We judge a blog entirely on its comments. I could give less of a sh*t if you get millions of readers every month, but if you’re getting 100 comments per post you are the cat’s pajamas. If you’re in PR you understand that reaching out to bloggers is important. But which bloggers do you contact? Those who are part of something bigger? The columnists for AOL? The biggies on HuffPo? Or do you go to the ones who have established their own little “cult followings”? People like The Bloggess or Marie Forleo…

To be perfectly honest, the reason I comment on blogs isn’t because people ask. From my experience, both with my own comments and seeing why other people write, here are the top reasons I comment a blog post:

* The blogger has said something I agree or disagree with strongly
* I want to congratulate someone on a new job/baby/engagement/personal success
* Something is hilarious and I want to add my own experience
* Something is so amazing I couldn’t possibly leave the website without letting the blogger know how amazing they are but am too lazy to write an email (There is a fine line. Remember that.)
* There’s some form of list, usually in advice-form, where I have something to contribute

But playing fair means they, too, can tweak the codes of the sites they own … including youtube, blogger, and other entities they umbrella — all in order to rank better with their own search algorithm.

You might imagine just how well they’re sites will rank when they optimize them with the magical Google-SEO code everyone’s after.

They’re the best when it comes to optimizing their sites, because they’re optimizing it for themselves!

Too bad we all can’t walk down the hall and ask Matt Cutts for a little SEO.

Haha … it’s all so silly.

Really, you’re right. In fact, I was conversing with another blogger via video chat one day and he stated a long and profound idea. I replied with, “Good point.” Being funny, he asked, “Did I just get a comment reply from you?” It’s too typical to say “nice post.”

I’m still a design student, but I’ve been web designing since about 2000, and I’ve had Internet in my house since BEFORE Windows 3.0 came out. Old fashioned, maybe a little, but I do remember when BBS were the way to go – and the best thing about them? The community!

Here’s my perspective on the whole thing:
Comments on blogs are much like constructive criticism. Sometimes they spark a revolution – but it’s a GREAT way to know what you’re doing right, what you’re doing wrong, and what kind of influential power you have. Best practices from art school would tell you that you should at least LISTEN to what everyone has to say, and then decide what pieces to take with you and which ones to throw away.

People in the design community keep complaining that we’re moving away from the “community” aspect, but how do you have community without the ability to share links, share your thoughts, and KNOW you’ve made SOME sort of impact? (Even if it’s just an email that says ‘thanks for joining the conversation!’)

I see the need for comments to be turned off on occasion, but really what I see the need for more is GOOD conversation in comments. One of the forums I subscribe to has a code of conduct rule that basically states “If you have nothing to add to the conversation, don’t reply. If someone’s already said it, don’t re-post it.” Why waste your time (and mine as the reader or author) to write “Nice post!” when another 30 seconds could have developed into “Nice post, but next time please include ________.” Plus, I’ve always just kind’ve hated those “I agree with So-and-So” comments.

[/steps off soapbox]

Digital conversation is what it is today because of just that, the conversation.

Where would our conversation be with disabled comments? Not on that blog, but somewhere else. Blogging starting out as journaling, sure, but the fake plastic key that unlocked the side of the journal (hiding under the bed, you get the idea…) which allowed you to write all over someone elses pages has almost always been there too.

This is now a two way street folks. Youtube. The comments are ridiculous on there – why? Because they can be, and it’s allowed. I don’t believe you can take something that back to a purely 1 way trad. style on the web.

This too shall pass and they’re going to reopen the floor or Engadget is going to lose interest. I know I will!

Oh the interwebs..

We keep our comment stream clean by rigorously enforcing a “no-trolls” policy. Once a culture of politeness takes root, it is jealously protected by the community.

Learned that from John Murden at Church Hill People’s News in Richmond.

Good post Brandon. Thanks for enabling comments :)

- Another Hal