The wonders of TechCrunch (brought to you by RSS) delivered me a wonderfully rich and creamy little nugget of wisdom this morning. It seems a company by the name of Postreach has come up with a slick little one click blog assessment add-on, that lets users provide feedback on your blog posts with incredible ease.
Image from http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/06/06/one-click-blog-commenting-clickcomments/
Clickcomments (shown above) lets users mark your posts with the following tags out of the box: Cool Stuff, Inspired Me, Entertaining, Write More, Creative , Insightful, Touched My Heart, and Great Find. The tags are then summed up and displayed right below their corresponding icon, providing instant feedback both to the blogger and the blogosphere on what other people are thinking about a given post.
Now obviously Clickcomments isnt the answer to the "one click assessment blogging" question (that is of course, if anyone is asking that question). The icons are a bit cheesy, some options dont necessarily apply to all blogs and most importantly, there isnt any opportunity to provide negative feedback out of the box.
But it is an excellent example of lowering the barriers to entry regarding feedback, which more often than we realize, can be substantial. Very few of my friends who follow blogs have ever commented on them - even when they feel like a post really meant something to them, or got them fired up. There is an invisible line for some, between reading a blog, and a willingness to respond with your own name, your own ideas, and really put yourself out there. As a writer, google analytics can tell you if people are reading your thoughts - but it cant tell you what they are thinking unless they take the time to comment. A one click assessment option like ClickComments solves both problems. Commenting is incredibly easy (and anonymous) for the reader, and writers have the opportunity to get more feedback on their word, because readers will be more likely to do so. Everybody wins!
Great find! Insightful! Cool Stuff!
I was going to wait until you installed your buttons to comment, but then I read the part about no negative button, so...
Agree that the barriers for for entry into commenting are lower with something like this. I think some folks have a fear of writing something inane, but clicking a button could be a gateway to feeling more comfortable. The "Great Find" one would be useful for a lot of co-worker blogs.