Social Bubble?

[Todd W]

So what's everyone opinion on making all sites "socialable".

What I mean by that is say you have a tutorial site for users.. are you now allowing users to comment on each tutorial where-as before you were not?

Are you all of a sudden deciding "Hey I should allow users to review...."

It seems to me that with blogging, myspace and others heavily used now the users are more likely to actually leave a review or a comment than in the past.

So are you guys going back and allowing user content to be added or just seeing where it's going and holding back?

[deronsizemore]

Well for what it's worth (I'm new with web publishing and have no sites up but one in the works), I like the idea of comments on as much as possible. I think it adds some level of interaction to the site and will maybe keep people interested and coming back to check other comments or comment on someone elses comment or whatever. Just my .2 The site I'm making I'm going to allow comments on as much of the site as I can.

[Emancipator]

im building a wiki of sorts for a new site of mine which will allow trusted user to do just about anything. Trusted users will be determined by how long they have been a member as well as their rating. Its quite fun doing social code and i think its a good idea.

[Vinnie]

My view: if the benefit you get from having comments/ratings/tagging/groups on a site is more than the pain you feel from the newfound spam sources, then do it

[chromate]

I think any way of getting users to contribute content and value to your site for free is a good thing. Of course, it needs careful moderation and so the privilege is accompanied by a slightly higher workload. But still very worthwhile.

[bbolte]

My view: if the benefit you get from having comments/ratings/tagging/groups on a site is more than the pain you feel from the newfound spam sources, then do it

amen to that. i've been wanting to allow comments on a music review site, but have been reluctant to set it up for that very reason.

[Cutter]

In certain areas there are definately bubbles, particularly in the venture capital area. However, making websites more user interactive has huge benefits that can be leveraged in your favor. I suggest you explore not only commenting, but forums, blogging, and really building a community around you site.

This can not be done with every site, because of simple time constraints (I spent basically the first 6 months of this year focusing on a single site); however if you have a site you really want to be around 5 years from now this is the best approach, even at the cost of short-term profitability.