArthur, they will return.

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   3. 92

      Thelma Albertsposted 3 years agoin reply to this

      I hope the comments section will come back in the future.

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   4. 82

      Au faitposted 2 years agoin reply to this

      There was actually a notice at the top of the feed about this yesterday and today.  It's not far down on the feed page, but you should be able to access it here:  https://hubpages.com/community/forum/35 … axleaddict

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      schoolgirlforrealposted 2 years agoin reply to this

      I think this is a TERRIBLE INJUSTICE. The comments were so helpful to get feedback and a great way for readers to comment and become familiar with the site, in a way that may encourage them to read MORE and even JOIN.
      I don't know why they were taken away but I DON'T ENJOY THE SITE AS MUCH AND THERFORE SPEND LESS TIME WIHICH MEAN LESS MONEY FOR HUBPAGES. THEY ARE MEAN!

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      1. 73

         Miebakagh57posted 2 years agoin reply to this

         However, I recalled Matt's promise of the comments testing period.                                           Now, these are being rertored one after the other.                                             First, it was AxleAddict. Then, WanderWisdow,...LetterPile. And now. Delishbl...you got to eat  Peggy's pie or my dish, which I had to submit later. Eat well.                                    These restorations were the topic of other discussions in various forums.

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2. 88

   theraggededgeposted 3 years ago

   Shall we take bets?
   
   I say no, comments won't return.

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   1. 83

      Ben716posted 3 years agoin reply to this

      I second you. And I think as long as it's not benefiting them in the long-term such as was with the Q&A, then they won't consider it.
      I sure do miss it. Worked well with my relationship articles. Pretty Hubpages don't realize it's a feature that means a lot to hubbers than them

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   2. 100

      DrMark1961posted 3 years agoin reply to this

      It has been over a year now, so I have to agree, albeit reluctantly.

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3. 88

   MariaMontgomeryposted 3 years ago

   I agree. I would like the comments section to return, and for people who happen upon our articles, but are not writers on HP to be able to comment, too. Thank you, Dr. Mark, for posting this.

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4. 94

   Glenn Stokposted 3 years ago

   While on the subject of taking bets, let's bet on a few things as to how the comments will work if they ever do get implemented again. I'm curious to know what you guys think about the importance of these items.
   
   1. Will the new comment system let us edit so we can correct misspellings and grammar? Those are things that affect our SEO.
   
   2. Will the new comment system force everyone to review before posting? That would help eliminate a lot of spam that I see people leave on their articles when they don't moderate their comments.
   
   3. Will the new comment system appear in chronological order or reverse order as it has been before?
   
   4. Will the new comment system post our response along with each comment similar to the way the Q&A system used to work? I thought that method was so much better.
   
   5. Will the comments have permalinks that work? That was broken when niche sites moved to Maven. 
   
   Any other thoughts? I'm sure I didn't think of everything.

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   1. 96

      PaulGoodman67posted 3 years agoin reply to this

      Given all the time they're spending on it, I'm expecting it to be some kind of ultra state of the art comment section with all sorts of innovations!
      
      But yes, I'm more worried about things like the spam and SEO stuff. I got a bit weary of going through the comments every day, but it's especially annoying when there were folks not moderating at all.

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      1. 97

         Shesabutterflyposted 3 years agoin reply to this

         It would be nice if moderating comments was the default. Most other sites that I visit with comments work that way.
         
         I hope they take away staff approved comments. There are times I'm gone on vacation or away doing other projects and I'd come back to approved comments that I would have to go through and delete, because they were either unnecessary (great article, well researched, ect) or asking questions I had already answered.
         
         I'd also love the ability to turn off comments completely on certain articles or across my pages as a whole. We use to have a feature like that and it was really benefical for the pages that only seemed to garner spam or other nonsense comments.

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         1. 96

            PaulGoodman67posted 3 years agoin reply to this

            Yes, that would be great to have control over comments on individual articles. I have some articles that are aimed at adolescent school kids.
            As well as a lot of well-meaning but fairly vapid comments like "thanks" etc. they attract puerile abuse from bored students. Sometimes the delinquents comment multiple times to ratchet up the irritation factor. It's a timewaster for me, which I don't want to see return.

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         2. 100

            DrMark1961posted 3 years agoin reply to this

            I agree with your last point as some of my articles (like naming your dog) do not really need comments. The only reason I see to add them is to keep the content fresh.

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            1. 96

               PaulGoodman67posted 3 years agoin reply to this

               I'm too soft, I think. I just let anything through that's not swearing, totally obnoxious, or spammy. I should reject more, especially all the thank yous from students using my work as homework help.
               
               I believe HP's advice is to reject the insubstantial comments, but I've never rigidly followed it. So I am maybe part of the problem too.

