Should blogs have comments?
It is a question that comes up fairly regularly in blogging circles and one that different bloggers take different approaches to.
- Most bloggers have them – they’re on by default when they set their blog up and they never switch them off. They see the comments as adding a lot to the blog – making it a place of shared learning, interactivity and dynamic conversation.
- Other bloggers decide not to have them. Their reasons vary from not having time to moderate them to being frustrated by comment spam.
Between these views other bloggers take a variety of other approaches ranging from:
- having comments on some posts but not others
- switching comments off over a certain amount of time (to protect from comment spam)
- to not having comments in the early days of a blog and switching them on later once there is a big enough audience to justify them (this is what I did on DPS).
- to requiring membership for comments (thereby effectively switching them off to the general public and reserving the privilege to comment for those willing to sign up).
There are many options – but I thought it’d be interesting to open it up for some discussion.
- Do you have comments on your blog? Why or Why Not?
- Do you think a blog is a blog without comments?
- What are the advantages of having or not having them?
Interested to see where this discussion leads us.
Further Reading on Comments on Blogs:
I think we should leave the comments on and not disable them. How many comments we get or don’t get on a certain article depends on the readers of your blog..
It depends on whether your readers can associate with your thoughts and experiences.
Comment is one of the ways to get your readers involved and may help you in some ways to see things from another perspective.
A blog still are blog even if they don’t have comment. Comment not necessarily mean that your blog is interactive unless you respond back.
I think that comments play an important part of blogging and creating a community. There are some sites that probably wouldn’t want comments due to spam, ads, etc, but sports sites for example thrive with them. Without them I wouldn’t have any idea what my readers thought and what they wanted to read.
By definition comment is an essential part of a blog, without comments; it’s as good as saying it is not a blog. From Wikipedia:
“Many blogs provide commentary or news on a particular subject; others function as more personal online diaries. A typical blog combines text, images, and links to other blogs, Web pages, and other media related to its topic. The ability for readers to leave comments in an interactive format is an important part of many blogs.”
I love to get comments but I dont get many.
All my blogs have comments, even if completely moderated because a commenter can upload a photo or shot a photo with his webcam (checkout… the site is in italian but you can see the functionality working)
I don’t belive the a “login-to-comment” approach is good, today every site ask to subscribe… is too much.
And… without comments a blog is not a blog.
I have them on, on all my websites but I use my own Content Management System so I can customize my filters (through PHP) to block the spam on a case-by-case basis.
I also have a script that runs through the comment database of every one of my blogs and shows me every comment on a single page, so I can easily find spam comments and remove them without too much hassle. I think having comments on is critical for most blogs to retain a good reader base
Yes Daren, i have comments on my blog, i want some feedback on my posts from my readers. I don’t have to much traffic right now and I think i need to choose from your approaches above, like turn them off. Is that a good idea? I would like some tips for that.
I think a blog should have comments, but only for those posts opened for discussions. If it is an information post than the comments should be off.
The advantages of having them are: reader’s opinion on post, getting to know more bloggers and readers, get to know what people are looking for, also you can get an idea of your next post.
Not having them: not connecting with you readers.
It depends on the purpose of the blog.
For example, 37 Signals have two blogs; There product blog (http://productblog.37signals.com/) doesn’t allow comments while Signal Vs Noise (http://www.37signals.com/svn/) does.
The first blog is used for announcements and as such does not need to engage the reader. The second is platform for discussion.
I had taken the first approach with http://www.darrenkenny.co.uk, the site was just for people to keep up with what was happening to Darren, but during the run up to the Paralympic Games decided to make a few changes and allow commenting (using Typepad Anti-Spam) so people could leave their best wishes and it has worked well.
With my lastest site http://www.composing-stick.net (a site about the movable type platform) I made the decision to enable comments from day one and the site is currently trying to reach the tipping point where the content will bring visitors and feedback.
I love blog comments. While I don’t comment on every blog post I read, I like being able to comment when I have something to say.
I have comments on for all of my blogs, although I get very few comments. But I enjoy each and every one that I get.
I control the spam through two venues. One is Akisment (which is a gift of the Goddess). I get upwards of 100 spam comments a day on my oldest blog. Akismet generall gets all of them. I have to moderate about 2 or 3 a week.
