Compatibility:
WebSite X5 Evo and Pro
Insiders have often discussed whether it is convenient or not to give the readers the possibility to leave comments for a blog post.
In this article we'll focus on:
- Comments: Pros and Cons
- Activating comments for the Blog
- Deactivating the comments for particular posts
Comments: Pros and Cons
As for everything, activating comments for your blog has some pros and cons: let's have a look at the most important aspects:
| PROS | CONS |
| Replying to comments means to fulfill real exigences and it helps you build a relationship with your audience. | If you receive many comments, replying and moderating the discussions can be time-consuming. |
| Comments are useful contents that complete what you described in your post. | If you get few comments, it could be a sign that your audience does not feel involved and that your blog isn't successful. |
| Comments can be useful suggestions and ideas for new contents to be discussed in your future posts. | Comments can be negative or can report inconvenient questions you'd rather avoid. |
| Comments create an audience and turn your readers into a community. | There isn't a real interest in hearing what readers want to say. |
To sum up, some people think that deactivating the comments would degenerate the Blog, depriving it of its own lifeblood, while others think that it is a good way of managing the Blog more efficiently. And you? Who do you agree with?
Activating comments for the Blog
If you want to give your readers the possibility of leaving comments to the posts you publish, that's what you need to do:
- Go to Step 3- Sitemap Special Page Blog: Article Page and select on Edit, or double-click on it.
- Activate the Let readers add comments to your Blog option.
- Specify which Comment management systemyou want to use. You can choose among:
- WebSite X5: it is the WebSite X5 internal system and you can manage the comments you get on the online Control Panel (see: How to set up the internal system of WebSite X5 for comment management).
- Facebook: you can use the Facebook Social Plug-in to manage comments and discussions (see: How to use the Facebook plug-in to manage comments).
- Disqus: it is the system provided by Disqus (see: How to use Disqus to manage comments).
- According to the comment management system of your choice, set the necessary parameters to set it up.
Once you're ready, you can move on to the creation and publication of new Blog posts. At the bottom of the Blog posts a form will be available, which your readers can use to submit their comments. They will need to report their Name, E-Mail, Website and Message. A part from the Website, all fields are mandatory.
Deactivating the comments for particular posts
You can choose not to activate comments for your Blog at all or, if you want to go for a middle ground, you can decide whether to activates comments or not for each post you publish.
If you think this is the right solution for your Blog, you can proceed this way:
- Follow the above reported steps to activate the comments.
- Go to Step 1 - Website settings > Blog, select the desired post from the list and select the Edit button to open the Post Settings window.
- Go to the Resources section and activate the Do not allow comments on this post option.
- Repeat these steps for all the posts you don't want to receive comments for.