Win Points for McCain!

He also says "germaneness" is an issue: "Talking points are fine, but a comment should refer specifically to something that was said or written previously in the thread where it is intended to appear."

McCain should reconsider the program for an entirely different reason, says Zach Exley, who directed online organizing for John Kerry's Democratic presidential campaign in 2004. Both the Kerry campaign and the GOP's national committee, he said, had underwhelming results when they offered incentives of various kinds to volunteers.

"This stuff never works," Exley says. "People in politics aren't motivated by points. That's not what gets people to act. They're motivated by genuinely caring about the issues."

Indeed, he adds, some volunteers resent points and incentives because they think it demeans or devalues their work.

This might explain why some of the Web sites targeted by McCain's program haven't noticed much of a surge in pro-McCain comments.

David Wissing, the founder of the Hedgehog Report, a blog about Maryland politics, said his comment traffic has been running about 60 percent conservative and 40 percent liberal in recent weeks, which is typical. Wissing said he keeps an eye on reader comments -- he recently banned a poster for using multiple screen names -- and hasn't seen postings that use similar or identical language, usually a telltale sign of an AstroTurf program.

Another political blogger, David Adams, who runs Kentucky-centric Kyprogress.org, was unaware that McCain's campaign had listed his site as a target for comments until he was told about it by a reporter Friday. He questioned how much good such messages would do in any case. Kentucky, he points out, is a solidly Republican state that probably will vote overwhelmingly for McCain in the fall.

"Our eight votes are going to McCain no matter what he or Barack Obama says," Adams said of the electoral college.