Do you allow comments in your blog?
Most bloggers do, but you get the occasional bloggers who don’t, and you have to wonder, why not?
What are they afraid of? Receiving feedback from blog readers is a great way to learn from people you might otherwise never come across.
A blog without comments is just a monolog – it is someone talking but not listening.
Some bloggers who don’t allow comments:
Jonathan Schwartz – doesn’t allow comments
Damien Mulley doesn’t either (sorry Damien)
Seth Godin – allows trackbacks but no comments
Randy Baseler vice president of marketing for Boeing – allows comments but his comments section is disconnected from the posts
Who else doesn’t allow comments – and if you don’t allow comments on your site, why not?
The only reason I would understand for not having comments is the threat of any libel that might occur. Apart from that, they are a fantastic feedback mechanism. What are your thoughts on sites that ‘moderate’ comments? One particular Irish blog slices and dices comments to suit their need. I would be very against this.
ya i can see the libel thing . however comments on a bulliten board are a lot easier to follow. i think
Colm,
the libel issue is a good point (as in it is a possible concern that people may have, as opposed to a valid concern!) – as far as I know, though, the process in libel cases is that you are contacted asking you to stop publishing the comment and a case only proceeds if you refuse (and there are good grounds!).
I generally don’t like sites that moderate comments – but I can understand it, in the case that the site is being hit by comment spam.
However, editing of comments is unforgivable and there is no justification for it (unless there is some profanity or libel – and then, if the comment is edited, the fact that it was edited needs to be noted along with the reason).
Tom
I will quite happily edit out profanity or any other spurious junk that gets posted in my comments.
I do find it frustrating when comments are not enabled. Damien’s blog is a prime example. The only way round it is to post to your own blog with a trackback if they have that enabled …
M
The only problem with this is that you need to have a blog to leave a trackback on their site (and in Damien’s case, I’m not sure he has trackbacks enabled either) – not a problem for yourself or myself, obviously but there are still one or two people out there who don’t have blogs 😉
I often add profanity to comments that a ill-mannered enough not to use it.
Obviously that ‘a’ should be an ‘are’.
I would have edited it Twenty but that would have been “unforgivable”!
I allow comments on my blogs except for Computer Jobs Blog.
Reasons:
Comments take time to respond to.
Spams take even longer to manage and to setup appropriate safeguards which adds up.
For a Job Posting Blog I find it hard to see how anyone could post any relevant comment per post basis. Obviously I don’t want to get into criticizing the employer type of discussion.
What it however needs, and will be added soon, is a way to provide feedback/contact form.
That’s a very valid point. On a site like that comments don’t really serve much purpose.
Fair point Angsuman but then the Jobs blog isn’t really a blog proper, is it? It is a listing of jobs which happens to use blog software to post the jobs and consequently it delivers an RSS feed of vacancies – as such there is little need for comments.
I hate you all. *Runs away crying*
😀
Richard Delevan doesn’t seem to allow commenting either… as I discovered when i was going to comment on this article.
Fair enough I guess, it’s a personal choice. Anyone is free to use blogging software anyway they see fit. Allowing commenting does generally increase the potential amount of time you will have to dedicate to your blog.
However I was disappointed not to be able to post a response, and I wonder if others feel the same.
Maybe everybody should take commenting off their blogs, then I wouldn’t waste so much time responding inanely to blog posts all over the gaff.
I agree with you absolutely Frank,
Oh, hang on a sec…
Actually now that you mention it, I can’t find any contact details for Damien Mulley at all on his site! I wanted to post something about his proposal for re starting EFF Ireland but alas no such luck so far!
Graeme
Maybe he doesn’t want to be found? 🙂
Michele
I have contacted Damien on your behalf and pointed him to your comment – hopefully he’ll get in touch.
damien @ hissurname dot net
🙂
Interesting post. I am a blogger from Jamaica, and I haven’t got many comments on my posts. I thought it was meaningless for comments to be allowed when people don’t use the opportunity to do so.
Besides, my posts are rather specific to my personal experiences, so there isn’t much room for debate there.
Further, my blog was attacked by some lazy parasites who didn’t like the fact that I was being “political”. It was hard to tell after a while, which posters were “authentic” and which ones were simply posing as other people (and leaving fake website addresses) on my site.
Being conscious of my cultural roots, and the gender politics in Jamaica, I expected that people would try to trivialise what I was trying to say.
The decision to disallow comments was a difficult one, but I felt that it was the best one to make for the time being, until I can find a way to verify the identity of the posters.
If a person doesn’t allow comments, I’m sure they have a good reason for it. Instead of judging them for it, maybe we should just respect their decision?