Oh, but of course there are a lot of similarities as well.

Richard,

Yes, I agree that there’s no ultimate way, but that instead the combination of options is what makes it so great.

Weird about the comments. I use Firefox 2 on my PC as well as on my Mac, and I haven’t experienced that…
Maybe it’s related to the spell-check feature in Firefox 2? Do you have the problem in other web browsers as well, or only Firefox 2 (no need to reply here, you can send me an e-mail: Contact information)?

Thinking about it some more I think the combination of blog to blog, plus comments, plus the other numerous ways you can express your opinion on the net is what makes it great. There is no one way, it’s the combination of them all that I like. I’m still not sold on the “a blog without comments isn’t a blog” thing but each to their own I guess.

Re: the cursor thing. When I add comments to your site it takes an eternity for what I have typed to show up. Maybe it has something to do with firefox version 2??

A blog is more the expression of one people’s opinions and then a lot of other people’s take on it. To me, a blog is sometimes written more professionally, while forums seem to be more casual in the tone. However, there are of course exceptions to this.

The comments are both in blogs and forums threads, comments on blogs are similar. You are right that a blog post is mostly longer (and can be more subject to posing lots of questions) and a forum post is about one question
Both forums and blogs have categories.

It seems to me that someone who leaves a site because they do not have comments enabled is perhaps more interested in expressing their opinion than say someone with a blog that doesn’t allow comments.

While that is surely true for some people, that’s not the reason for me (as stated above in the post and the comments). I rarely comment at other people’s blogs, but I appreciate the option too, if I see any factual faults in it or just have a strong urge to express what I feel.

Blog to blog-connection is fine, but there’s two problems with that:

a) Then you have to have a blog to comment. My take is that everyone should be able to comment, i.e. no discrimination.

b) Far from every blog accepts pingbacks.

With the preview: not sure what you mean with that the cursor has to catch up… Unless you type really fast.

Johan,

A blog is more the expression of one people’s opinions and then a lot of other people’s take on it. To me, a blog is sometimes written more professionally, while forums seem to be more casual in the tone. However, there are of course exceptions to this.

Ron,

I have some friends who use it, and they seem happy with it, but I’ve never tried (or had the time to test it). Do you like it?

Kanashii,

Ah, yes! I just need to hire another web developer to have the time to set it up then.

But yes, it would be nice.

Let me explain my reasoning a little more.

I’m sure that it’s already been said but if I want to comment on another blog I can do it in my own blog and then link to the original post. Personally I think that this creates a much better interconnection of sites and opinions rather than having all the feedback to a post contained within the original blog. This widening of the sites commenting on a post will lead to further comment and eventually, I believe, a more considered and balanced response.

Personally I open comments on most posts and deliberately don’t when I think there will be no benefit.

P.S. Although the “Comment preview” is a nice visual feature it is annoying constantly having to wait for the cursor to catch up and it makes correcting typos quite difficult.

I know that’s the reason you have for it. I understand the risk for flaming, but personally to take the risk but not waste any long reply on people who write comments that are there solely to provoke. However, you do have comments most of the time, so I still think it’s ok…

Lachlan,

Many web developers know who you are, and respect you, so don’t worry.
But, if you fear that it might be risk that they get intimidated, encourage people to comment! It might work, or it might not. But you don’t know till you’ve tried it (I’ve had some crash and burns in this field…).

Regarding your blog and lack of comments: I know that you’re very talented and your posts are often technical topics shedding some light on advanced stuff. Maybe people don’t see the need to comment, or they’re afraid that they will be technically wrong and consequently embarrassed for asking things.

You’re probably right about people not having a need to comment. I keep hearing from various people that I’m apparently quite popular, so I’m sure it’s not because I have no readers. But I hope no-one feels so intimidated by me that they’d be too embarrassed for asking a question.

Personally, I’m not much for labels like web 1.0 or 2.0; either a web site offers interactivity or it doesn’t. No need to give that feature a number…

josue,

Thank you for reading and for discussing this; and, more importantly, understanding that I’m not out to say that anyone not agreeing with me is wrong. The whole point here is to discuss opinions, and express our standpoints.

Bad,

Interesting. We start to see something similar here when it comes to major newspaper’s online presence.

Lachlan,

Regarding your blog and lack of comments: I know that you’re very talented and your posts are often technical topics shedding some light on advanced stuff. Maybe people don’t see the need to comment, or they’re afraid that they will be technically wrong and consequently embarrassed for asking things.

Allowing pingbacks is fine, but what you miss out then is the possibility for all the people that don’t have a web site, to express their opinion in context.

Regardless of whether or not you allow comments directly on your blog, people can and do still comment about things with posts on their own blogs. People like Ian Hickson, for example, who don’t allow comments directly, do allow pingbacks, so if you write something about a post of his and your CMS sends a pingback, it will get linked to and (I assume) he’ll read it.

You can “Have your say in our discussion boards” but their kept away from the main story and it’s a pain to try and link your discussion entry to the blog subject.

Crap!

well, it’s not *that* easy. First i want to keep my domain. Well, that could be handled. Second, i want to keep my design. That is much more complicated. Formerly i offered user selectable style sheets (alternate stylesheet). Up to now i have not found how to support this with blog software. And definitely not with public services.

But indeed i’ll change the whole system. Some day. But not the next few months.

I think, user generated content and interactivity is a web 2.0 feature, not especially a blog feature. So blog is not identical to web 2.0. A blog without comments is a web 1.0 blog. Well, that’s pretty legal.

I didn’t state this before, but naturally I respect your position as well.

I think the question should actually be, if you didn’t have comments enabled, would you have written the same post?

That’s a very interesting question. When I write a post, I hope that I write it the same way no matter if comments were enabled or not; i.e. I don’t write bolder or weaker just because I might get criticism/reactions to what I write.

But, of course I’m also aware that people will comment on what I write and as I result of that, I sometimes write short posts asking my readers of their opinion in some matter or invite they to share their experience.

stilist,

Regarding your we site: it’s your call and you should do what feels best to you.

When it comes to comments, I still think the whole flow of the comments will stumble if people can edit what they wrote. If commenter A changes his comment, maybe depending on what commenter B wrote, then B need to keep track of this and update his comment so its in line with A’s new opinion, and so on. I’m fairly sure most people wouldn’t like such a scenario.

A comment is stating what you think at that moment, and if you change your mind or want to add something, you can always add a new comment.

Douglas,

That’s a different perspective from what I talk about here in the post. Spam is definitely a problem, and I’m genuinely sad that Tommy stopped blogging (although, as far as I know, this was far from the only reason).

There are assholes out there, but there’s two ways to handle them:

1) Ignore them and they will usually get louder/more violent etc.
2) At least initially, rebute to what they said in a respectful way, and if they have any decency, they will appreciate that and maybe take the discussion to another level.

Jens,

Absolutely, that’s just fine. But to me, that isn’t really the gist of a blog; it is instead “just” a web site with information (and that doesn’t, of course, mean it’s worth less).

Tanny,

I’m happy spam prevention works out (fairly) well for you!

Hate comments is just sad, and I’m sorry to hear that you have gotten such. Also, I never thought anyone would compare a blog with or without comments to unobtrusive JavaScript!

I thought of turning off comments when I got “hate” comments that were personal attacks against my character. Thankfully I only got three of those and haven’t had any since, so I’ve left commenting on.

I do like receiving comments as it’s an affirmation that someone actually reads my blog and their opinion of my blog entry.

I think that a blog without comments is still a blog. Like unobtrusive javascript enhances a web page, comments enhance the blog experience.