Why are "First!" comments so despised?

If you've been on any internet site with a large membership or readership, you've likely seen the "First!" phenomenon. For those who have been living under a cyber-rock for all the time you've been on the internet, allow me to bring you up to speed. "First!" is a phenomenon that usually takes place in the comments section on blogs, but it tends to find its way into all manor of websites if that website has some sort of social and/or communication element and becomes popular enough. On blogs, "First!" is the practice of pointing out that you are the first person to comment on a post by posting a comment that only says, "First!", or some variant (proper pronunciation, spelling, and punctuation are not required, nor expected from those who post "First!" posts). The only point of the first post is to point out that you were the first person to post a comment on the post. It is not constructive, informative, entertaining, or in any way positive. "First!" also finds its way onto the official WoW forums in the form of people posting a "First!" reply after a Blizzard poster posts a new thread or replies to an existing one. It's less common on Youtube because Youtube shows the newest comments first, rather than the oldest first, so if the video's poster is popular enough to garner the kind of audience that would include people who post "First!" comments, those comments are usually hidden by the dozens or hundreds or even thousands of comments that come after.

But that's enough information about this heinous practice. The reason I am writing this, as you may have guessed from the title, is to try to figure out why the practice is considered so heinous in the first place. After all, in the long run, if a blog is popular enough to gain an audience that includes first-ers, then its posts will generally have enough other comments to make the "First!" post ignorable. And most communities don't give much attention to "First!" posts anyways. Most, except for the commenters of WoW.com, where first-ing is not tolerated at all and will only guarantee that your comment is mocked by the few who deign to reply to it, and those mocking responses will be up-voted while yours is down-voted, while you will likely be either given a warning or banned from commenting. This reaction is relatively unique to WoW.com, but I imagine that it does represent the opinion of the larger internet on "First!" posts.

Yet "First!" posts aren't all that unique in the grand scheme of things. They are just another example of someone calling attention to themselves in spite of not deserving that attention, and the web is full of examples of that (most people call those types "attention whores"). Most of us don't get in a tizzy over attention whores, so why are we annoyed by first-ers? Perhaps it's because it's easy to avoid most internet attention whores, but we must scroll past that "First!" comment in order to get to the meat of the comments section. If a blogger is nothing but an attention whore, we can stop reading his blog. If a youtube user is nothing but an attention whore, we can stop watching his videos. If, however, the first commenter on a blog post is an attention whore, we are forced to give him that attention he seeks by reading his comment. Our choice in the matter is taken away from us, and most people resent having their choice taken away from them.

Our disdain for first-ers might be related to something more deeply rooted, though, something called the anchoring effect. The anchoring effect is a mental time-saver that our brains use whereby we judge our things based on our first impression of them, rather than always judging each experience on its own merits. For example, your thoughts on raiding were likely deeply affected by your first raid. If your first raid was an abysmal failure, all other raids you run will seem much better by comparison. Inversely, if your first raid is wipe-less speed run, progression raiding will probably seem unnecessarily frustrating and difficult.

What does this have to do with "First!" posts? Well, when we read that first comment on a post, our brains are hoping to use that comment to gauge the rest of the comments. But a "First!" post isn't a legitimate comment, so our brains are left hanging, forced to compare each subsequent comment to a troll. And of course, anything except more trolling is preferable to a "First!" post, so every subsequent post will seem better by comparison. Thus our brains aren't able to judge subsequent comments as discerningly as it would be able to had the first comment been legitimate.

Of course, the simple explanation is usually the best, and in the case of "First!" posts, there is a simple explanation. We, the more enlightened denizens of the internet, associate "First!" posts with the less refined parts of the internet: Youtube, the official forums, etc. As such, the presence of "First!" posts on a website normally thought to be beyond that kind of drivel is disheartening. It means a website you consider to be a cut above the rest of the internet might not be so. Thus it is reasonable for a website to want to discourage that kind of behavior, for it stands on similar grounds to the other ways of the troll (not that kind), and trolling in general is to be discouraged whenever it can be.

Advice on blogging, part II

In my last advice post, I went over advice for the beginning blogger who is just getting starting in the blogging game. That advice was mostly for bloggers who have not been noticed yet; however, once a blogger is noticed, blogging becomes a different ballgame. Once you reach the point of being a read blogger, you will likely have already internalized all the basic blogging advice anyone can give you, so consider this post Blogging 201, advice on blogging once you are noticed.

How will I know when I am noticed?