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               1. 100

                  DrMark1961posted 3 years agoin reply to this

                  I actually think that is kind of nice. A lot of my comments on dog name articles are like "I named my dog Rufus". Not real important, but I am sure it makes the reader feel like he or she has interacted, and probably helps to make the readers more attached to your articles in the future.
                  Maybe not, who knows? Sound like a research project?

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   2. 84

      NateB11posted 3 years agoin reply to this

      On that subject; I think the comments section was more trouble than it was worth. Good riddance was my thought when they got rid of it; it was a relief.

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         Jeremy Gillposted 3 years agoin reply to this

         To be fair, they were optional and could be disabled.

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         1. 100

            DrMark1961posted 3 years agoin reply to this

            Great point. Thanks for adding that.

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   3. 100

      DrMark1961posted 3 years agoin reply to this

      I posted this on the tech section of the forum hoping that HP staff would chime in and give us some of those answers. I guess it is not going to happen.

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         Glenn Stokposted 3 years agoin reply to this

         Thanks DrMark, but this thread is already in the tech section. Where did you mean? Just curious.

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            DrMark1961posted 3 years agoin reply to this

            Yes, I was hoping Matt would comment on this since we are told that HP monitors this tech section.

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   4. 95

      eugbugposted 3 years agoin reply to this

      I agree with all the above. A facility for readers to add photos would be useful. On several occasions a reader mentioned this to me and also a few times I wanted to explain something with a diagram, but I couldn't do so. The downside would be that if images piled up, they would affect loading time.

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5. 70

   Ken Burgessposted 3 years ago

   I felt the key element to comments on one's article was that the author could determine which comment remained visible and which did not.
   
   It was unfortunate that after the 5 minute period, if you noted a spelling error or wanted to change a part of your comment you were unable to.
   
   In that regard, if a person could have at least as much time to access a comment on an article, that they have on a forum post, that would be a good thing IMO.

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   1. 94

      Glenn Stokposted 3 years agoin reply to this

      Ken, the old system gave us the option to moderate or not. Unfortunately many Hubbers opted out of moderation, or maybe that was the default. I don’t remember. In any case, I saw numerous hubs that had spam in the comments. Even some with links to low quality sites that hurt the Google ranking of the hub.
      
      As for correcting errors, I was referring to the ability for us to correct mistakes. Most people who post comments with errors don’t know they are doing that. Either they have poor grammar skills or are bad with spelling. So giving them time to correct that after posting would be useless.

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   2. 91

      Sue Adamsposted 3 years agoin reply to this

      Not all spellos are written by people with poor grammar skills; especially when written on a phone with accidental predictive spelling. It would be best to have the option to edit for both authors and commenters.

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      1. 96

         PaulGoodman67posted 3 years agoin reply to this

         But imagine if someone wrote a polite but critical comment, then the author edited so that the meaning was altered so that it read as entirely positive? I could see that happening... It's one thing to let authors not show all comments, which I agree with, but it's another to allow them to edit wording of comments.

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            AliciaCposted 3 years agoin reply to this

            That’s what worries me. I’m sure that many writers wouldn’t do this, but some may be tempted to change the wording and the meaning of a response if they are able to edit it.

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            1. 91

               Sue Adamsposted 3 years agoin reply to this

               In that case, leave the option for authors to moderate, meaning they can either accept or reject a comment and allow commenters some time to edit their comments to correct mistakes just as we do here on the forums.

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               1. 94

                  Glenn Stokposted 3 years agoin reply to this

                  Sue, you came up with a brilliant idea that solves the problem.
                  
                  As Paul mentioned, Not letting the Hubber edit a reader's comments makes sense as I see it now, since some people will take advantage of that for their own benefit.
                  
                  So your idea, Sue, gives us the chance to ask the commentator to correct spelling or grammar errors before posting. I like that idea. Of course it only works when the comment was left by a logged on Hubber since others won’t ever get the request to correct mistakes. But it’s a start in the right direction.
                  
                  It could be implemented with a button to click that sends a standard request to the commentator automatically.

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                  1. 96

                     PaulGoodman67posted 3 years agoin reply to this

                     Only a tiny percentage of my comments came from other hubbers and they weren't usually the problematic ones.
                     
                     The bad spellers rarely had anything interesting or useful to say in my experience. I would rather just not post their comments than get into an extended dialogue with them. That doesn't strike me as a good use of my time.
                     
                     The SEO value of comments is at best minimal and doesn't justify that degree of involvement in my estimation.

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                     1. 94

                        Glenn Stokposted 3 years agoin reply to this

                        That’s a good point I haven’t considered. Now that you mention that, I agree that most grammar and spelling errors are made by outside visitors. I only get my name misspelled by some other Hubbers.
                        
