Blog comments are dead: discuss

The big super-blogs depend on CPM ad count, so they don't like Friendfeed or Discuss.

paul - I disagree re: FriendFeed. To participate in a conversation there, you need to click over to see the blog. As soon as a reader has done that, FriendFeed has actually helped the blogger.

Yeah, but over on FriendFeed I like commenting a lot more than I like commenting on individual blogs. Note that over on FriendFeed, in just a few minutes, this post already has gotten tons more comments than here on WordPress (and the WordPress item was up longer).

You just might have a point sir. Now, you have at least 1 comment. :)

I love FriendFeed. I love Disqus. But even though I'm overly active on FriendFeed, I've found my comments to the blog have increased a great deal over time. In fact, at least in May, when I last looked at the details, more of my blog posts received more native comments than did they FriendFeed comments.

Has FriendFeed's Comment Activity Eclipsed Native Conversations?
http://www.louisgray.com/live/2008/06/has-frien...

I'm going to keep watching this, of course.

I thought comments replaced blog entries... hmm. Our ideas are getting shorter and smaller.

I'd love to discuss on FriendFeed, unfortunately it's blocked at the bank I am currently working at so I can't use it! It seems to be classified in the same bag as twitter and facebook, which are also blocked (dating and relationships???!)
Google reader is fine though... strange eh?!

I guess I'm a purist. I want comments to live with the original content. If I'm not a member of FriendFeed, but there's a conversation going on over there about something I posted, I totally miss out. This is why I prefer Socialthing!

I would suggest installing the FriendFeed comments plugin for WordPress. Chris Brogan now has this setup on his blog.

http://blog.slaven.net.au/wordpress-plugins/fri...

Are you serious? You're proclaiming that comments are dead because you only got 2 comments on a stupid ass post. What were we suppose to comment on? The fact that you've got the spare 50 or 60 grand to buy the car in the first place or whether you are so super cool for being first in line for buying a super uber toy.

If you want comments anywhere Robert give us something of substance to comments on until then keep your fork to yourself.

I guess you can bury them next to Apple, because out in the real world I still see lots of comments on various weblogs. The ones with the fewest comments are generally the ones which have anti-spam measures in their comments, probably because people are less likely to go to the extra trouble in order to post a comment which, in the grand scheme of things, is almost certainly going to be pretty trivial anyway.

Incidentally, I'd never heard of "FriendFeed" before reading this post. From following the link, it looks like another of those "what the heck is the point" Web 2.0 things.

Robert, at the moment you're a corner case since many of your readers are tech-geeks. I'd bet the stats would be very different on a non-tech blog. People barely get how to comment on a blog, nevermind how to get on friendfeed. Time will tell if FriendFeed goes mainstream.

Besides, it's kinda creepy to have someone else control comments for your posts. For my site, I'm thinking all my comments are belong to me.

I agree with Brian above. I think blog comments and friendfeed discussions are two different things. Blog comments live with the original conversation starter and grow. Friendfeed discussions (for the highly wired at least) are almost realtime discussions - very different from directed additions to discussion like a blog comment.

Also - blog comments might be dead for highly interactive "geeks" ... but we're a minority. Most web users haven't even DISCOVERED blog comments yet, and would look at you funny if you mentioned friendfeed.

So no declarations of death to blog comments from me yet!

@scobelizer comments go where you go. You spend so little time on the blog and so much on FF. PPL go to FF cuz that's where they'll be heard

I agree with Clint's viewpoint. Part of being a sensational a-lister means you'll have a certain group and number of people following you around. So, it's important to recognize the difference between the entourage and the rest of the world (as well as the differences between your relationships online and those of practically everyone else). And, there is a substantial difference.

Blog comments and FriendFeed (et al) are not mutually exclusive.

Robert, you are a master at baiting, I'll give you that.

:)

On a separate note, clearly people weren't wrapping their heads around the car post. Perhaps it's because automobiles are outside of your perceived areas of expertise?

Disable comments on your blog, then. Put up or shut up

I think spam online is just as bad as spam offline.

I refuse to visit yet another site that requires me to create yet another account that is segregated from all the other accounts I have scattered around the internet.