You can always use a service like Google Analytics to find out how many people are visiting your blog and whether they stay to read it or not, but objective numbers can be misleading (ironically enough). Statistics can only tell you so much about your readership, so how can you gauge your readership more subjectively? Comments certainly serve this purpose. While you should not ignore the silent majority that reads your blog, comments give you a unique cross-section of your readership. People will usually comment only when they feel strongly enough about what you have said to want put their feelings into words, so comments let you see just what about your posts really struck a chord with your readers. Most importantly, comments show you what your readers think of what you posted, which is ten times more important than any objective measures of your readership. With that out of the way, let's get to the advice.

Having a readership means being more discerning about what you post.

When you are blogging for yourself, you can put up anything in your posts since no one is reading them, and you may get in the habit of posting things you may not have posted if you were worried about quality. That changes when people are actually reading your blog. When you are writing your posts, you'll need to ask yourself, will anyone get anything out of this post? Will someone walk away wiser, or a better player, or more amused? There are a wide array of responses you can evoke in your readers, and as long as the responses you evoke aren't boredom, frustration, or the like, then you have succeeded as a blogger.

With that said, allow me to quote Matticus when he gave the two questions you should ask yourself before putting out any post:
1. If I write this post, is ANYONE going to give a crap?
2. If I write this post, is someone going to benefit from it in some way?
Now, granted, the second point isn't as important as the first; it mostly applies to advice posts, which you may not want to be a part of your blog, and that's perfectly fine, but you should still ask yourself the first question before putting out a post. As long as someone will give a crap, then go ahead and post it.

Respond to the comments you get.

While you don't need to respond to every little inane comment you get, or even most of the comments you get if you get a lot in a short time, it's nice to let your readers know that you appreciate them taking the time to comment on your post. If one of them asks a question, answer it. If one of them brings up a point that you hadn't considered before, give your thoughts on it. Even if someone says something simple like, "Great post," a thank you is still a good idea. Most of the challenges you face after being noticed will have to do with how you respond to various types of comments, so I'll go over some more specific advice pertaining to certain types of comments.

Trolling/Spam
If someone posts a comment on your blog that is blatantly advertising a WoW website (especially one that is against the ToS) and has no relevant content to the post, delete it post-haste (get it?). Nothing good can come of leaving those kinds of comments on your page. Trolling usually requires a less systematic approach. If a comment is trollish but still a legitimate comment, I usually leave it and ignore it, trusting my readers will do the same. If the comment is simply irrelevant trolling and could detract from discussion of the post, I usually delete it. For example, on one of my advice posts, someone commented saying, "Lol u mad." Had he left such a comment on a rant, I probably wouldn't have been so quick to delete it, but such a comment has no place bellow an advice post, so I deleted it so that he wouldn't distract from any constructive commentary. Whether you make such a distinction in moderating your own comments or you take another approach (either leaving all such comments up or deleting them without discrimination) is your call to make.

Corrections
Sometimes you will make an objective error in your post. You may wrongly list the spellpower coefficient of a spell, or you may make an egregious grammar mistake. If you make such a mistake and someone points it out, it's best to just make the correction and thank them for pointing it out. Don't do what some bloggers do and make the correction while deleting the comment to save face; own up to your mistakes; after all, it's only through our mistakes that we learn. Some extra pointers: don't respond with antagonism to people who correct your posts, and don't be spiteful of people who only left a comment to correct a mistake without commenting on any other aspect of the post.

Respectful disagreement
If you say anything of worth, at some point, someone will disagree with you. This can be a jarring experience the first time it happens to you if you aren't prepared for it; it certainly was for me. Allow me to share something with you that would have done me well to hear it when I first started blogging: you don't need to make everyone agree with you. Your commenters may have different view-points from you, and that's ok. As long as it isn't a misunderstanding that lead them to disagree with you, there's nothing wrong with agreeing to disagree. That said, don't feel like you can't defend your viewpoints. Quite the contrary; as a blogger, it is your prerogative respond to disagreement with further reasoning to support your point. Just don't make it your goal to convince everyone who disagrees with you that you are correct.

It's also worth mentioning that only people who respectfully disagree with you deserve this kind of response. If someone resorts to ad hominem and attacks you rather than attacking your point, you don't owe them a response. Treat comments of personal attack in the same way you treat trolling, because that's all they really are: ignore them; you'll be surprised how your readers can come to defend you when someone mocks you in this way.

And remember, disagreement is a good thing; it means you are discussing things that are worth discussing. If you get a lot of comments and not a single person disagrees with you, you probably aren't taking enough risks as a blogger.