[fr] Malheureusement, coComment et moi sommes partis pour une "Séparation 2.0: quand les 'social tools' que vous aimiez ne vous le rendent pas." Le choix de leur distributeur de publicité est vraiment malheureux (un cran au-dessus du spam, à mon sens), et clairement, il n'y a pas de dialogue entre coComment et ses utilisateurs, malgré les déclarations acharnées "d'ouverture au dialogue".
A la recherche d'une solution de remplacement pour la saisie des commentaires, donc. Le suivi des conversations m'intéresse beaucoup moins que la centralisation de tous mes commentaires en un endroit.
I was alerted to this a few days ago by [Nathalie](http://nathaliehmd.com/), and after witnessing it [with my own eyes](http://twitter.com/stephtara/statuses/792519413) — well, I’m going to go to bed a little later to blog about it, after all.
After [preparing to slap ads in our comment RSS feeds](http://climbtothestars.org/archives/2008/03/31/please-dont-be-rude-cocomment-i-loved-you/), [coComment](http://cocomment.com) is staying on the same ugly and obviously slippery slope by inserting ads in the cocobar:
So, slightly more discreet than the [big banners placed in the RSS feed](http://www.flickr.com/photos/bunny/2377623519/), but not in very good taste either. Here are some examples of scrolling ad text:
– “Want fast fitness results? Click for free info, revolutionary products.”
– “Walk on the well placed warmth of radiant heating. Click now!”
– “Free comparison of top car rental companies. Click here!”
– “Click to create your dream holiday trip now.”
– “Easy-to-use, advanced features, flexible phone systems. Click for more info.”
– “Visa, MasterCard, AMEX & Discover. Compare Offers & Apply Online. Click here!”
Reloading a cocobar-enabled page will provide you with hours of endless entertainment. (I’m kidding — but there are more out there, of course.)
Now, I understand that [coComment needs to “monetize”](http://blog.cocomment.com/2008/04/07/advertising-revenues-and-harsh-realities/), though one could question a business model which seems to be based on revenue from scrolling ads and blinking banners. (I can’t remember who said “if your business model is putting ads in your service, think again”.)
There are ads and ads, though. Here’s a sample of banners from the coComment site:
The screen captures don’t render the blinking quality of most of these ads, but I guess your imagination can fill in. Now, does anybody else than me feel that this kind of advert is just about one step above spam? Based on a few of the comments I can read on [the post Matt wrote about the “harsh realities” of advertising](http://blog.cocomment.com/2008/04/07/advertising-revenues-and-harsh-realities/), it seems not:
> With all honesty, the banners displayed on the cocomment site are awful and are making the service look VERY unprofessional – totally agree with “disappointed” on this one. Few will argue that perception is 99% of reality, so with those banner ads making the site look like crap, the whole service becomes questionable. I felt like I was about to get a trojan into my computer when I first saw www.cocomment.com
> there are other advertising partners that don’t crap up your web site with ads that flash in your face. most opensource projects are using google ad sens now (just an example) that displays relevant ads that look very subtle.
> I agree with some of the commenters here about the ad selection. It wouldn’t be so bad if it were unobtrusive AdWords or… something a little classier. It cheapens your brand. Think upscale! Or, at least, more upscale.
Allan White, in comment
Yes, there are ads and ads. These ones definitely make coComment look very cheap and dodgy, and I’m not sure it would encourage users to hand over credit card details to pay for an ad-free version. Also, what’s with the [Hot For Words](http://hotforwords.cocomment.com/) thing? I’m sorry, but this is not my world. coComment has obviously moved into a space which is very alien to my beloved blogosphere.
Unfortunately, it’s not enough to [state](http://climbtothestars.org/archives/2008/03/31/please-dont-be-rude-cocomment-i-loved-you/#comment-393176) that you [want](http://climbtothestars.org/archives/2008/03/31/please-dont-be-rude-cocomment-i-loved-you/#comment-393260) to have a [conversation](http://blog.cocomment.com/2008/04/07/advertising-revenues-and-harsh-realities/) to actually be having one (I guess that for starters, that last post would have pointed to [the post of mine](http://climbtothestars.org/archives/2008/03/31/please-dont-be-rude-cocomment-i-loved-you/) that [contributed to prompt](http://climbtothestars.org/archives/2008/03/31/please-dont-be-rude-cocomment-i-loved-you/#comment-394334) it). A conversation starts with listening and caring, and obviously, despite their efforts to prove the contrary, the coComment team sadly don’t get this.
What could they have done? Well, I’m not going to launch into a session of full-blown strategic consulting for an ex-client of mine (who didn’t seem to value my advice much at the time), but simple things like taking up issues such as the arrival of advertising *with* the people who use the service **before** actually dumping ads in their feeds unannounced could be a way of showing you care a little bit about how they feel. Understanding that [apologies and justifications](http://blog.cocomment.com/2007/08/21/were-sorry/) when you mess up do not erase the past also seems like a good idea. As my friend [Brian Solis](http://www.briansolis.com/) put it:
> Making mistakes in social media is a lot like sticking daggers into a wooden fence. Just because you apologize and pull them out, they still leave the scars for others to see, and feel. Sometime apologies help people feel better, but they don’t fix perception. This is why thinking before engaging is critical to success in the world social media marketing. This is after all, about people.
