jotsheet

One of the biggest potential problems with the weblog format is also a hallmark and defining aspect of the blog: comments.

Most blogs allow comments. Most blogs encourage comments. But comments are limiting, (usually) non-hierarchical, and almost always disorganized. A blog is not a message board. A blog is not a forum.

And since blogs are so popular (and so popular with search engines, what with their natural SEO mojo), the problem is magnified. Since the weblog phenomenon now appeals to an audience far broader than techies and niche readers, the pitfalls of blog commenting are exposed to every lackey Google searcher. This broader audience often has no real concept of what a weblog is and lacks the etiquette and/or technical skills to compensate for the poor technical architecture of blog commenting systems.

Others’ thoughts

Jack Vinson recently cited a good write-up by Amy Gahran called “10 Reasons Why Blogs Are an Awkward Conversation Tool.” Her top 10 list, in a nutshell:

1. They’re not intuitive
2. They’re too busy
3. Who’s responding to whom?
4. Comments don’t necessarily = conversation
5. Comments don’t always get a reply
6. (Usually) no notification for follow-up comments
7. You can turn off comments and trackbacks
8. Perceived inequality
9. Lots of people don’t like blogs, and they never will
10. It’s much faster just to talk

To this, I would add:

1. Anonymous commenting.
   • Not necessarily a bad thing, but makes for a lot of “one and done” visits to your website with potentially inflammatory comments. At least that’s the kind of stuff I get!
2. Masquerading as other people.
   • You can use a central authentication system like TypeKey, but that will cut down on the conversation. (On second thought, that might be a good thing.)
3. No standard for HTML or formatting.
   • This creates a lot of confusing about what’s allowed, what’s not allowed, and how to format things. It makes the process much less efficient and potentially frustrating.
4. Moderation by one person as opposed to a community.
   • If you piss him/her off, your comments can be deleted or modifed. There are no set standards, and the blog is usually run on a whim.
5. Do people care about the conversation?
   • Oftentimes, folks who leave a comment are directing their feedback at the author. It could just as well be in an email. They don’t care whether other commenters reply or not.

Blog comments as football game trash talking

Add all that up and you’ve got a recipe for a disaster. Comments on a popular blog are basically like trash talking after a football game. The bigger the game, the more popular the teams, the more passionate the fans—the dumber the commentary.

Let’s imagine the back-and-forth between Ohio State and Michigan fans following a hypothetical Michigan victory:

Michigan Fan: “Ha ha, you suck!”
Ohio State Fan: “Your mom sucks!”
Michigan Fan: “Buckeyes? More like Suckeyes!”
Ohio State Fan: “Hey, way to win the big game lately. Try winning a national championship this decade.”

etc.

Now compare that to the absolute and utter crap in the 518 comments on my joke of a Lindsay Lohan entry. Notice any similarity?

The price of popularity

Well, the love from MSN, Yahoo, and Google (see here, here, and here) has a price, and the price is ridiculously long streams of comments that completely overwhelm the original blog entry. The total inadequacy of blogs for handling this type of exchange is exposed. This is a problem that other bloggers far more popular than me have struggled with for a long time, probably back to 2003 or so, and it’s about time I adopt a policy.

So the new policy is: if you annoy me with lots of comments, I shut them off. I guess that solves it.

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