No Comment?

There have been some interesting developments recently involving comments on blogs. 37signals, whose Signal vs Noise blog is one of the top, high-profile blogs around, has decided to end comments on their site. To show just how popular the site is, that post alone has received over 160 comments.

For the past few months we’ve been pretty disappointed by the noise...An occasional cynical comment is good (and welcome!), but when 75% turn negative then it’s just no longer fun. We think that’s a shame and, frankly, we’re tired of the negative energy filling up the threads.

Ray Ozzie, now one of Microsoft's top executives, has recently returned to the blogosphere. In his initial post, he described his decision to not allow comments on his blog.

I'll be tracking the conversation by watching inbound links, rather than by enabling comments on the site. The "link mesh of conversation" is a key distinguishing characteristic of this medium, and is one that I really like.

There are both negative and positive forces that are making this more common. On the negative side is the rise of comment spam and the growing number of people who only want to find new ways to express their anger. On the positive side is better and better blogging tools that make it easy to track conversations, including trackbacks and services like Technorati, Feedster, and PubSub.

I honestly believe that comments will become far less common in the near future. Everytime a new way of communicating starts (mail, telephone, radio, tv, and email), a happy state of purity exists. Soon, however, that's replaced by junk mail, spam filters, pop-up blockers, caller ID, flashing banner ads, and 3-foot advertisements tied to your front door. At least in the case of blogs, everyone is free to have their own say, but it doesn't have to be on someone else's site.

For another perspective, read Shel Israel's recent post about what he sees as a drop in the number of hostile comments he sees.

And feel free to share your own perspective, right here! I don't see myself ending comments anytime soon.

Comments

[Chris Marsden]

I have, for the first time, been seriously hit with comment spam. I am currently deciding how to deal with that, but don't think ending comments is the answer. One of the reasons I blog is to get other's input into the thoughts I write and share. I do comment a lot on other people's blogs, and find it, again, a good way to connect my thoughts and ideas into the greater world, instead of just my little corner of it. It is brainstorming through connections that wouldn't exist in the "real" world. I have debated about only trackbacking to sites, rather than commenting and also encouraging others to do the same to my site, but that limits the discussion only to people who blog. If the purpose of your blog is a one sided declaration to the world of what you think and what you are doing, then no comments are fine, but I think the average persons blog is about connecting, and a few unfounded negative comments and having to sort through a little spam is worth making connections.

[Joshua Blankenship]

My sites sit somewhere comfortably between "bigger audience than family and friends" and "everyone in America has me bookmarked," but for whatever (glorious) reasons, I can probably count on one hand the number of spam comments i've ever received on my sites.

That being said, i've noticed a massive decline in commenting lately and i'm chalking it up mainly to an increased RSS readership (as RSS technology moves closer to mainstream usage.)

Whatever the reasons (negative comments, spam, RSS, etc.) I think you're correct in your assessment that comments are going to become less common in the future... I just wonder if that will make the web feel much less like a conversation and much more like a bunch of soapboxes.