In our view, a comment is no different than a blog post - it is a class-A content element and it should enjoy the same power of a normal post to attract new visitors and help those that comment, make a clear point. It’s true – things that are inherently designed differently (as compared with the status-quo) are typically not obvious and [sometimes] intentionally so. This is partially the case with the MyST Blogsite commenting design. There’s no shortage of other products that have become more complex because they had to, or they wouldn’t be better than their predecessors. I prefer ultra-simple solutions to complex problems, but given the constraints, our clients expect extraordinary findability for anything that’s published in their marketing advertorials and this includes comments. To satisfy this requirement, all information objects (including comments) must include more meta-information; far more meta-data than typical blog commenting features and quite different from visitor expectations. You could say we have a fundamental problem with doing it the way all other "blog” tools have done it in the past, partly because most companies really want to do more than just blog and get people to leave comments. While conversations are good, high-quality conversations are probably far more valuable in reaching your marketing objectives. Intentionally, we expose three fields for commenting and n… options for adding link properties to a comment. This is far more comprehensive than any commenting system presently on the web, which typically include only a comment field. In fact, commenting (as we know it) constrains findability rather than increasing it. Why? Because most blog tools are so unable to control track-back and comment spam that they had to take a defensive posture by removing any incentive to publish off-domain links. Our platform and approach is exactly the opposite – for business advertorials (where brand matters greatly), we recommend that comments should always be moderated, and generally enhanced with keywords, clear titles, comprehensive summaries, quotes, images, and additional link properties where appropriate. In our view, a comment is no different than a blog post – it is a class-A content element and it should enjoy the same power of a normal post. This achieves many benefits; two primary advantages - (i) a more search optimized comment attracts new visitors, and (ii) you can assist your commenters in making a clear point. Elevating the importance of comments by allowing visitors to include more meta-data pays big SEO dividends, but one advantage that you may have overlooked – it provides an opportunity for visitors (that comment) to feel special because they have been accorded the same publishing features that the authors of your blogsite use. How special would you feel if your comment were given the “royal treatment” and enhanced in ways that really helped the you make a clear and concise point? Ironically, we can see an example of how we treat our own visitors in this post about “channel conversations”. You can readily see that comments don’t have to be bland. Nor must they blend into the background - they can be loud and boisterous and they can include links and other enhanced publishing components, and tags. A really simple commenting system (with just a field for text) is likely to generate a few more comments because there are fewer fields. However, constraining the opportunity for visitors to share additional meta-data makes it more difficult to understand what they are trying to say. Besides, how valuable is comment volume? Aren't we really looking for the gems of agreement and the controversial diamonds of dissent to help us tell our business and marketing stories more clearly? Tell me how you make your commenting visitors feel special? | 
