Commenting - On or Off by Default?
As some of you know we recently added the ability to let viewers comment on content that's hosted on Screencast.com. If you are not familiar with the feature, here's a screencast that will walk you through the details:
http://www.screencast.com/t/ZGNhvOvnv
During earlier design discussions we took the conservative approach and decided to release the feature in an "off by default" state, meaning that for every piece of content on which an owner wanted to collect comments, the content owner would have to manually enable the feature after upload. We did not want to upset content owners who, for whatever reason, did not want viewers to comment on their content. And with an email notification message as part of the option, we did not want to begin filling up unsuspecting content owners' email in-boxes with unexpected comment notifications.
So with that said, and lacking any quantitative data to support our earlier decision, I've decided to solicit some input from all of you. Submit a comment to this post with your vote yea or nay to having the Commenting feature turned ON by default (changing the way it works today). We're here and listening so of course if you have any other suggestions, feel free to submit those as well. And as always - Happy Screencasting!
- Dirk
I would personally like to have it off by default. Most of what I post would not really require comments or anything.
I like the idea of comments on by default. However, if you are going to do this on all casts from Camtasia and from Jing then you all need another setting. That would be hide comments by default. This would enable comments to be gathered but not shown on the page. The cast owner can then choose to show them.
I know this sounds a little strange but sometimes I re-use casts with difference audiences that I do not want to interact in comments.
So as long as the scenario is covered I am happy.
Tony
When the status quo is OFF by default, one should have to opt in to turn them on. Otherwise, you are changing the status quo, that is, the current condition, without an approval from the user base.
Keep the comments OFF by default.
While I may have occasional use for comments, by and large the feature is a minor benefit to me, but would create a significant increase in the management overhead of my hosted videos. Public commenting would require close monitoring to avoid allowing inappropriate comments on a work (college) connected site. Also, folks often expect responses to their comments necessitating a new source of input to work. Since my discourse with my audience is through other tools besides screencast, this isn't something that's worth the added workload. Off by default, please.
If comments are made on by default (please, no), then I do like Tony's suggestion about private comments. That could help bridge the usefulness gap.
Greg