A Blog Is Not A Community In The First Place. Or Is It?
17. Jul, 2007 
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Readers appreciation is getting more and more attention from bloggers of all shapes and sizes. Contests and debates are popping up every day, readers are invited to more and more interactions, on some blog posts, there are more words in comments than in the post itself.
After the hot debate whether or not paid comments are a disservice to readers, a new controversial move triggers lots of reactions: Kumiko Suzuki decided to switch off comments on Cash Quests, explaining in details how her blog benefits from this move.
I’m not going to argue with Kumiko’s decision, as time and Kumiko will probably tell us if it was a wise step. Nevertheless, I’d like to bring into your attention two of her points regarding switching off comments implications:
1. The sense of community will decrease:
This one made the decision quite hard! Without comments, there is definitely a decrease in the community feeling of the site. However, I believe that a blog isn’t a community in the first place. If Cash Quests were a community everybody would have an equal chance of having their voices heard and there wouldn’t be just one person writing 90% of the content for the site – and taking 100% of the revenue! A blog is part of a community of bloggers but it isn’t a community itself.
2. Better relationships will be built:
Without having to spend time reading, moderating and replying to comments I predicted that I would have more time to spend e-mailing and building relationships with other bloggers. This has definitely occurred with some fantastic relationships being built that have resulted in some very high PR links being both given and received.
Reactions from the blogging world were not so positive: people like Kevin from Blogging Tips, Julie Ann Bonner, I Thought Therefore I Blog, 45n5 or John Chow expressed their opinion and their reasons for welcoming comments to their blogs.
Back in October 2005, Steve Pavlina explained the benefits of switching off comments on his blog, being confident that it was a good decision. However, one year later, Steve associates a forum to his blog, allowing the community to interact even more. It seems that he missed the comments, after all.
What do you think?
Is your blog a community in the first place? Do you believe that not spending time moderating comments will allow you to build better relationships?
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I personally don’t agree with turning off comments, but having comments available is a good means of instant feedback. Moderating and deleting is a pain (one of the reasons for the WP Ajax Edit Comments plugin), but it is worth it from a feedback perspective.
If I had turned off comments for the Ajax Edit Comments plugin, people would have had a much harder time communicating issues. I truly feel it is a better plugin because comments were enabled and I took the time to e-mail individuals offline (in a non-public forum) to find the issues.
Some bloggers are just downright fortunate that they don’t have to worry about getting any comments because commentators come in droves. To turn these people away is a hard decision and hopefully one done with the right intentions. I just hope that not all of them end up like Steve (as mentioned in the article) and regret the decision.
Thank you Ronald. Ajax Edit Comments plugin makes moderating much easier, so if one is not under heavy pressure of spam, I don’t think that turning off comments can save her/him a lot of time.
Definitely, my blog is a community in the first place. At least, it is to me. I don’t find it hard moderating comments, but then I’m not getting them in bulk either, so I can’t judge others about switching off their comments.
One thing I know that it’s better to switch off comments on a blog if the blogger is not planning, not interested, doesn’t have time, or whatever other reasons he/she has for not replying to comments rather than keeping comments on, but hardly ever replying to them. At least then you’re crystal clear with your readers on whether or not you welcome comments on your blog.
I agree that it’s better to have a blog with comments off, than one with non-moderated comments. At least readers won’t have the sensation of commenting in vain.
While I agree that comments enable more communication, I realize that comments are not a necessity, nor disabling them signifies something evil. Seth Godin, the person everyone references, provides very useful information. One of the reasons he can do that is because he is like a book author; he can write and book and send it in for publishing, and if anyone has comments or questions or criticism, they can communicate with him on an e-mail [similar to snail mail].
Some people are good at handling comments and some people aren’t. I think it is better for a person, like Kumiko, who thinks she cannot handle comments with a nice efficiency, to instead focus on something she wants to and something she is good at [a little bit along the lines of what inspirationbit said above]. I think that is better than replying to all comments with simple acknowledgments, like “Thank you for coming today” or “Thank you for breathing today“, which are usually simply there to fulfill an obligation and provide an illusion of communication between bloggers and commentors.
I also agree with Ronald that some bloggers can get ahead by talking about money-topics, and thus when they become famous, they can simply shut off the public since they do not need to communicate anymore; they simply prefer to give lectures after that, because they can get away with it, and not because they have something useful to say.
A blog by itself does not constitute a community, it is the interactions between and among readers that make it so.
As in “no man is an island”, a blog that chooses to isolate itself by denying voices from the masses to be heard is too one dimensional.
I can see the point of turning off comments, but I think it depends on what kind of blog you have, what kind of blog you want to have and knowing your readers.
I love reading Copyblogger, and that site is one where I think turning comments off wouldn’t bother me. Brian writes articles that are more timeless, they are essentially mini-lessons or chapters in a copy writing book. And I’ve read some of the comments (even posted a few of my own) and they often don’t add much to the site.
I also love InspirationBit and if Vivien turned off comments, I would be very disappointed and I would miss the conversations. Readers who comment often link to other similarly interesting web pages on the topic of the post and then we have more to discuss!
Thank you, Lauren
I will never turn off comments on InspirationBit unless I decide that I’m sick and tired of blogging, or can’t do it anymore and will decide to shut it down. But even then I might look for someone who would like to carry on the Inspiration torch and take over my blog, and then I’ll stipulate in the agreement that the comments must never be turned off there.