And that brings me to my second step, moderation. With WordPress, there is a moderation choice of requiring a person’s first comment to be moderated and not moderated once 1 comment has been approved. So far, I’ve found this to be very acceptable. But then, I don’t have many comments to deal with. I have had a few folks trying to leave generic comments to get past the first moderation, but you can generally tell those, because they have absolutely nothing to do with the post.
Requiring registration doesn’t really work. I went that route with my first blog, and all I got was a ton of registration spam. Was very annoying constantly deleting the spam registers.
Besides, it annoys me no end to have to register to comment, so I don’t make others do it. Most of the time, if I have to register first, I’m not going to comment on the blog. I have limited time to read blogs and comment, and if you require an extra step of registering and then logging in every time I want to comment, I’m just going to move on to the next blog. But then, I’m an impatient, irrascible, grouchy middle-aged woman.
Mostly I agree with Jodith (above)
I’m pretty new to the blogging/web 2 thing, but I do like receiving comments and I enjoy making them. I think that if you’re getting good comments from people then yes, they should absolutely remain.
If all you’re getting is spam, then maybe not. I use Askimet and WP-SpamFree and all I have to deal with are the generic “nice post” comments. Obviously with your traffic a lot more will squeak through.
It seems to me that comments add a lot of stickiness to the blog. People hang around long enough to write something and some of us read the comments and even respond to them.
Registration? It might be a necessary evil for some blogs. I can see how some blogs might be crushed without it (the big political blogs, for one.)
A blog without comments is like a person locked in a room talking to himself – it’s kind of crazy…or extremely self indulgent.
Sharing is a good thing. Interacting with others is how we learn and grow, at least that’s what I told myself the other day when I was all alone.
A “blog” without comments is an article.
This blog post contains what I call author-centric replies. Pretty much everyone here is replying back to the original author of the post.
My preference for my own blog is to have comments on and to expect (and encourage) discussion oriented replies. In other words, what often happens on my blog is that a conversation happens and my original post was simply a catalyst to get that discussion going. Multiply.com, the blogging host that I use, also enables conversation in a way that many blogging sites don’t, thanks to their greatly customizable inbox page. Using Multiply also hugely cuts down on spam issues. I haven’t had a spam reply in 6 months to a year.
Like most of the other responses I think that blogs should generally have comments unless you are using blogging technology for a non-interactive purpose, like press releases.
If you’re going to post blog entries without comments, you might as well just send out traditional press releases, because you’re missing the “social” element of social media.
I think it depends on the purpose of you’re blog. If you are direct selling pretty widgets, you probably don’t need comments.
If you’re blog is about you, you’re drama, the consistency of you’re cats puke, then yes, you want comments.
I’m a freelance writer for a green media group and an article I did recently got picked up by a neo. con. website. I got slammed with flames and was even called a commie marxist.
I also have my own site and without comments, I wouldn’t be able to gauge how I’m doing as a writer.
The one thing I hate though is when I go to leave a comment, and find out that I have to registered with the site to leave a comment. I don’t register, and I don’t come back. That just tells me that they are more interested in themselves than in me.
Adam Shake
I have comments turned on. I enjoy receiving comments and to see what type of conversation is generated. There is almost always a number of ideas for other posts generated just in the comments section. I enjoy interacting with the readers through my replies.
I think all blogs should have comments. I do not think blogs are very good if you can’t even have dialogue with other readers. But I guess it just depends on whether if you want to deal with comments or not. I think it is better for blogs to have comments though. Your digital photography school is a little different considering you know every way to get traffic your blog and do not have to prove to people that your blog is worthy by showing off how many comments you’re getting.
I prefer comments on a blog. On mine, I moderate the first comment a person makes, which allows me to catch much of the spam without it appearing on my site. I still get spam comments from those who care to keep at it, but I watch for that.
That’s as close as I like to come to requiring registration. I have yet to register for commenting on any blog; that’s just an annoyance to me. I’ve occasionally seen a blog that tempted me to register in order to say something, but the temptation has never been strong enough.
Comments are one of the few things that allows readers to have a relationship with the blog’s author and also its readers. It’s probably not a bad idea to delete abusive comments so that abusive commenters are discouraged from ruining it for everybody else.
