Turning Off Blog Comments Isn’t Very Web 2.0
There’s two schools of thought when it comes to blog comments: “comments on”; and “comments off”. Choosing whether or not to enable comments on your blog is, for some, a difficult decision. There is a variety of reasons - personal, business and legal - why some people don’t enable comments on their blogs. However, it’s always a personal choice whether you prefer reading blogs with comments enabled or those without. I suspect most people prefer visiting blogs with comments enabled. The benefits are pretty clear for visitors to such blogs: an opportunity to read conversations easily; and the opportunity to participate in conversations easily.
In other words, blog comments are all about enabling participation; which is what Web 2.0 is all about. I totally understand that some bloggers can’t cope with managing comments on their blogs; but on the other hand, I see only negatives for readers when a blogger doesn’t enable comments. And ultimately, negatives for readers of a blog translate into negatives for the blogger. Whether such negatives turn out to be an overall net negative for any given blogger will depend on circumstances.
Asam Bashir wrote:
Yeah and lets not forget the fun aspect of blogging, I’ve recently discovered the concept of trolling after being given that label by a MS employee. Haven’t finished with that horrible little man Russel Beatiee wots his name as well, he just selects comments that make him look good, what a sleeze bag…..
Posted 14 Feb 2006 at 8:12 pm ¶