                        As for SEO, a couple of years ago I went through all my hubs deleting comments that were poorly written, and anything that didn’t provide a benefit to my readers. Then I saw an increase in Google traffic shortly after that.
                        
                        The only thing I have to admit is that I have no idea if the increase in traffic was a result of removing those comments. But it was interesting to me when it happened.

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               2. 73

                  Miebakagh57posted 3 years agoin reply to this

                  I think if a reader or author should edit my comment, there's the likely odd a change of meaning positive or negative can occur.                                       Therefore, I'll prefer my comments to be accept or reject...just moderate them. That's all.                                       Few months ago, a lady try editng my post word for word. Though the meaning remain the same, I see it as a sort of plagiarism for another person.

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6. 83

   Teodora Gheorgheposted 3 years ago

   I find the comment feature to be quite useful. Hubbers can exchange ideas, insights; they can show each other appreciation and support. My concern is that people outside the platform who read our articles may want to post comments and realize they are not able to do so. Moreover, they will most likely see that there are already some comments there and they may wonder (and for good reason) how come others could post and they can’t. I really hope the comments will come back. And yes, it would be nice to be able to edit our own comments at any time.

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   1. 73

      Miebakagh57posted 3 years agoin reply to this

      I buy your thoughts completely. But as Matt had said in a previous thread, HubPages is working on or testing the new comment format, I hope it becomes a reality.

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7. 91

   Sue Adamsposted 3 years ago

   Five valid reasons for bringing back comments:
   
   1. Freshness of Content
   At present, the most recent comments showing are very old. This indicates that interest in the viewed article is fading, i.e. the article is outdated, even when regularly updated. That's bad, it makes readers leave the page for more recent content.
   
   2. Inefficiency
   If a reader wants to leave a comment, they cannot do so and feel there is something wrong with the site so they walk away and don't return. Boohoo!
   
   3. Popularity
   An article with lots of comments shows a lot of interest and engagement and is more likely to be bookmarked and shared. That's good.
   
   4. Increased Word Count
   Quote from https://www.sweor.com/seocontentlength
   "The average content length for a web page that ranks in the top ten results for any keyword on Google has at least 2,000 words"
   Well moderated useful comments with a lot of questions and answers (essential information) add a lot of content to an article. Since the recommended word count for HP is 1200 words, the comments section can increase that number to come closer to the recommended 2000 word count.
   
   5. Dwell Time
   The comments section makes readers stay longer on a page (dwell time). By engaging and interacting with each other and with the author, a reader often gets much more personally sought info from the comments section than they would from the article alone. That's very beneficial for readers and it makes them stay longer on the page.
   
   Please bring back comments a.s.a.p. with
      (a) option to moderate for author and
      (b) option to edit for both authors and commenters.

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      Titiaposted 3 years agoin reply to this

      +++++

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   2. 77

      schoolgirlforrealposted 19 months agoin reply to this

      Yes!!!!!!

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8. 78

   bhattucposted 3 years ago

   I hope, they will.

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9. 98

   alexadryposted 3 years ago

   I feel pretty positive that comments will be back. Actually, I feel that it's taking longer than expected because they may be working on some aspects/features to make it even better than before. I am thinking positively because I see no good reason for not bringing comments back.

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10. 84

    bravewarriorposted 3 years ago

    We were told comments would be reinstated by the end of June 2021. This hasn't happened. Then we discovered a horrendous "reviews" area in PetHelpful that made it clear out-of-county-content-mill writers were hired to post the content that HP should be embarrassed by at the very least. It should never have been posted. Now, many of the niche sites are being copied in their entirety and Staff says each author needs to file a DMCA. WTF? Something's going on here and it's not good. Trouble in River City, my fellow writers.
    
    We're being lied to. We're finding out things are being implemented behind our backs and the authors who ARE this site, are not consulted.
    
    What the hell is going on?
    
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HulJhHWTBTo

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       Miebakagh57posted 3 years agoin reply to this

       Too bad.

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11. 84

    bravewarriorposted 3 years ago

    That said, we the writers should have that option. To remove the capability entirely is unfair. At this point, only HP writers can leave comments by way of their feed, that is, if and when the articles can be found. Google readers and others who are not HP members cannot leave comments if they so desire. Cutting us off at the knees is not the way to support the writers who are the source of  income for this site.

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12. 83

    Ben716posted 3 years ago

    The Q & A feature was removed because HP found out that it wasn't benefitting them in terms of earning. It's understandable though some of us found it useful based on various reasons.
    I do believe comments feature was scrapped out for the same reason. Why would they remove it instead of working on improving it? It doesn't make sense. And why would it take more than a year to return it? It isn't that it requires a lot of technical work to bring the feature back. A year of not having reinstated it is unbelievable.
    We should better forget about this feature because HP has done away with it. If it isn't profiting them, why would they want it?
    HP forgets that feature means a world to us hubbers; not them.