Having comments gives you an avenue to communicate with your readers.I just cannot see anyone not using the comment function if they want their blog to be a success.
I’m actually surprised that this question has come up. Many news sites now enable commenting on news stories. I have to say it’s an opportunity to build voice and participation for everyone, not just the wealthy and politicians. There’s a larger picture here, and one that is at the core of ethical blogging. Why ask whether we all should be a part of it when using the venue itself puts us smack dab in the middle of it?
I have comments and encourage them. I dont’ think a blog is a blog without comments either. It defeats the purpose of blogging.
I like the idea of turning off your comments after a period of time but I just keep them running like everybody else.
A few good reasons to have comments on a blog
1- Comments will increase the stickiness of readers to your blog
2- Comments get indexed by search engine, just like regular content… I get 100’s of hits each day from people searching for things that appear in the comments on my site.
3- Comments can turn your blog into a community of like-minded people.. It can help forge friendship between your readers, or can help bring extra attention to one of your post when readers add some controversial elements to your content.
Anyways, there’s a lot of other reasons to enable the comments section on your blog, these are just those that passed through my mind right now.
What kind of stupid question is this, of course they should – it’s a blog!
Comments are the first thing that comes in my mind when I think about difference between blogs and other type of sites.
Site with comments and which posts are displayed in reverse-chronological order. = blog, geeeeeeeeez!
Of course, WordPress has become CMS almost like every other, it’s not just a blogging platform anymore.
Nowadays, many people run their sites as magazine type of sites – without comments – on WordPress. is it a blog? No.
comments grows the post automatically….best example is this current problogger post “Should Blogs Have Comments?” ;-) thats really amazing
I do have comments, and fight spam with askimet. As I try to have some interaction with readers, comments are the easiest way for me. Readers don’t want to send e-mails, and this would be complex to share.
One reader recently asked me to add a “subscribe to comments per e-mail” feature. I was quite surprised, but this works well, and I learned a lot about my readers from them.
So yes, I’m in the “pro-comments” clan.
Q: Do you have comments on your blog? Why or Why Not?
A: Yep! See next question for “Why.”
Q: Do you think a blog is a blog without comments?
A: Nope! Without allowing for commenting, you have not created a blog, merely a frequently updated website. I can understand that some might say that, in essence, a blog is an online journal and that we wouldn’t let some one write in our journal, would we? So, I guess I should rephrase my answer: A blog that is made public for all to read needs to have comments enabled. It’s just not Web 2.0.
Emon answered: “Yes. Seth Godin’s is a prime example.” I actually would point to Seth Godin’s as the prime example of why a blog should have comments enabled. Seth says some great stuff, but a lot of times he says some outlandish and self-absorbed stuff. By not allowing for comments on his “blog,” he is telling people: “I don’t care what you think.” It’s angered me on more than one occasion. I even posted about it and someone commented that “I think Seth chooses not to use comments because it forces you to blog about his posts.” Wasn’t it Seth who said, “Stop marketing AT people.” His blog seems to violate that maxim, and he needs to take up some accountability by having to answer for his statements. Seth could just as easily set his blog up so that you have to belong to the “tribe” (a term he’s seemed to think he’s created, as of late – ever hear of tribe.net, Seth?) to comment. I would really love to hear his reason for not enabling comments, and not having the time to moderate would sound like a serious cop-out (in most cases, it is).
Disagreement can lead to terrific discourse if adroitly led.
Q: What are the advantages of having or not having them?
A: The main advantage is that comments create an air of discourse. They invite others to join in and to create the ability to form relationships with other folks on the internet. The more relationships you form, the greater presence your blog has. Not to mention, you never know how the comments will expand your own knowledge.
Blogs are social. You don’t just walk into a room, spout off, then leave. You talk about it after.
Quite honestly? No.
Unless the conversation has something to add, most comments are left by people looking to plug their stuff, include a backlink to their website, or leave nasty notes. I’ve found people who really like your stuff or the project generally take the time to email you instead.
Oh no, not the “blogs & comments” discussion again. Sorry folks, if it’s your first time through it.
