December 11th 2009 by Peter · 6 comments
Should Comment Forms Have More Fields?
Often, when you visit a website, you’ll want to leave a comment there. To do that, you’ll of course write some text in a comment form. But most comment forms, regardless of their design, look the same. Sure, some do add that hated captcha field, but still, most comment forms are the same.
But should they be? This post is in not an answer, it is an introduction to discussion—and hopefully reflection.
So, which comment fields do we see in comment forms today?
Name
Name is pretty obvious. We need a name to know who writes the comment.
Is the e-mail field necessary? Well, many websites uses an e-mail field in the fight against spam. But is that really necessary? Most spam bots can figure out how to put an ‘@’ between two words in order to cheat. Still, it’s better to have a little security than none at all.
Website
In this field, the user can put the URL to their website—if they have one. Most people that visit my website don’t have a website—at least they don’t write the URL in the website field.
Comment
This field is of course obvious, as it is the comment itself.
So, these four fields are the basics of a standard comment form. But what could we else be needing? Let’s look at where we might be able to improve.
Headlines
Why not give your users the possibility to give their comment a headline? It, of course, depends on each website, but headlines can be a good way to summarize a comment, and help people find the comment they are looking for a lot faster.
Age
Depending on your site’s topic, age might be a good field to add. It might even replace the name field in case the site is based on the anonymity of the user.
Gender
Like with age, a site allowing you to be anonymous would be a good place to use a gender field in your comment section.
Social media
Social media is here to stay. Whether it’s Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, etc., social media connects people. And even though the primary function of a comment section on a website is not to connect people, I don’t see why we can’t add to social media by letting our users link to their social media accounts in a comment form.
Let your users write the URL to their Facebook account, their Flickr user name, their Last.fm account, whatever! Still, you shouldn’t let it get too clumsy by filling the comments up with way too much information. If there’s no need to let them write it, don’t give them the option.
If those reading the comment find one comment particularily interesting, it is very easy to get in touch with the person who wrote it, as the e-mail address isn’t public.
Category
You might want your users to give different categories of comments, such as review, support, criticism, etc. The comments can be styled in different colors or within tabs. A great example of this is The Idea Shower, as seen in the picture below.
Final Thoughts
Remember, before everything, that you shouldn’t add a field if there is no use for them. The most important part of the comment is the comment itself—don’t confuse your visitors with too much information; you still want your comments to be readable.
This was my thoughts about adding new fields to a comment form. What do you think? Do you think it should stay the way it is or should we take advantage of being able to make every comment form different? Please write you comment in the standard comment form below…
I’d say that email should be there, it should not be written out on the actual page, it should, however, be used for a Gravatar, and be optional. That, and a username is really your identity on the web.
Website is cool, it’s the field that makes many people actually write a comment, since if people find your comment interesting, they might visit your website – and that is what you do really want.
Something I do believe is wrong with most forms though, is that you put in these informations before writing the actual comment. I believe you should do the “hard” stuff first, since that makes you more commited to the form.
I think the general view that if you don’t need it don’t add it is best for comment forms, most people would look at a long comment form and simply say no thanks.
That said if you do want to include additional fields maybe a hidden accordion type arrangement using JavaScript where some option extra fields could be shown if users feel inclined to fill them in.
Another vote here for keeping it simple and just sticking to the basic fields. I think you can add an extra optional field (like twitter username) and get away with it. But making people fill out numerous fields will only result in less comments on your blog with completely defeats the purpose.
I agree with David.
Comment forms need to be as minimal as possible.
I enjoy reading the Danish Tipsbladet-website, but still haven’t commented on any article.
This is due to the ridiculously amount of form fields aquired to be filled out; name, address, zip-code, city, email etc…
Too much!
I believe that the site uses cookies, and therefore I only have to do this once. Per computer… But it still sucks..
http://tipsbladet.dk/nyhed/uefa-cup/sparta-mangler-noeglespiller-mod-fck
Hi Jesper and David,
I agree with both of you – sort of. I mean, in some cases I think you need other fields than the basic ones. It shouldn’t be at the expense of usability or clarity. You don’t want to confuse your user.
But I still think you can argue that you can be creative in what comment fields you put in your comment form.
Comment forms should stick to the basics. Personally I’ve opted out of commenting a site mainly due to the comment form literally being a application form of sorts.