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13. 73

    Miebakagh57posted 2 years ago

    I hope so.

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14. 95

    eugbugposted 2 years ago

    To be honest it just gave us extra unpaid work answering questions. If people want to contact us, they can do so through social media. Most of the time on my articles, it was kids or students wanting me to do their assignments for them.

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       bravewarriorposted 2 years agoin reply to this

       I'm not active on social media, although I do have FB, Twitter, and Pinterest accounts. Contacting me through social media will go unanswered or greatly delayed at best. I feel social media is poison and provides a window into your personal life. Not for me.
       
       Comments were to have been reinstated by the end of the second quarter. We are now in the fourth quarter, leading with unkept promises.

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       DrMark1961posted 2 years agoin reply to this

       No, they cannot contact all of us through social media. I may be an exception, but have not tried to look at all of the other profiles on here.
       Extra unpaid work? In my opinion helping the reader is not unpaid work. Maybe you helped someone and he told his or her friends about how great your article was and how it helped him do his homework. Do you think you would have more readers because of that?

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          eugbugposted 2 years agoin reply to this

          Maybe, but I don't think word of mouth would necessarily bring in a huge number of extra readers. I would prefer to spend my time creating more content that could potentially earn. The earnings aren't pocket money, they pretty much pay my bills. And I've 100 more other things to do. If I had the time, I would be more than willing to help. I already spend too much time contributing to Facebook support groups.

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15. 91

    Sue Adamsposted 2 years ago

    If comments are not coming back, then it would be best to delete them all because leaving old outdated comments on an article makes a poor impression, especially if readers are not able to contribute to the discussion.
    I just wish that staff would tell us once and for all what is happening. A whole year of empty promises is unacceptable – like we are not being listened to and no one cares.

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    1. 84

       bravewarriorposted 2 years agoin reply to this

       That pretty much sums it up, Sue. HP had to succumb to the dictates of Mavin, and now we are under the umbrella of The Arena Group. The more umbrellas we have, the farther into the depths of the earth, HP lies. Our pleas will go unanswered, I fear. And HP's promises are for naught, for they no longer have a say.

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    2. 94

       Glenn Stokposted 2 years agoin reply to this

       It’s funny you mentioned that Sue, because I already did that with several of my articles where I felt the comments weren’t doing anything for new readers. That’s especially true when they would wonder why they couldn’t leave additional comments.
       
       Now that you mentioned they, I might consider doing more of that eliminating.

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16. 91

    Sue Adamsposted 2 years ago

    The problem is that if you look at the Meet the Team page, there no longer is anyone employed to liaise between writers and management like before when Robin, Paul, and Samantha were still there. I wouldn't be surprised if the forums will be eliminated next.
    
    By the way, what happened to (now big shot) Paul Edmondson?
    
    HubPages management seems to forget that we, the writers, are the content creators, our work is the product they are hoping to sell. We, therefore, deserve a bit more respect. If we deleted all our articles because a) we are no longer making money as we used to on this platform and b) we are being ignored, then where would The Arena Group end up?

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       Jodahposted 2 years agoin reply to this

       I hope the staff respond too this thread. I do think an update is well overdue. It is almost year’s end and still no comments.

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       Solarasposted 2 years agoin reply to this

       I imagine we are the peasants who toil in the fields. There are stars in the universe to be courted.  We are the slobs or the sharecroppers that bring in the the wheat and grain harvests.
       
       Management addresses our concerns only when there is a technical issue that could bring external scrutiny i.e. Amazon ads that needs an ugly, universal warning.
       
       I am wondering how the Squidoo folks, who jumped ship, are doing now.  They can share their revenue numbers from wherever, without any fear of HP TOS.  Please jump in if you are still out there.
       
       Some of us are losing hope here.

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    3. 94

       Glenn Stokposted 2 years agoin reply to this

       And we lost Tessa too, who left in July, five months after Samantha. I'm wondering why we haven’t seen any new Hubber advocates announced since Tessa left. I’ve also been watching the “HubPages by the Numbers” report and noticed that since July, staff is down from 32 to 29 now.

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          Sue Adamsposted 2 years agoin reply to this

          I actually only count 22 team members on the Meet the Team page with Matt Wells as Moderation Manager. I just sent Matt an email asking him to respond to this thread. See what happens.

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             Glenn Stokposted 2 years agoin reply to this

             That's right. They only show 22 staff pictures there. But on the "About Us" page where the “HubPages by the Numbers” is listed, they indicate 29 staff. That's up to date as of today. And that page showed 32 in July. I've been keeping an eye on it. Actually, that's not bad. They only had 15 staff members in 2014.