Yes, I have comments — and have had since November 2000 when I installed and debugged a PHP script on my Blogger-powered blog.
I installed the script because I wanted some interactivity. I wanted to welcome others into my what felt like my online home. I wanted my blog-less friends to be able to respond to what I was writing, and leave a trace.
Yes, a blog is a blog if it doesn’t have comments. Before I installed the script, my blog did not have comments and it was a blog. I said “weblog” at the time, if I recall correctly.
I have comments because though they’re not indispensable, they’re important: they encourage a reaction. They’re there. They’re handy. You don’t need to go back to your own blog to write two lines, and then e-mail or trackback the blog author so he sees what you said.
So people (sometimes) leave comments.
Spam? Arms race. Akismet + Bad Behaviour + some moderation.
In short? Yes, comments are good, and blogs should have them, and even if they don’t have them for xyz reasons which are usually personal to the blog owner, they’re still blogs.
Have we killed the topic, please? :-)
*Theresa’s* comment was just what I was going to point out–all of the big news org’s have added commenting to their online content and even flat out ask people to please, “leave comments” and “give us your feedback”, send us your pictures and so on.
It might be a good idea to do a case study on blogs without comments and ones that make your register and see if they’re doing as well as blogs with easy commenting.
As for mine I tried to make it easy for people to leave comments but do have to mod them due to tons of spam. It’s pretty easy to outsource that job.
I find comments to be a powerful motivator. Sometimes it seems like I’m blogging in a vacuum but then someone will leave a really nice, supportive comment and it’ll make me so happy!
Comments allow people to share free resources, like this one:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=biQWyBcYSX4
A blog is just a website if it doesn’t have comments. Kind of like a potato is just another side dish without sour cream!!
Comments, definitely, but most definitely moderated. I use spam controls, but is there an idiot control for comments? Just last week I received just a plain mean, vicious comment on an innocuous post. Thank goodness for moderation or this idiot’s comments would have been published. I wish that everyone commenting on a blog had something constructive and meaningful to say, but alas, it just isn’t so.
I have comments on my blog.. but my readers doesn’t use it. Is there anything more I should do to make more people comments on my blog?
* Do you have comments on your blog? Why or Why Not?
I have moderated comments on my blog. I want the dialog. Otherwise, what I write is just pontificating. It’s hard enough working in a vacuum, without instant feedback for a trainer and this gives me a way to do it. I do wish I didn’t need to moderate the comments, though, but there’s just so much spam.
* Do you think a blog is a blog without comments?
Sure. Blogs grew out of online journals. It’s just like a Captain’s ship log on a ship. It’s a place for musings, comments (by the writer) on daily events and advice to those who come after.
* What are the advantages of having or not having them?
If you have comments on your blog, you can see whether you’re actually reaching anyone or if you’re just talking to yourself.
This blog is becomming boring – who really cares!
IMO blog without comments is still a blog, but it’s not as fun as with them. Also I see a lot of value in them, I always read comments.
This blog has comments so I am commenting here. I love to get comments but I dont get too many.
I have comments on. I love getting to know my readers — some have even become real life friends. And I get a lot of great ideas for posts from comments.
I think a blog is still a blog without comments and I can completely understand why people turn them off; I have a few good blogger friends who have done this, particularly when the commenters start to harass and attack them personally, rather than engage in a dialog.
I don’t know if a blog needs comments to be considered a “real” blog, but I think they certainly add to the experience for readers.
I encourage comments, but I have a strict comment policy that I try my best to adhere to. From my perspective, I look at comments as a way to keep me on track. I can’t possibly know *everything* there is to know in my niche, though I try to be as accurate as possible. I look forward to comments that provide different points of view or point out my errors. I’d rather be constructively criticized than to perpetuate incorrect information.
I absolutely believe comments should be turned on. And yet, I don’t believe a blog has to have comments in order to be effective. I was initially amazed when I got comments from clients who said they read my blog faithfully. I even had a client say they were referred to me by another reader…I did not know either one of them and neither of them had ever left a comment.
I agree with others who say sometimes I post and really want comments. Not for SEO but for opinions. Sometimes I get them and sometimes not.
