A blog without comments … is it a blog?
I recently came across this blog post asking the question: Is a blog that doesn’t allow comments really a blog?
The writer says:
To me, the real plus of a blog is that it is a “community” of sorts. On most of the blogs I read, there is the ability to leave a comment after the post. I often find as much, or sometimes even better information in the comments and conversation that takes place as there was in the original post. Different points of view and identification of other resources are the real nuggets that can come from good comments on a blog.
I completely agree with the writer’s comments above that a blog with comments can be a community of sorts. But does that make a blog without comments something other than a blog?
When I tried to define "Community", I felt strongly that community only truly happens when there’s interaction. Lurkers aren’t necessarily part of that "community" if they’re not actively participating. But what if lurkers are an important part of a concept, without that concept being "community"? A support forum for a tech product is as much for the people actively answering the questions as it is for the random passer by who found the solution to their tech problem while searching google.
A blogger may be more interested in pushing a message out than generating discussion about that message. Seth Godin is a good example of someone trying to showcase himself as an expert. Generating discussion may be something damaging to that perception, or may simply take time to manage and maintain that he’s not willing or able to give.
Or what about bloggers who view a "blog" as their own personal journal that they’re allowing people to read. Bloggers of this type may be happy to have people give feedback on the way they’re living their life, others may simple wish to share, not discuss. (Reminds me of my wife’s beef with me - that I can’t just listen quietly to her problems of the day without offering "solutions")
Wikipedia defines "blog" as:
To me that’s about as far as you can define a blog. Imagine trying to define "Web site" as a page on the Internet used to sell goods. Far too limiting to be of any use. The only thing I might expand is the word "journal" - to me that implies a personal voice to the content.
In this discussion about what a blog is, personal preference plays a pivotal role. Like the writer cited above, I would much rather visit a blog regularly that allows commenting than one that doesn’t. But that doesn’t mean that I wouldn’t ever visit if they shut off comments. One of my favorite blogs has commenting, but I rarely use them or read them. My interest is the stories themselves. There’s the personal blogs that I enjoy simply reading along with the blogger’s life. And of course, there’s blogs that I follow in order to participate in the ongoing discussions. (The original thread that prompted this very blog entry is fascinating to read the discussion in the comments)
Like the Web overall, what makes blogging great is that there’s not any particular requirement for format, content, style, or anything else. A blog is what it’s creator(s) want it to be. As I see it, what separates a blog from an article is the personal voice, posting frequency, and reverse chronological posting order.
Whether your blog is a "good" blog or not is dependent on a range of other things.
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2 Responses to “A blog without comments … is it a blog?”
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My vote is for no, it?s not a blog if you can?t comment. And while some tools like Blogger may invite a ton of SPAM (or force you to make your readers type out the alphabet a thousand times a day), there are great tools like WordPress (as you know) that have easy to manage plugins that catch most of all the SPAM.