Comments on: Should Email Addresses Be Required in Blog Comments?

By: Russell Uresti

Russell Uresti — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 23:07:21 +0000

I think this boils down to preference. I’m currently designing my own blog and was wondering whether or not to require an e-mail field (which is how I stumbled upon this article). Right now I’m leaning not to require it.

Personally, I dislike the idea of replying to someone’s comment via email. I think the comments should be about a discussion, or a conversation, and as such, be transparent and happen out in the open (as long as they stay on topic of the blog article).

If things begin to get off topic, you can say “Please contact me via email”, because most blog authors are going to provide some sort of contact email themselves. This puts the initialization of a private conversation in the hands of the reader, which I think is the better option.

A commenter’s email may be useful to have, but I don’t think it’s necessary to have, and so it shouldn’t be required.

By: Craig3

Craig3 — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 16:23:49 +0000

I think is should be mandatory as with most blogs. I agree with most of the sentiments above, it’s like signing your comments and also it weeds out the time wasters. Open communication is always best rather than random anonymous posts.

By: Craig2

Craig2 — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 16:21:34 +0000

I think is should be mandatory as with most blogs. I agree with most of the sentiments above, it’s like signing your comments and also it weeds out the time wasters.

Open communication is always better than random anonymous posts.

By: vardis

vardis — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 10:22:38 +0000

I don’t think it should be compulsory but I do think it should be encouraged. I do worry about giving my email addres out all over the place though – the spammers will soon find it!

By: liveblogging

liveblogging — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 02:13:16 +0000

I think it should be an option if the person who is making the comment can subscribe and add their email..

If they do not want to, they should not have to..

By: Kikolani - Poetry | Photography | Blogging Tips

Kikolani - Poetry | Photography | Blogging Tips — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 00:12:14 +0000

I think leaving the email address in is a good idea. I think it gives the blog author a way to personally reply to comments in ways they may not want to do on the blog, especially if they feel the comment doesn't belong in the first place. And if people feel wary about their privacy, they can simply create a new email address just for comments. It's all to simple in the day and age of free email hosts all over the web. Kikolani - Poetry | Photography | Blogging Tips´s last blog post..Backup Your Blog for Peace of Mind

By: Philip John

Philip John — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 17:17:25 +0000

As a blogger I like to have the e-mail address there as a barrier to spammers (though judging by the amount caught by Akismet it probably doesn’t matter) and so I can engage with my readers if I think they’ll benefit from it.

As a reader I like to give my e-mail address out because by commenting I am engaging with the blogger and would be pleased if s/he were to be inclined to e-mail me.

I can see the privacy aspect that some people may be concerned with. This is something that services like Discus could easily address. A service such as this could (like Blogger) take the e-mail address and hide it from the blogger but then allow the blogger to still contact the reader (so long as the reader’s privacy settings allow it).

Food for thought.