Six Apart: Why Can’t Non-Voxers Post Comments? (and other feature ideas)
January 2, 2007 by Lisa Oshima | Review, Social MediaToday, I got a very nice email from the Marketing Manager at Indeed.com. She wanted to provide clarification on a few of the comments that appear regarding my December 30th posting about job trends in social media. However, as a non Voxer, she couldn’t provide comments. She says she tried to enroll for Vox, but she ran into problems registering, so she emailed me instead.
I’d love to see a couple of new features added to Vox – including the ability for non-Voxers to comment on posts without registering for the service. Just because you want to respond to a blog doesn’t mean you want one yourself. One of the greatest features of Vox is the ability for users to make their posts public or private. Those of us who choose to make our posts public, want to see members of the public comment! I’d love to see public commenting incorporated as a feature.
Don’t get me wrong. I love Vox…
- It is free and easy
- It is organized well
- It is easy to find people with similar interests
- There is a sense of community
- I got a great address for my blog
- etc.
But, there are a handful of features that I’d like to see added. In the past few weeks, a few people have emailed me asking why I don’t switch to another free service like WordPress. Yesterday, I signed up for a WordPress account to try it out. I didn’t like it as much as Vox, but it does have some of the extra features I’d like to have.
For now, I’ll stick with Vox, but if any of you great folks at Six Apart are reading, I’d love to see the following incorporated into Vox:
- The ability for non-Vox users (members of the public) to post feedback on Vox blogs
- A counter tool. Right now, it is impossible to know who is reading your blog without getting comments/email. And, since members of the public can’t comment, that makes the number of comments limited.
- The ability to incorporate HTML code into blogs (for things like buttons, etc.)
- The ability to hyperlink photos/logos in blogs
- Tracking back on comments – allow bloggers to respond to comments that appear on their blog without having to post a new comment of their own
If you’re a Vox blogger who would like to see these features as well, please write a blog entitled: “Six Apart: Why Can’t Non-Voxers Post Comments? (and other feature ideas)”. Please use the tags: blog, Vox, comments, trackbacks, Six Apart, and whatever else you feel is appropriate. Alternatively, feel free to post a comment on my blog with your ideas.
As always, if you’re a non-Voxer and have feedback, please email me.
5 Responses to “Six Apart: Why Can’t Non-Voxers Post Comments? (and other feature ideas)”
Leave a Reply
[this is good]
I would agree with all you point, I would just make one change. For the ability for non-Voxer to post I would suggest a system like Blogger has, it gives author of the blog the ability to allow or disallow comments from non-members in an options panel.
i just asked noam about trackbacks. apparently they're spam magnets, so they're not planning on adding them to vox :(.
[this is good]
Back when, I mentioned this to VOX as well as having techorati tags, links to non-VOX blogs/websites and so on. DIGG, etc., are other things that might be included. Those outside links could sit right below the Neighborhood area.
Today I discoverd Technorati's 'Claim Your Blog' feature. Once set up it provides traffic history from Alexa that is easy to view. Still not a counter, like YouTube or Flickr have to monitor content views – but something. Hope it is of help/interest. I see Marketing Canapes notes the fact that you can't add Technorati/Digg/De.li.cious…etc…I'd like to see this option come to Vox in 2007.
[this is good]
Well put! With the exception of trackbacks, I would love to see all of the features that you listed above, incorporated into Vox blogs. Doing so would allow people to make their vox blogs even more attractive and interesting, and could help attract more people to swtich-over to Vox from other services like Blogger and WordPress.