Arguments for keeping comments

So yesterday I put forward 5 arguments as to why you should turn off your comments and hence today is the counter, why you should have comments on your blog and not let some dumb blog consultant tell you otherwise!

(as with yesterday, please comment – without the irony this time – if you’ve got any other reasons for keeping comments turned on or if you reckon I’m spouting here…)

Argument number 1: Come over to mine – keeping, engaging and satisfying your readership

Without comments there’s no chance that you’re ever going to be the center of the conversation… literally. For example, imagine Scoble without comments… he’d be seen to be doing a disservice to the community (and especially so to MS) if he didn’t have comments set up which allowed people to come over and talk about stuff with them. If you’re running a corporate blog and you don’t have comments you’ll be hated and dead before your first blogaversary.

Argument number 2: Multiple mediums for multiple messages – don’t shut out potential commentators

Fact is that not everyone has a blog and hardly anyone wants to send you an email (and why would they, much more fun to have a discussion in public after all). So, if you don’t have comments you’re shutting out an enormous number of potential contributors and thus losing a lot of value in your postings. Also, without comments you’re falling into the awful ‘one medium fits all’ of trying to get everything through your blog, which won’t happen.

Argument number 3: I’m feeling a little emotional – the value of “Thanx )”

How do you feel when you get an SMS? Probably pretty subliminally excited and contented (someone is connected with me, is taking the time to communicate with me) and almost certainly not well informed (well over 50% of SMS contain no ‘valuable’ information whatsoever). That’s because the major value SMS has given us is allowing us to send emotional messages to each other really really simply with minimum hassle (quite different to the challenges of a phone call). Comments do this to. That someone has taken time out to read what you’ve written and respond to it is an incredible emotional buzz and something that, without comments, you’ll be missing out on.

Argument number 4: Many different shapes and sizes – customizing your comments

One of the most awful things about using Radio Userland was the centrally controlled comments. No only did you have to wait an age for them to load but you also had no control over them whatsoever, not in terms of look, feel, forms or functionality. This meant that they simply became a (rather imperfect) bulletin board and many was the time that I cursed over not being able to continue a discussion through anything other than email.

Then, along came MT and WordPress and as you can see below you not only have the capacity to comment on this post but you also get the opportunity to subscribe to this comments feed (whether you’re a commentator or not). In fact, so enamored am I with this feature that I’ve even turned it on by default, so people can engage in discussion with me and other commentators. Invaluable stuff.

Argument number 5: Validity and growth – what is it that you want?

I argued yesterday that there there was nothing more likely to turn a potential reader into just another surfer than a plethora of (0 comments) tags attached to your posts. However, conversely there’s nothing that say interest / authority like a ton of (15 comments) tags. Add to that the fact that you’re missing out on the chance to develop on your posts with your comments and in doing so develop your own understanding of the area… and why on earth would you want to turn off comments on your posts?