After my recent post on boycotting BP I received a deluge of comments. Some were well thought out and others were typical troll style postings. The comments got me thinking about turning the feature off though, and oddly enough, there was a big discussion about comments starting at the same time.
It seems that Gruber’s thinking is along the lines of what I had in mind; If you are going to respond to something that someone writes, you should be able to do it in long form instead of short quips after a post. How many times do people go back to a comment they wrote on a blog to see if there has been a reply? Does commenting really generate discussion or allow trolls to interject themselves into worthwhile postings on the internet?
What say you? I am going to leave comments open for this post to see what people think, but in the future, they will probably be turned off.
I don’t know, Stephan. I think that comments are a good thing. In your blog posts, you bring up some very controversial opinions and introduce facts that a lot of people were previously unaware of. You get people thinking on a different level. The following discussion can help readers process the information, clarify questions, and form an informed opinion (whether or not they agree with yours). It adds substance. People will take more away when they can get involved on a personal level and argue things out a bit.
Pro-comment.
…and now I’m going to go make annoying comments on the rest of your posts. 🙂
DON’T kill the comments. I agree with everything Stefanie said above. Comments bring about thought and analysis…even the stupid comments. If you want to moderate your comments, do that. But don’t turn them off!
I just have comments go to a moderation queue instead of publishing automatically. I don’t censor based on opinions, but don’t let spam or trolls through. My blog, my decision.
Similarly, it’s your decision if you want to turn comments off altogether. I think they can be useful, but understand the argument.