Should blogs have comments?
by Andrew Smith on 02/08/07 at 5:18 pm
8 comments
Does not having a comments facility mean it’s not really a blog? Do comments add to the quality of a blog?
Dave Winer started a bit of a discussion with this:
“The cool thing about blogs is that while they may be quiet, and it may be hard to find what you’re looking for, at least you can say what you think without being shouted down. This makes it possible for unpopular ideas to be expressed. And if you know history, the most important ideas often are the unpopular ones…. That’s what’s important about blogs, not that people can comment on your ideas. As long as they can start their own blog, there will be no shortage of places to comment.”
I read about it on Joel Spolky’s blog, where he added this:
“The important thing to notice here is that Dave does not see blog comments as productive to the free exchange of ideas. They are a part of the problem, not the solution. You don’t have a right to post your thoughts at the bottom of someone else’s thoughts. That’s not freedom of expression, that’s an infringement on their freedom of expression. Get your own space, write compelling things, and if your ideas are smart, they’ll be linked to, and Google will notice, and you’ll move up in PageRank, and you’ll have influence and your ideas will have power.
When a blog allows comments right below the writer’s post, what you get is a bunch of interesting ideas, carefully constructed, followed by a long spew of noise, filth, and anonymous rubbish that nobody … nobody … would say out loud if they had to take ownership of their words.”
I have a few thoughts to add to this subject, and seeing as neither Dave or Joel allows comments on their blogs, I’ll have to do it here. Which is exactly what they intended.
Who reads comments anyway?
Just about the only time I ever actually read comments is on the first visit to a new blog that I am weighing up. I scan down the main page and see how many of the posts have “Comments (0)”. If nobody is commenting, then my instinctive reaction is that the blog is not worth reading.
If the blog passes that very unscientific test of mine, I add it to my RSS Feed Reader (in my case Flock), and after that I never read another comment on that blog. Ever. For this same reason I also seldom add comments to other blogs.
Commenting is often a “lower” form of discussion
I echo Joel’s sentiment that the type of discussion that happens in the comments is low quality. One of the most interesting discussions we’ve hosted here on Ideate was about the new 2010 stadium in Cape Town, and near the end it had degenerated into personal attacks and mocking of grammar use.
There have been even worse cases than this which we had to delete. One personal attack on Fred after his post about breaking down on the N2 made us all really angry. Would that commentor have said the same thing if he was standing in front of Fred?
The alternative format that Joel and David suggest is to use your own blog to comment on what other people have posted. That way you can say whatever you want, and only people who choose to listen to you have to tune in. The quality of discussion is usually at a higher-level because it isn’t anonymous, and because when people write on their own blogs they usually take more time over what they say. It’s like comparing a formal debating society with a school-ground shouting match.
Will we turn commenting off here?
That’s a tough question, because one of the reasons I like commenting as a blog author is that it is a type of affirmation. If I write this lengthy post and in a week’s time there are no comments, I feel like nobody has read it, even if the site stats tell me otherwise. Aiming for people to respond on their own blogs instead of underneath this post raises the bar for the quality of what I need to be writing.
So, should we all follow Keo’s example and disable commenting on our blogs? Instead of answering with the comment section below, write about it on your own blog. Don’t have a blog yet? Get one now.
Andrew Smith is the pedantic systems guy behind Live Alchemy, a SA e-commerce company. Andrew writes for Ideate in an attempt to make the world a more efficient place. View more articles by Andrew Smith.
Nicola
Aug 2nd, 2007
Funny, I was just reading a blog post where someone else has made a point of turning off their comments:
“Note: I’m not going to turn comments on…. so stop asking. If this is such an important post for your to comment on do it on your blog. If you don’t have a blog–which takes 10 minutes to setup–then maybe you’re not worthy of commenting, or others reading your comments. If you do have a blog and don’t want to take the time to fire off a blog post in response to this then, frankly, how valuable is your comment? The benchmark for responding to my blog is now starting your own blog and writing a post. If you do that I’ll consider linking to you if it is intelligent and interesting. Those are the new rules….”
http://www.calacanis.com/2007/07/27/facebook-bankruptcy/
Sorry I commented!
Tsotwan
Aug 2nd, 2007
I fall under the category of people who do allow comments on their blogs. It is nice to see that people do show enough interest to actually take the time out to post a response, especially south african visitors – who are generally a shy crowd in terms of voicing themselves online.
Sometimes it’s interesting to see other people’s opinions on what the author has written about, especially news articles, in fact anything other than personal blogs.
Quite frankly, if the author doesn’t like a comment, delete it! Otherwise moderate it. What’s the point of a one way conversation? You might as well go talk to your dog then.
Well that’s just my two cents worth. (Anticipating to get burned)
Fred
Aug 2nd, 2007
Consider this an affirming comment.
Lisa
Aug 2nd, 2007
To comment or not to comment, that is the question? Weather it is nobler in mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous comments or by deleting, end them??? My thoughts are on my blog – but maybe I’m just trying to push up my traffic
http://www.tastematters.co.za/2007/08/blog-comments–.html
Karin H.
Aug 3rd, 2007
Hi all
I allow comments on all my blogs (3 and counting) and frequently add to the conversation at other blogs. My reader is filled with very interesting blogs, some hardly get comments and some the real conversation and idea-sharing can be found in the comments.
I personally don’t see this as and either or issue. You as blog-owner decide, you as blog-reader decide: no one should be dictated or set a ‘proper blog rule’ on this.
Interesting thought though: did you know that of all the web-surfers only 1% create content? (By publishing blogs and/or commenting on blogs). Some are already calling those 1%-ers the new ‘outlaws of culture’. (Always wanted to be an outlaw
http://www.thekissbusiness.co.uk/2007/01/prebook_review_.html
Karin H. (Keep It Simple Sweetheart, specially in business)
Mark
Aug 3rd, 2007
I also find comments on my blog a form of affirmation that people are reading it. What my web stats don’t tell me, when I can clearly see people are still visiting my site, is if they are engaging with my posts. That is where I find commenting important.
I get your point on people should be responding about your articles on their own blog, but mission! It takes a few seconds to write a comment as opposed to a good 15 minutes to write a post! They’ve got to feel quite strongly about your post to spend 15 valuable minutes responding to it.
Half the time I write posts asking for advice, after all the blogosphere is filled with some pretty skilled people, commenting in this respect is such a resourceful area to a blog.
Fred
Aug 4th, 2007
One more affirming comment… because we love you man.
Perky
Aug 12th, 2007
For me its not about affirmation its more of an inqusitiveness. I’m actually genuainely interested in other peoples opinion on a subject matter. If I want to just state my opinion without a response I can talk to my wife. She tends to ignore most things I have to say – or is it the otherway around?
I’ve also used the comment facility as a way of learning or gathering information. By posing a question to the massess (mass might be a tad optimistic) there are people out there willing to find the answers for you. Maybe I’m just lazy.
As Lisa highlighted above, comments can also be good as a web marketing techinique for building traffic. Rigtly or Wrongly.