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                Miebakagh57posted 2 years agoin reply to this

                Question: What has the staff strength got to do with the comment button getting back on stream for the sake of writers and readers?

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                   Glenn Stokposted 2 years agoin reply to this

                   You’re right with questioning that. This thread has gone slightly into an alternate tangent not precisely related to the original discussion. But the concept is still focused on the problem with no communication about comments because we lost having a liaison to communicate with directly.

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                      Miebakagh57posted 2 years agoin reply to this

                      That's really understanding. Thank you very much.

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                   Sue Adamsposted 2 years agoin reply to this

                   Not really off-topic. The reason we still don't have an answer to the question: "Is there any chance that the comments will come back?" maybe because there are fewer staff members and, unlike before, when we had a liaison officer, none of them now seem to be specifically responsible for replying to our questions.

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                      Miebakagh57posted 2 years agoin reply to this

                      Thank you. Matt has gave us his word. And we're expecting. We've place a bet that the comment button is either coming or not, you remember?                                  So far, how far is HubPages laisoning with Maven is the issue before everyone here. I think that has less to do with staff at the moment. Further thought the contractual agreement on the comment button coming back is between Hubpages and Maven, not between staff and the later.

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17. 94

    Glenn Stokposted 2 years ago

    Dr Mark and Eugene, You’re both right!
    
    • Helping the reader is NOT unpaid work.
    
    • Word of mouth does not necessarily bring in a huge number of extra readers.
    
    Here’s my scoop on this issue:
    
    When we help someone by responding with advice or solutions to their problems or questions, that adds extra content that Google indexes along with the rest of the article. That could have a positive impact on ranking and placement in the SERPs.
    
    So, it’s not a matter of word of mouth, which, as Eugene indicates, does not bring much traffic compared to writing more quality content. It’s a matter of getting more readers through search!
    
    Sometimes I move my responses from comments to the main body when I see a better placement for it. So, replying to comments is useful work, in my opinion, as long as it adds value.

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       bravewarriorposted 2 years agoin reply to this

       Right on, Glenn!

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          Glenn Stokposted 2 years agoin reply to this

          Thank you, Shauna.

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       EricDockettposted 2 years agoin reply to this

       In addition to this, if I may: Comments also allow us to interact with our people. They are an open channel between the writer and reader. This is so important.
       
       If you write on niche topics, other people interested in those topics will reach out with their opinions and thoughts. It's a community, whether it is football, music, collecting action figures, whatever.
       
       And I'm talking about readers out in the world, not other writers here.
       
       Sometimes it allows you to see a topic from another perspective, so when you edit your article down the road you can include content that better serves the whole community.
       
       Sometimes people will point out where you are wrong, in ways you never thought of before.
       
       Even the process of interacting with the writer is valuable to people.
       
       I've enjoyed not having to weed through comments, but I feel like the vacation should be about over. I can't believe HP hasn't brought them back yet. We are missing major opportunities to grow our audience.

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          Glenn Stokposted 2 years agoin reply to this

          All very good points Eric. I agree with everything you said, and it's all very important.

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             bravewarriorposted 2 years agoin reply to this

             I agree as well. I often look for recipes online. If I have a question about the recipe or want to know if I can substitute an ingredient that wasn't addressed in the article, I leave a comment. Sites that have comments open to organic search readers are invaluable to me. Don't shut me out. Allow me to have communication with the author. I'm sure a site/article that includes valuable comments (remember we can delete those that aren't - at least we used to have that capability) increase the ranks in Google. When I google myself, I not only see my higher ranking articles, but comments I've made that Google deems worthy of placing on page one.

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                Glenn Stokposted 2 years agoin reply to this

                Yeah. Isn't that cool? Comments do get indexed.

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                Solarasposted 2 years agoin reply to this

                I find the comments on recipes invaluable.  Sometimes they already answer questions about substitutes.  Sometimes they validate a baking failure that I experienced with the recipe. lol

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       eugbugposted 2 years agoin reply to this

       Glenn, I think you missed a vocation as a pragmatic diplomat and peacemaker
       I have answered a lot of questions on math articles, but they tend to be repetitive and a lot of the time the questions are practically similar. For instance on my triangle article, a question is typically "given side a = 10 and side b = 5 and angle C = 60 degrees, find side c". Now I've given all the information in the tutorial, so it sort of annoys me that a student would ask such a question when I've already explained things. I answered lots of such questions and got fed up repeating myself. I would prefer to answer a question where a student doesn't understand a method of doing things such as using Pythagoras's rule or the cosine or sine rules, but it would be difficult to do that without an interactive conversation.
       Maybe I should setup a class on Google Classroom and use Hubpages tutorials as a reference source.
       
