Blog comments can be an important and powerful part of your blog. Some have argued that a blog without comments or trackbacks enabled is not a blog at all. (Bloggers Blog takes a pretty strong stance against this argument. I agree. Darren Rowse covers both sides of the debate pretty well.)
4 Benefits of Blog Comments
1. Comments on blogs turn a one-way communication (you, the blog author, talking to the audience) into a multi-way conversation (you and your readers talking with each other). Open Comment Night is one example of a creative use of the conversation-enabling power of blog comments.
2. Blog comments offer readers who otherwise would remain silent the chance to speak up and share their insights and opinions on things you talk about.
3. Comments on blogs can often generate ideas for future blog posts. You might respond to a blog comment in a new post, or you might start a post series based on a suggestion from a blog commenter.
4. Comments tend to be great places to offer corrections to bloggers. I wish I had a dollar for every time someone has left a comment at my blog suggesting that I fix a typo or a factual error in my blog post.
Robert Nyman has more on the benefits of blog comments.
4 Drawbacks of Blog Comments
1. Someone who disagrees with you might leave a nasty comment. If you're easily hurt, this might not be a pleasant experience.
2. You might receive spam comments (many of which, unfortunately, are not for the faint of heart). Without an excellent spam filter in place, you'll be up a creek without a paddle really fast.
3. Comments can tempt you to waste your time answering blog comments when you need to attend to more pressing matters first.
4. Private personal information - yours or others' - might be leaked via blog comments. Of course you can delete damaging comments - but irrevocable damage may already be done.
Overall, I love having comments enabled at my blogs. I've been able to make friends and learn many new things thanks to the ability that others have to respond to my posts at my blog. While comments can be time-consuming to manage, I've found it worth every minute. You should consider carefully the pros and cons of letting others comment at your blog before you decide which way you're going to go on this issue.
Of course there are many other reasons for and against enabling blog comments. I hope this post has stirred your mental pot a bit and I welcome your comments below. Let's see how many pros and cons of blog comments we can come up with!
I would also love to hear about your experiences with blog comments. Have you ever turned blog comments off - and if so, why?
It's hard to tell what tune I'd sing if comments were a problem at my blog. They come with the territory and I see comments as part of the beauty of blogs. And, ya know what Easton? If we didn't have them, we'd probably be trying to figure out a way to get them.
Carolyn
Posted by: Carolyn Manning | December 16, 2006 2:45 PM | Permalink to Comment