What Price Comments?
Regular readers of Kumiko’s Cash Quest would have noticed that she recently turned commenting off for a week to test the effect it would have on her blog. Analyzing the stats tracked during those 7 days of enforced gag order, she came to the conclusion that Cash Quests is a better site with comments turned off.
This anti-social blogging behavior got the attention of her readers and sparked discussion from Kevin of BloggingTips and John Chow, who goes so far as to say that “a blog without a comment system isn’t a blog….”
This post is not intended to make judgment about Kumiko’s actions and final decision, or trying to compare the pros and cons of having comments enabled or disabled. Those views were already carefully dissected by Kumiko herself and in the discussions that ensued.
I am a firm believer that the main idea of blogging is about communicating our thoughts and ideas to the readers. Meaningful communication should be 2-way traffic, and leaving comment on a blog post is the most direct way for readers to communicate, feedback and generate buzz of the topic posted. A blog is a platform where an interactive community can be built upon. In my opinion, disabling comment is akin to inviting someone into your lovely house, but preventing them from opening their mouth to speak! Can you imagine that?
When a new blog is created, one of the way to promote and create awareness that your blog existed in the vast blogosphere is by posting meaningful comments on other blogs. By meaningful comments, I mean those that convey your unique opinions and wisdom about the particular topic, not those on-the-fly lazy comments that goes “I agree” or “Great post!” or anything to that effect. Posting comments is the like building an online relationship with fellow bloggers.
Personally, one of the most rewarding part of blogging is receiving comments and replying them. I look forward to reading the comments on my blog posts and seeing them evolve and take a life on its own, you know you have contributed to the blogging community.
What is your take on a blog turning commenting off? Have you ever considered to take this less trodden path? If yes, what motivated you to do that? And what differences did it make? Any comments?
I agree, I would never turn off comments. I want to interact with my fellow bloggers and readers. Isn’t that what blogging is all about…readers!
A Cowboy’s Wife
Without the readers, this blog would be nothing. Readers’ comments and feedback form the backbone of this blog.
Ditto what others said, The main thing that keeps me blogging is feedback from visitors.
Yes, interaction with readers and fellow bloggers is the catalyst of my blog too. And commenting on blog posts is the most direct way of communication between readers and the blog owner.
I agree about the comments! I get so happy when I check my email and see that someone has made a comment on my blog. A blog is definitely not a blog without the comments from our loyal readers!
While we are talking about Web 2 and social networking, she’s regressed back into the dark ages of non-interactive websites.
I got to admit I find some coments very annoying but they tend to be the spammy ones - one guy left a comment just recently with a list of about 150 terms for glasses ! He expected it to be published no doubt. But it’s true a blog with no comments is hardly a blog at all, trouble is ‘real’ people only leave comments on big blogs - and I don’t know how the bloggers manage with 200 comments every hour ! I guess they need them otherwise they woouldn’t leave comments turned on.