January 30th, 2009
Dorothea Salo explains once more why she doesn’t have comments on her blog. I think she makes an excellent point: it’s her web space, she can do with it as she pleases, and she doesn’t want comments on her blog. I can’t think of a reasonable argument against that and I think it’s silly to expect her to treat her website any other way.
It got me thinking about why I do have comments on my blog. And the cold, hard truth of it is: I like getting attention, and when people leave comments here, my self-esteem is raised a little more. Yes, I like having conversations, and comments facilitate that. But mostly, I’m insecure and I like the attention. So, there you go.
Basically, yeah, I’m in a similar boat. I like the ability to have a sort of a conversation, to share reactions to things, but mostly I just like the reinforcement that yes, somebody is reading and taking note.
I give you +1 ego. Yay!
*adds one drop to the ego bucket* :)
Always happy to stroke your ego, Josh. :)
I wish Dorothea had comments open on her blog, but I respect her feelings on the issue. I am, however, glad that I can comment on her posts via FriendFeed.
My ego has now levelled up. Thanks, guys!
I don’t have a blog, but I do send out my periodic “Journal,” and I expect comments on it. If I didn;t want the comments, I’d write my “Journal” and keep it to myself. It seems to me that a blog (or a “Journal”) without comments is pointless.
Josh:
I read your blog daily. Any information regarding libraries I pass on at work. You always have something new and, hopefully, we might be able to incorporate it into our system.
Love,
Mom (Darlene)
It depends on how much traffic you’re getting, and how much time you can spare for your blog. If you’re getting a lot of traffic then allowing comments and consequently moderating comments can be very time consuming.
Right, Simon. I don’t get a lot of traffic, or comments, so moderating & handling comments isn’t a big deal for me. But I’m sure Dorothea would get a metric ass-ton of comments if she allowed them, and that would be huge pain to deal with.
I used to have a political blog that, while it had a relatively low amount of traffic compared to, say, US blogs, still meant doing a lot of moderation due to the disproportionate amount of trolls and nasty comments UK political blogs attract.
I’m much happier now with my non-political random-notes blog where no moderation is necessary, although I do occasionally pine in secret for comments.