What are some disadvantages of moderated blog comments?
For one thing, you are discouraging your genuine readers from leaving comments as they know they won't appear until after moderation. However, there are many upsides to comment moderation too. Please discuss pros and cons of this issue.
Instead of moderating all of the blog comments, you could always moderate the first one made by someone and then allow the others to go through. That's what I do on my blog and often seems like the most popular option.
The main disadvantage is the speed the comment gets approved. If someone posts their thoughts and doesn't see them appear within a few minutes, they're likely to stop bothering with that site altogether.
It can slow down the community discussion when comments need to be moderated. However, it is important to moderate comments in my opinion in order to make sure everything is related (not spam) and to make sure everything is to my rules.
It slows down community interaction so much so that it eventually comes to a stand still. Moderating the first blog comment would be best and makes more sense than moderating all of the blog posts and needing moderators to sort through them instead of sorting through the live comments.
Often if it gets to the point where I have to pre-approve comments due to spam/problems, I'll sooner just disable comments. It not only slows down discussion but it creates more work for me.
I'm a fan of linking to twitter with a hashtag and my twitter handle and saying "continue the discussion here" instead - even right away. Twitter is awesome for that.
I think if you have enough staff to approve the comments, then you should be fine. Getting rid of spam/rude comments can be done with ease which will help the site/staff.
I think all sites requiring moderation approval will deter members from posting due to there comments not going live and can be quite annoying. I guess the same would apply to a blog and comments.
I had no idea that so many people find having to wait for their comments to post as annoying. I personally don't mind it because I understand that the blog owner does not want any spam to post. Personally, I find it helpful to be notified that I have a new comment awaiting approval because 1)It does help ensure it's not spam 2)It draws my attention to it and I able to respond promptly and even check out their blog or website.