I say leave comments on. Darren, you have one of the most successful, popular blogs on the Ethernet and you accept comments. So I rest my case lol
I enjoy comments, but they can become problematic if you get too many of them; you have to remember that blogging is more about broadcasting than conversing. Most visitors read your articles. They aren’t interested in what other people have to say about them. So if you’re spending more time on comments than writing, it may be time to pull the plug. Or create a forum instead.
Of course, the audience in this comment section is going to misrepresent the majority, because we’re just the people that comment. :)
A big problem with comments is that no one reads when you reply to them. That’s why the subscribe to comments plugin is a great idea. The only problem is that you get an email for every comments; on busy Problogger posts that can amount to dozens of emails. I don’t mind because Gmail bunches them all together in an easy-to-read thread.
On my blog, I use a customized version of a plugin called WordPress Thread Comment, which allows you to reply directly to comments (your comment appears indented below), and, whenever that happens, the new comment is emailed to the parent commenter. Very handy.
I would say yes because it makes readers feel like they are part of the post. But the unfortunate downside is spam and sometimes ignorance. I noticed Steve Pavlina does not use comments anymore and just links to his forums where people discuss the post. May have more control over spam that way.
I think the amount of comments replied to this speak for themselves. :)
Not surprising that you already have so many responses. I find that even if I really like a blog, if it doesn’t have comments, I eventually unsubscribe. Connecting with the blogger is to me what blogging is all about. I’ll read something and then want to make a response – it then becomes a huge let-down when I realise I’m not welcome to voice my response on that blog. Eventually, I get frustrated with that and unsubscribe.
I want my blog to be a community, so I have comments. Without the comments I think it would just be a soapbox or a marketing bulletin. Granted, as with all communities, there are some wackos out there, but sometimes they say interesting things too! Some of my biggest laughs have come from the odd comments people leave.
I use various methods to eliminate the spam comments though. Those are the ones that bug me. I don’t mind eccentrics, but I hate spam.
Checking my mails and reading comments to my blog is the first thing I do when I sit to blog. And yes, there are some comments on my blog but definitely not like yours, Darren.
I love having comments on my posts, as the inspiring ones are my proof that I have made such interesting posts. I feel good when someone tells me that they learn from me somehow.
Although there are spam, self promoting, rude and useless comments; I do not see them as burden because i moderate them.
For me, it is also a great way to meet fellow bloggers and even learn from them.
Of course, a blog without comments is still a blog but I think a dull one except for those who disabled it. Blog comments, I suppose can attract more readers because readers will assume that the blog is popular and the posts are interesting.
But receiving getting tons of comments may also be time consuming for the blog owner. There might be some questions that he cannot attend immediately that may cause the commentator be annoyed.
I think blog publishers should have a right to turn off comments if they choose to do so. That’s why the option to turn them on or off is there at the discretion of the blog publisher.
This is a hot issue because comments are also traffic. I think some bloggers fear they will insult their audience who will then unsubscribe if they turn off comments, and some of the comments I’m reading here prove that.
On the other hand, when you have subscribers in the hundred thousands and millions, e-mails, comments and other tasks, as well as family and personal stuff, I would think it could become a horrendous burden. Your readers still want excellent content every day, and they want to have access to you 24 hours a day which for some means, to be picked out of hundreds or thousands of others to get personal responses. Not very realistic.
I may never have to deal with that issue, I love to get comments but I’m also kind of private, and at some point you have to draw the line or cease to be productive. It’s a part of life. Productivity and sanity sometimes means saying–no.
I visited a site just today and was reading the comments. One commentator shared a link to a supposedly helpful site. It was porn. Then there are the folks who want to use a site to advertise and have nothing to share in context to the content.
Finally, and this is a real issue for me, the dirty, filthy words that seem to be increasing in comments and content. If I land on a site and find the filth is constant, I don’t visit again and I don’t share a link no matter how good the content is.
It’s amazing the people who get offended about blogs making money but don’t mind reading through content and comments full of filth. My point is there are reasons you could really get weary of having comments. One person can only take so much. If I see comments turned off I’m not offended. I find I’m either empathizing or sympathizing.
This is probably one of the most important topics in the blog world. Thankful to the bloggers who have such far reaching platforms and impact for bringing the subject up.