       Edit: A donation button would be nice. For instance on my burglar alarm troubleshooting guide, it would give those who can well afford it the opportunity to show their appreciation if I save them money.

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          Glenn Stokposted 2 years agoin reply to this

          Thanks for the kind words Eugene. I never considered that. Too late to change careers now. lol.
          
          As for your thoughts, I also feel repetitive questions are annoying when I just posted a lengthy explanation to the same question in the article or previous comments.
          
          That's why I sometimes move my response to the main body. I never expect readers to browse through all the comments to see if someone else asks the same thing.   
          
          But when it's apparent that they never bother to read the article and just ask questions, that is annoying. So I usually refer them to a previous comment where I answered it. But then I delete that reference later to avoid needless comments that serve no purpose for other readers. 
          
          However, besides that, I use it to my advantage by improving on the answer. For example, sometimes, a different way of asking a question gives me ideas to answer it differently.
          
          One last thing, when I answer questions, I try to consider how that answer adds value for other readers. So I never focus on just that one person. If someone's question is so personal that it doesn't apply to anyone else, I still answer it, but then delete the question and answer a few months later. I feel that's necessary to avoid a lower Google ranking for unrelated content.
          
          Bottom line: Management of comments can become a full-time job, but it can help both authors and readers when handled right.

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             eugbugposted 2 years agoin reply to this

             On my string trimmer troubleshooting article, I usually answer every question because they're all unique and troubleshooting can be frustrating because you have to try all sorts of things, but sometimes a machine still won't work. So often there's a lot of toing and froing between me and a reader. I have worked some of the stuff I've learned from those discussions into the article.

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                Glenn Stokposted 2 years agoin reply to this

                It's good you do that. It can actually help improve the article's ranking due to the added content. I often get better ideas for improvement of my content from the way people interact in the comments.

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                   bravewarriorposted 2 years agoin reply to this

                   Just one more proof of point that comments should not only be reinstated, but are valuable to increasing SERPS.

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          bravewarriorposted 2 years agoin reply to this

          Eugene, based on your response to Glenn's comment, perhaps the students aren't taking the time to read the article(s) and are taking shortcuts by asking a question. I'd venture to say that those same students don't read the chapters for which they need to provide answers to questions in their textbooks.

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             eugbugposted 2 years agoin reply to this

             That's what seems to happen. I posted one of my tutorials to Facebook and on one occasion, this guy posted  an image of 10 questions from his math assignment as a comment and asked me could I answer them for him.

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                bravewarriorposted 2 years agoin reply to this

                Seriously??????
                
                We didn't have the Internet as an aide when we were in school, at least I didn't (born in 1957). You attended class, read the chapters and completed the assignments at the end of each.
                
                Why are kids so lazy these days?

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                   eugbugposted 2 years agoin reply to this

                   Don't know. Personal computers were only beginning to appear in college when I attended in the mid eighties. I remember almost formatting a hard disk by mistake instead of a floppy when I left out the A: of the DOS format command.

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          DrMark1961posted 2 years agoin reply to this

          Maybe it has more to do with subject matter than I realize. Yes, I find a lot of questions are repetitive but not as many as your articles appear to draw.

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    Miebakagh57posted 2 years ago

    These comments as it affect SERPs is very enlightening to me.

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    Solarasposted 2 years ago

    Question because I have no idea:
    
    If Medium only counts a read if you get to the bottom of the article, does Google or any other ranking system only count or heavily weight an article if the reader gets to the bottom of it?
    
    In that case, would a reader stopping at the comments, underweight the article in the algorithms eyes?

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    Brenda Arledgeposted 2 years ago

    Doubtful...but we can repost our own articles on newsfeed by commenting on them.
    Then others can comment.

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       Miebakagh57posted 2 years agoin reply to this

       However doubtful it's, we've Samartha at her word. We've Matt at his word.                                     A little patient and the dog eat the fattest bone.                                  But should it happen the comment button will not be back, let it be. I'm okay with current things as they're on HubPages. What about you?                                 One thing that keep my spirit expecting is that Matt around June or July said it was in a "testing" stage. I think he would not mean it if it where not so.

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          Matt Wellsposted 2 years agoin reply to this

          Comments will come back. We are working on it and apologize for the delay.

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             bravewarriorposted 2 years agoin reply to this

             That's good to know, Matt. Do you have an ETA?

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             DrMark1961posted 2 years agoin reply to this

             Thank you for chiming in on this vital issue.

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             Peggy Wposted 2 years agoin reply to this

             Thanks for answering the questions about comments coming back on our articles, Matt.  We will rely upon your answer, and hope they return ASAP.

