The past 13 years haven’t been kind to blogs. Today, they’re viewed as a relic of the early days of the Internet, where people didn’t know how to design websites, and everyone had a blog. And for a while, it was good. I remember participating in a network of blogs with curated communities, where we had real discussions and got to know each other.
Then social media came along and busted the whole setup. Now instead of an intimate set of connections, writing thoughtful replies to posts, and following the evolution of someone’s line of thinking, we have anonymous individuals swarming hot takes. Social media killed the blogging scene.
But could the tide be turning once more?
Communities Still Exist – Outside Traditional Social Media
Away from the public view of Twitter and Facebook, private communities are still thriving in discord groups, Reddit communities, YouTube video channels, and even private paid clubs for content creators like Patreon.
You won’t find these communities on search engines, but multiple inroads exist. YouTube content creators will talk about their Patreon accounts, where you can get exclusive content, and you might stumble upon a small Reddit community where everyone knows each other.
Blog Comments Can Still Create Communities
One of the best communities I’ve seen is on the website of the National Review. It’s a conservative magazine, where commenting is restricted to paid members only. And this both improves the quality of comments and keeps the universe smaller than it would be. Paradoxically, a community can be too large, which is the main difference between the National Review comments and the New York Times comments. The New York Times and Washington Post articles have hundreds upon hundreds of comments for each post, whereas a typical article on the National Review has between 30-50.
How to Build a Community with your Comment Section
Here’s what you need to create a strong blog community.
Have Opinions and Value Judgements – Like the National Review
First, you have to have an audience interested in what you have to say. And for that, you need to have opinions. It’s just a matter of time before AI starts writing most articles, and the best way to differentiate yourself from the competition is to have strong opinions. Comment sections are for gossip. And no one will gossip about a bland “A vs B” review unless you have a strong value judgment.
Have Strong Moderation – Don’t be Like Reason Magazine
Reason Magazine is perhaps the best example of what happens when a noxious comment section ruins great articles and opinions. Perhaps due to the very philosophy of the site itself, they refrain from editing or moderating comments, which is a mess of spam and abuse. It’s a shame because their articles are thought-provoking and well-written.
It’s so bad, that I have to follow the conversation on Reason’s Twitter account instead of the website. The moral of the story – have strong moderation policies!
Let People Link Back to their Blogs
This is tricky. If you’re interested in building a community, you might consider letting people like back to their blogs. Over the years, many WordPress users have disabled the “URL” field in their blog comments using code like this:
add_filter('comment_form_field_url', '__return_false');
But perhaps it’s time to reconsider and let the website URLs back into the comments section. Coupled with strong moderation, this helps create a community of writers in the same field.
It Takes Time, but it’s Worth it
Finally, community creation requires constant nurturing, attention, and growing time. You have to get to know your readers, take time out to visit and engage with their sites, respond to comments, and more. It can be a very fulfilling asset once it’s grown to a certain size. Seeing regular commentators drop by and leave their thoughts is a fine dopamine hit. And it’ll keep your blog alive and save you from the coming AI content mill :).
I’m a NameHero team member, and an expert on WordPress and web hosting. I’ve been in this industry since 2008. I’ve also developed apps on Android and have written extensive tutorials on managing Linux servers. You can contact me on my website WP-Tweaks.com!
Agreed! It’s time and we’ll be deeply invested in making our online presence a place of community, wherever you find us!
Good read. TY!