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Why I Don’t Do Comments
Fancyclown comments on David Aaronovitch’s blog: “For me a blog without comments doesn’t qualify as a blog, as it stops the interaction between writer and reader, which is one of the best things about blogs.”
I don’t like them, because they aren’t done well. They’re not paged (meaning they make blog entries take ages to load). They’re not threaded. And, worst, there’s no notification that I’ve been responded to (whereas, if someone responds with a blog post, it hits my RSS reader within an hour or so (via Technorati). Theer’s also no way for my readers to know when I’ve commented (which defeats the purpose of a blog, I think).
They also drag in the spam, which sucks. Even as I type this, my WordPress blog is getting spam. I might just turn comments off.
I’ve been burned (and watched others) by having comments deleted. Nobody bar maybe Dave Winer or a pack of hungry lawyers can stop me here (and the latter is far more probable - and scarier! - than the former).
Does it work? Not for some people. But, judging by my referrer logs, it does. Lots of people who I write about obviously have Technorati searches set up about themselves (some by name, others by blog URL). But ask me to find a comment I made on a Moveable Type blog three months ago, and I’ll be dumbfounded. Perhaps I’d do something with Google, but it’s hardly a decent way to find out what you’ve written.
Blog comments are an extra. If you choose to have them, good luck to you.