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                bravewarriorposted 2 years agoin reply to this

                Peggy, read this forum thread. It's not good news as far as we writers are concerned.
                
                https://hubpages.com/community/forum/35 … axleaddict

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    perryaposted 2 years ago

    LOL, now I understand what the hell is going on. BTW, why did HP remove the comments from followers anyway? Stupid decision.

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       Jodahposted 2 years agoin reply to this

       We lost comments on articles when HubPages moved the niche sites to the Maven platform which was not compatible with comments. They later removed the ability to comment on the feed. I don’t know why they did that…at least if that was reinstated it would be better than it is now.

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    Miebakagh57posted 2 years ago

    That may be. But its more of a business than imagine.

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    Miebakagh57posted 2 years ago

    Jodah(John), I agree with you.
    
    As many have now known the question why Hubpages move all comments from every writers' time line or feed, it's purely commercial.
    
    But I wonder why comments is restored to AxleAddict and WanderWisdom till date. Are these two niche sites a special entity? Due to this challenge, many authors here are leaving HubPages for other online writing platform.
    
    Some don't write again but spent time editing their writes. That good in itself. If comment ever come back, good for these type of writers. I hope that also will bring back those that have gone.
    
    Hubpages took a drastic risk in moving its' babe to Maven.

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       AliciaCposted 2 years agoin reply to this

       Comments have recently been returned to Delishably. It seems like the process of adding comments to the niche sites is still in progress.

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    Miebakagh57posted 2 years ago

    Yes, Linda. I forget that. Thanks for the feed back. I'm now taking proper note of it all-AxleAddick, WanderWisdom, and Delishably

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    emgeposted 2 years ago

    I wonder why people are bothered about comments, when the aim should be to see what is the viewership  all over the world. Comments are a limiting factor confined to  very few people.

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       Miebakagh57posted 2 years agoin reply to this

       Hey, emge, how d' you know your articles are view all over the world without readers chipping in? Let's say its true that the viewership's are so strong, but how d' you get a meaning from the readers? That's what bothering most writers here.
       
       That solution is in comments. Without comments, writing articles don't mean a thing to most writers. Some writers have left Hubpages for that very reason. Some don't ever write again, but they're active in the forums, and are actively editing their writes nowadays.
       
       Some like you here will not worry about it but the money is the thing.
       
       Have you notice well that comments as promised is back on three niche sites: AxleAddict, WanderWisdom, and Delshably? That means some writers are here still expecting it to happen to all the other sites.

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          bravewarriorposted 2 years agoin reply to this

          Miebakagh, your Google Analytics report shows where your readers are located globally. I miss comments, too, but they have nothing to do with letting the authors know who their audience is and from where they come.

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             Miebakagh57posted 2 years agoin reply to this

             bravewarior, I agree with you. But have you ever notice that activities seems to be few these days? It's due to lack of comments imho.

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                bravewarriorposted 2 years agoin reply to this

                The activity level is pretty much a moving target, Miebakagh. I just brought up my GA and I've got active users as we speak. I don't think comments has anything to do with the audience my articles attract or anyone else's for that matter.
                
                I haven't written anything new since late 2020 or early 2021. I receive consistent organic traffic on articles I wrote prior to 2020. Traffic/activity comes from providing articles that cover topics and answer questions Googlers are searching for. Comments has nothing to do with activity outside the virtual walls of HP.

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                   Miebakagh57posted 2 years agoin reply to this

                   brave, you're welcome. But I'm sorry that I didn't qualify my point well.                                                By activities I don't ever mean organic traffic. I mean normal activities within HP.                                                  Gone are the the days when Hp will rate some writers as the most active on a daily or weekly basis. C6menting is lost here. Brave, don't you agree?

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                      Glenn Stokposted 2 years agoin reply to this

                      Miebakagh, Most of us are here to make money from our writing. That requires organic traffic.

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                         Miebakagh57posted 2 years agoin reply to this

                         Yes, Glenn. That I agree. That has change my perspective to stay m hubpagds. Otherwise, had I didn't know that, I would buy your thoughts. Thanks.

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          Glenn Stokposted 2 years agoin reply to this

          Miebakagh, In addition to global location as Shauna said, Google Analytics also shows us the demographics of our readers, such as age and gender. Getting that kind of information from comments is very limited.
          
          Besides that, I recall some comments I received in the past indicated that the reader didn’t even read the article. That’s frustrating, because all we do is refer them back to the article rather than rehashing what we already have in the content.
          
          Google Analytics, on the other hand, shows how long readers stayed on the page and if they read more than one article while visiting. So we can see how many people do indeed read. Again, comments don’t show us that either.
          
          I’m not saying comments are useless, but they are not meant to show us the type of information you hope to learn from them. We have Google Analytics for that.

