The Commenting Question: Is it Really Blogging Without It?
By Ed Oswald | Thursday, June 17, 2010 at 1:35 pm
There’s an ever increasingly spirited debate going on in the blogosphere among the technorati (starting with Joe Wilcox and John Gruber) around the subject of comments in blogs. In the simplest terms, the argument centers around whether the reader has a right to participate in the discussion that the blogger puts forth.
For the most part bloggers do accept that commenters should be a part of the conversation. Blogs are one of the earliest forms of social media, and not allowing commenting seems almost like a Twitter without “@” replies, or a Facebook or MySpace without comments.
My understanding is that one of the founding concepts of a blog was this idea of social journalism: where the blogger would not be confined by the so called media gatekeepers, and freely be able to express their opinion. Pingbacks were the earliest forms of this social interaction, so one blogger could let another know he or she had read their content and responded.
Those without blogs could comment, which in turn furthers the discussion put forth. In my eyes, I cannot separate commenting from blogging, and see those who turn off comments as going against one of the central precepts of the medium itself.
It seems to me as if some bloggers may not be too good at taking criticism. No doubt, I’ve gotten raked over the coals several times here on Technologizer, and even on BetaNews before that. While yes it stings, sometimes these criticisms are very valid–and do add to the discussion.
Locking your reader out is something we should leave to the old school of journalism, where we told our readers what we thought they should hear and not care what they think. I am of the thought that readers have every right to respond to what you say, and in public if they so desire.
Do we have the right to delete their comments? Of course. But I hope such a move would be reserved for those who cannot argue without personally attacking, or spamming. But if you’re going to say “no comments here,” my advice is to go back reporting on television, or write for a newspaper.
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June 17th, 2010 at 2:10 pm
Here’s my comment on commenting:
First of all, I find the very question of whether it’s a blog if it doesn’t have comments to be pretty silly. Probably a third of my favorite blogs don’t have comments. (Non-tech examples: Mickey Kaus’s Kausfiles–one of the first blogs–and Mark Evanier’s News From Me.)
A blog is a content Web site that displays stories in a reverse-chronological crawl. That’s it.
I’m very proud of the commenters on Technologizer–they’re smart, well-informed, and civilized. They make this site look better. That’s true of plenty of other sites, too, but there are at least as many sites whose commenters make the site in question look worse. And it’s silly to feel that you have some sort of entitlement to set up your soapbox in someone else’s living room.
So I’m pleased to let each blogger choose for himself or herself whether to enable comments.
–Harry
June 17th, 2010 at 2:13 pm
Ed, I don’t see anything on the DaringFireball site that claims it is a blog. So whether it can be a “blog” without commenting would seem moot.
–John
June 17th, 2010 at 3:06 pm
@Harry – I guess it comes down to paraphrase a former president, “it depends on what the meaning of blog is.” To myself, I see the social interaction, including the reader to blogger, as part of that.
I do agree on the quality of commenters. At the same time, I think it also has a lot to do with the quality of content and the way it is portrayed. Write something inflammatory, and it’s going to elicit that type of comments.
@John – I believe he’s already said “this isn’t a blog.” This post was only influenced by that argument rather than a response. I’ll take his word on what he categorizes his content as.
June 17th, 2010 at 4:27 pm
I’d say comments are great but not needed.
So long as the site is basically a soap box for personal opinions and takes on certain situations and people find the info being spouted to be useful, funny, or somehow beneficial it is a blog.
It is someone’s prerogative to take questions or elicit comments
My feelings are closest to Ed’s however in that I feel you lose a massive part of the picture by not allowing people to interact with you.
June 17th, 2010 at 5:04 pm
Bah! What do we need commentors for? If they’re so smart why don’t they have their own blog?
June 17th, 2010 at 5:06 pm
> Those without blogs could comment, which in turn furthers
> the discussion put forth.
It’s so easy to get a blog, though. It costs nothing. A Twitter account is a blog.
I don’t think it’s important whether you have comments or not. What’s important is that you have discussion. Some blogs that have comments have no discussion, and some that don’t (like Daring Fireball) have lots of discussion. Whether the discussion is blog to blog or blog to comments or blog to Twitter or whatever doesn’t matter.
June 18th, 2010 at 5:08 am
This is fabulous that every one can enjoy .By this every one can know the information about the things which is useful in present or future , thank you very much
June 18th, 2010 at 6:33 am
Comments are nice, but it should be the bloggers discretion as to it’s employment simply because having them requires maintenance (moderation) else to prevent chaos and to prevent your readers from leaving you in droves if you cannot keep up. Even worse is that having comments tends to be one way unless the blogger responds to people, something not always practical.
IMO, placing such an arbitrary requirement like comments as a requirement to call something a blog is kind of silly. If one wishes to post their thoughts and make those thoughts without having comments attached, that should be the writers choice. The nice thing about the internet is that if someone wants to say something, they can create their own platform. Comments are nice, but they shouldn’t be an obligation.
June 18th, 2010 at 7:27 am
Definitely depends on the site. As someone said, look at the comments on this site, they are definitely way above the norm in terms of quality especially for a tech blog. It isn’t fair really to compare this to any of the gadget blogs or even the comments for a newspaper site. Did anyone look at the Daring Fireball clone that had comments? Gruber requested that it be shut down for copyright reasons, but should have kept a part of it up to prove his point. I’m not sure when tech became so religious, but there are very few sites that I will even read comments anymore. I have been looking for tech blogs where grownups live, but haven’t found too many, sadly this site might be the only one.
June 18th, 2010 at 12:18 pm
What’s John afraid of?
June 19th, 2010 at 5:03 pm
Imo, bloggers should generally allow comments. Exceptions can, of course, be made if you’re attracting a large amount of spam or flames. Even then, I’d just turn them off temporarily.