So, as I told Brian, coComment and I are headed for **[Breakup 2.0](http://twitter.com/briansolis/statuses/781536332): when the social media tools you loved don’t love you back** (yes, you can quote that one, it’s from me).
At the moment, I’m only using the service to “save” the comments I make, because I like keeping a trace of my writings (I used to collect stamps). Sadly, I’m not even sure coComment will allow me to walk out with all my data in an XML dump — I don’t see anything obvious in the interface for that, so if I am able to, it will probably be due to my relationships with the people who have access to the server. (I said “if”.)
The tracking feature is too confusing and overloaded for me to use — I can imagine using something like [co.mments](http://co.mments.com) to keep an eye on the small number of conversations where I’m on the lookout for an answer. But I don’t have an alternate solution for “capturing” the comments I make. Copy-paste is a bit of a bore, and del.icio.us doesn’t capture the comment content — just the fact that there is a comment.
I’ve been thinking up **an idea involving a Firefox add-on**. It would have a bunch of algorithms to detect comments fields (maybe would support some microformat allowing to identify comment feeds or forms), have a simple on/off toggle to “activate” the field for capture (some right-click thing, much more practical than a bookmarklet or a browser button, because it’s always there, handy, wherever you click), would colour the field in something really visible when capture is on (red! pink! green!) without disrupting readability (I need to see what I type). It would capture the comment, permalink, blog post name (it knows I’m the commenter, I could fill in that info in the add-on settings), and dump the info in an XML or RSS file, or in the database of my WordPress installation, with the help of a WordPress plugin.
It’s a half-baked idea, of course, and I don’t have the JS skills to actually code anything like this. It should probably be a week-end project for somebody with sufficient Javascript-fu — if you’re interested in bringing it to life, get in touch.
Similar Posts:
- Tumblr to Capture Comments? [en] (2008)
- How Will CoComment Change Our Commenting Habits? [en] (2006)
- Please Don't Be Rude, coComment. I Loved You. [en] (2008)
- Integration Page Updated [en] (2006)
- Growing the coCo-family [en] (2006)
- Diigo — I Think I Like the Idea (Bonus Content: Conversation Fragmentation) [en] (2008)
- CoComment and Drive-By Commenters [en] (2006)
- Who Owns Your Comments? [en] (2006)
- This Is Supposed To Be a Podcast [en] (2006)
- Using coComment's Social Network [en] (2006)
Hey Stephanie,
We ALWAYS listen … but remember we’re listening to many, many voices and we’ve also published direct email addresses for the key executives, me included, so that people can also contact us directly.
Most people have been entirely unconcerned about the ads … with the one common reservation, that you mention, that people want to be able to display their own conversations using the feed without ads. We’ve therefore removed ads from the own conversations feed and all widgets used to display them.
I’m sorry but I just don’t buy the “consult your entire 3.5million user base before you do anything” argument. The reality is that most people don’t have the time nor inclination to respond and are usually unclear about how something will actually look and feel until it’s there to be seen and tested. We have been fairly bullish about trialling new stuff and then responding to feedback and, upto now, that’s served us well. People know that we listen and, where appropriate, respond and they also know that we’re not scared to try things and see how it goes.
The second that Microsoft, Sun, Oracle, IBM, Coca Cola, Visa, Adidas and the like contact us for large scale sponsorship I can assure you that those are the ads you’ll be seeing. However, for the moment, our traffic is sold via a network.
The ad-free version of the service, priced at $5 for one year’s service or $15 for lifetime service (many thanks to Mickey J Barczyk for that idea), will be launched very shortly so all users will have a choice.
You asked whether we love you back and, yes, of course we do … and not just because you were there at the start. But, if you do love us, you’ll understand that we have to generate revenues, that this is not easy in the current market, and that there are therefore compromises that have to be made.
Lots of love,
Matt (and the coComment team) 🙂
Matt, thanks for taking the time to read my comments and respond. I’m not sure where you heard that I was saying you should consult your whole user base before doing anything. That would be stupid.
What I’m referring to is that you’re not communicating on what you do. I didn’t find a single recent blog post talking about ads in my feed, when I discovered ads in my feed. That doesn’t make it sound like you’re really happy to discuss things. Because if you blog about it (like you did after my initial post), suddenly it makes it easier for people to tell you what they think.
Of course I understand that you need to generate revenue, and it clearly is a very high priority for you. But honestly, as a long-time faithful user, you’re not going about it in a very diplomatic way for me. It’s your way of doing things — fine. Do and listen later. I don’t particularly like that, and I’m now at a stage where I’ve had enough and am looking for alternatives.
Maybe coComment loves me, but I’m not feeling it much these days, I’m afraid.