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       DrMark1961posted 2 years agoin reply to this

       Are you implying that readers in other parts of the world are not

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    emgeposted 2 years ago

    I completely agree on this and I still not been able to understand why minority of writers are hooting for comments. Most of the comments which were given and I have written quite a bit on Hub Pages was something like you comment on me and I comment on you. What purpose it served I don't know.

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       Miebakagh57posted 2 years agoin reply to this

       Glenn, I'm completely with you in that. Thank you.

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       Miebakagh57posted 2 years agoin reply to this

       emge, those asking for comments to come back either on hubpagfs or discover are a majority.                                          Forget about reciprocal commenting if you can't understand thing or two about that, while others de. I still want comment to come back. It's kind of a learning processes.

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       DrMark1961posted 2 years agoin reply to this

       Maybe for your articles. Most of my comments were from readers looking for help. They served an important purpose.

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    PaulGoodman67posted 2 years ago

    The fundamental problem with comments on here is that most writers never monitored them, so they filled up with spam. This has a negative knock-on effect for everyone, as Google doesn't like spam comments.
    
    The people who complain about the comments disappearing aren't an issue, as they're the sort who check their comments regularly. The problem lies with writers who just leave their articles to gather all sorts of crap.
    
    I suspect that the negligent ones heavily outnumber the writers who monitor their comments closely. However, we don't hear from these people as, pretty much by definition, they're not around.
    
    I believe that's the essential problem and HP have struggled to find a solution that really works.

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       eugbugposted 2 years agoin reply to this

       Maybe there could be a global switch off of all comments when they're implemented on all network sites. If a user wants them included, they have to enable them. Wouldn't that eliminate all the rubbish? Of course good comments would also be hidden if inactive members don't turn them back on.

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          PaulGoodman67posted 2 years agoin reply to this

          I think that a further complication is subject matter. If you're writing poetry, say, it's not a commercial area and you won't get much spam. So you might not see what the big deal is.
          
          What's problematic, I suspect, is the people who write a handful of articles on higher revenue topics, which are far more likely to attract spam, and then they b*gger off. Those people would likely turn all the comments on, then leave.
          
          I don't know how beneficial the "good comments" really are for the site overall. Obviously, HP have decided that it's not nearly enough to outweigh the bad.
          
          Comments may just not be worth worrying about if they stop articles getting noticed by the search engines, which is a core part of how the site works and gets its money.
          
          I believe, rightly or wrongly, that there are no easy solutions, or HP would have implemented them by now. But I don't know the technical ins and outs in any detail.
          
          People sometimes assume (rather naively I suspect) that it's pretty easy just to "filter out" unwanted material. In that respect, the comments issue has similarities with the Discover spam and low quality article problems that people get annoyed about in other forum threads.
          
          Tech companies facilitate massive amounts of data moving around and do it so quickly that it's essentially happening in real time. But they are terrible at controlling unwanted material (spam, misinformation, offensive material etc.).
          
          Rather than it being specifically an HP issue, it seems more of a universal problem to me.

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    alexadryposted 2 years ago

    It's funny that just the other day, Newsbreak shared a snippet of my article and under the snippet shared, there were like hundreds of comments. As I was reading through some of them, I was thinking about how we are missing out on this while other websites are taking advantage of the commenting feature.
    
    I have recently enabled again the opportunity for people to contact me, so I am getting most questions from readers this way. It's a shame though that the answers can't help others who may be in a similar situation.
    
    I remember a while back, it was possible for readers on Hubpages to ask questions on the forums and there was the option of responding by turning the answer into an article. I wonder if this could be an option in lieu of commenting to encourage more article production and in the meanwhile help readers get answers.
    
    Another option may be to display ads on the forum question pages sort of like Quora does and maybe those answering can can get a portion of earnings, but likely this may be complicated to implement.
    
    Just thinking of alternatives to commenting options and what other websites are doing.

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       DrMark1961posted 2 years agoin reply to this

       I write different things on Quora, mostly about sheep and horses, but have noticed that not a week goes by without someone leaving a comment.

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          Miebakagh57posted 2 years agoin reply to this

          Could it be good if I write on Quora besides hubpages? I'm a Nigerian. Any advice? Thanks.

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    eugbugposted 2 years ago

    If comments do return to all sites, make it a premium service with the option of posting a question type comment which would be chargeable. I think a dollar per question would be appropriate and keep some spam off sites. We do have to make an income after all. 12 years ago, people were willing to pay me $10 per answer on Fixya.com for solving technical problems.

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       Miebakagh57posted 2 years agoin reply to this

       eugbup, eugbud. I heard you clear. And I'm with you in that. You're much welcome.

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    Miebakagh57posted 19 months ago

    In Nigeria, those still waiting for the comment button, as far as it goes will be regard as no-bodies.                                        But here it's better you go to hell than waiting.                                      D' you think ROJO is not a substitute?

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