Pontificating Bloggers: Even God Answers Prayer
No Comments Allowed:
I was reading an interesting post from Seth Godin who reprinted an article from the Guardian. I wanted to leave a comment but when I arrived at his blog there were no comments allowed.
Frankly I was pissed off because I had already taken the time to prepare a witty observation that I thought was pretty good. Then I remembered this blogger had recently announced that he considers commenters a pain in the ass and shut them down.
But I did notice that he received a substantial number of trackbacks from other bloggers hoping to receive scraps from his table. As far as I’m concerned trackback is a pain in the ass because thanks to spam filters it doesn’t even work half of the time. And besides if you’re a Blogger user trackback isn’t necessary because of its automatic backlinks feature, so why bother.
This brought up one of the Bloke’s long time gripes with some a-listers, so one of my New Year’s Resolutions will be to not visit so-called bloggers who won’t enable comments because there would be no reason to.
Am I wrong when I say that they are not really blogs, but merely sermons from the mount by pontificating poobahs. They are monologues — NOT a conversation which goes against everything that the blogosphere stands for.
Crikey, maybe we should just go back to old-school static websites and forget about Web 2.0. Even God answers prayer.
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If you move to WordPress you can use Askimet to filter out most spam comments. Or simple word verification (not a scrambled word, use a simple question) would do you good too!
Askimet can handle trackbacks, and the word verification will actually do the trick with most junk content.
Hi Daniel.
Blogger btw also has effective spam filtering built-in.
Godin switched comments off because he considered them a nuisance. As I recall his decision had nothing to do with spam.
Unlike him I appreciate your comment so thanks for dropping by.
Cheers!
You wrote:
NOT a conversation which goes against everything that the blogosphere stands for.
Who decided that? I think blogs stand for a lot of things, and while comments are one of them, trackbacks are too, so are pictures, links, short posts, long posts, etc.
I interact with hundreds of my readers every single day. I do it by email and by trackbacks. I just don’t permit anonymous comments to show up on my screen every day. I don’t think that’s so bad. Sorry to offend.
Seth, you mention email which is only a private discussion. Trackbacks are just a one-way statement, but comments are a public conversation.
There’s a huge difference, (much like what we are having now). If you don’t like “anonymous” comments then why don’t you just require your readers to log in. (Rhetorical question).
Yes, I said that blogging is ALL about the conversation and I stand by that statement. It’s not just about pushing your agenda down our collective throats.
It’s a privilege to have commenters and should not be considered an annoyance. I too am sorry that you don’t understand that.
Thanks for the comment and engaging in the conversation.
I’d also like to know who decided that disabling comments goes against all that the blogosphere stands for?
In my opinion, that’s baloney. Please point me to a definition of ‘blog’ that suggests commenting to be mandatory.
A blog is no more than an online journal and, as such, it must be the author’s choice whether they wish to receive comments or not. That’s why all blogging platforms offer the choice to disable.
Chatrooms and newsgroups are the areas of cyberspace where feedback and conversation becomes somewhat more obligatory. A blog is, and should always remain, anything that its author decides it to be. If you start applying too many rules and regulations,you start to defeat the entire concept of personal publishing.
Phony baloney. I can’t help but appreciate the irony that you have chosen to hide behind anonymity whilst making Seth’s point for him. Coincidence?
You’re right Bloke. A-listers get big thanks to us and then they arrogantly shut us out. It has nothing to do with choice. Godin just probably didn’t like some of the comments he was getting.
Thanks d.lister. Regarding the anonymous commenter:
Comparing blogs to the good old days of web 1.0 is weak and makes no sense to me. It is we users that define what a blog is, but if it’s definitions that you need then here you go.
“The ability for readers to leave comments in an interactive format is an important part… “
I would have thought that my point should be obvious. Comments are an important part of what redefines blogs from old-school static websites. Blogs are all about the conversation, and a blog that is just a one-way monologue is little more than a virtual soapbox.
For some reason unbenownst to me I lost a comment, so I had to remove other comments that if left behind would have made no sense to readers.
This post unfortunately degenerated into a pissing match so it’s probably all for the best anyhow.
So just to be sure there is no future misunderstanding name calling, personal attacks or otherwise disrespectful or antagonistic comments will not be allowed on this blog. We can’t always agree but we can certainly agree to disagree, so let’s act like adults and keep it friendly folks. Thanks.