Alister Cameron agrees, and he recently discovered a new plugin for WordPress that automatically thanks first time commenters by email. The plugin is called Comment Relish and was developed by Justin Shattuck.

The plugin allows you to send a configurable email to any new commenter on your blog, thanking them for their comment. It’s a small courtesy, but it makes people feel valued that you took the time to thank them.

Alister identified a few shortcomings with the original plugin, though and made a few changes that allow him to manually oversee the process:

• I dont want the email going directly to the commenter. I want the email sent to me, so I can check the wording, any weirdnesses (like changing the greeting from Hi Darren Jones back to just Hi Darren), and so I can add my own words to the template if their comment warrants it. Sometimes people also make obvious email address typos and I can check for these, this way.
• I dont want a comment sent the moment they submit the comment. Thats not natural. By sending me an email, a more organic and natural exchange occurs. It may be hours before I see that email to adjust it and pass it on, but thats more real to me.

That’s a sweet touch. With a bit more work, Justin (or Alister) could customise the plugin to have it’s own moderation panel in WordPress so that emails could be queued there for review and modification before being sent directly from the panel. That would reduce the need for Alister to route the emails to himself, and would also provide for a more natural delay in sending.