Comments on your blog are not dead, perhaps if you say something people want to talk about you'd get comments.

I disagree. I think it comes down to where you and your audience are. As Robert Scoble, you are active on Twitter and FriendFeed, or whatever else you are all geeky about these days. If that's where you get a higher realm of interaction, then that's where it will all happen. After that, it comes down to content.

Otherwise, I agree with Ben up above. It comes down to having something want to talk about, or in this case, comment on.

Either you've jumped the gun on this or you're just trying to get a rise out of your audience. And for me (and the five glasses of wine I've had), it worked.

You're being silly. Because something similar and new exists, the previous iteration is "dead"?

Are phone calls dead because someone invented the Internet? Is CNN dead because you and Rocky record hour-long video interviews? Am I dead (worthless, less significant) because my little sister is cuter than me and my mom finally got the daughter she wanted?

Right now, FriendFeed is a place for early adopters and overactive social media types. They're more likely to comment, to "like," to share. If you think your blog and its comment-driven discussions are dying, give it up. Go ahead.

Hi everyone,

It's not intrusion but an humble request to the community here.

I have recently started an articles website and would request you (I will appreciate if you can) to please spare some time and post articles at my site.

Thanks

Prashant
http://www.depositarticles.com

Isn't part of the long term value of your blog posts the discussion that goes along with each post? If so, you and all of us are loosing out by having the conversation happen somewhere else. There is no tie that I am aware of between your blog post and the discussion that happens over on FF or anywhere else. The discussion on the topic at hand will just get lost in the chatter as it rolls down to the bottom of the list on FF. Later in time, at least I can Google a topic, find your blog post and the associated discussion, assuming it is here. If it is not, I probably will not ever see it.

Au contraire. Comments on blogs are alive and well. The fact they don't all co-habit with the blog is immaterial.

I would normally comment on FF, failing that Disqus and finally, reluctantly, I have to waste a couple of clicks and valuable seconds to comment on the actual blog.

FriendFeed is a closed system, with real limits to participation, longevity, and control. I seriously doubt that in its current form it poses a threat. Blog comments aren't going away.

Some factors contributing to your perspective: on FriendFeed (small pond), you're a celebrity. In the blogosphere (huge pond), you're not quite as famous. Plus, you never post here anymore.

The other problem is the value of all the comments of friendfeed are good for people on friendfeed, but for everyone else they don't exist. People hitting your posts off Google, off links from other blogs, visiting from their feed readers etc., get no value from all these comments on friendfeed.

It's not a naked conversation any more, it's a circle jerk with people who know you and are fans of yours and want to follow everything you do. For everyone else there is no conversation. Sure it's easier for you, but is the point of comments just for you? Why even bother having publically displayed comments if you don't care about your readers being able to see them.

The solution is, of course, to integrate friendfeed comments into the relevant blog post. It's the only way you'll get the value from dedicated fans and casual readers.

Really now? The Shel vs. Loren latest post grabbed 85 comments in no time. All depends on the pitch.

Blog comments aren't dead, nor are IMs, forums, social sites, online games, heck, mindless internet activity is at an all time high, seemingly.

But your blog hasn't been a blog in years, more a calendar posting of places, faces and videos done, with the occasional ill-informed hype smatterings. You were at your best in the NEC days; the Microsoft, Podtech, FastCompany era, but a shrill placeholder.

I don't know that comments on blogs are dead - and that Friendfeed or Discuss wins at this point. I think we are all still sorting out what works best for posting vs. commenting - and they might end up on the same platform and they might not. I like Friendfeed for discussing in a way that feels like "forums 2.0", especially with the rooms feature. Where both posting or original content (to friendfeed) and commenting all happen together - as a larger conversation around a certain topic.

Friendfeed's interface is still very obnoxious to a majority of people - with very little mass appeal - which means it certainly can't kill commenting on blogs for most people. But if it can up the simplicity with losing the information - then things will get interesting.

I think most people just became too tired of visiting many blogs and posting comments there. But I do believe that people are still active participants in most blogs. They just prefer to read and leave off.

Too many people focus on commenting and less on creating web content. Many search engines will be weighing this.

Comments are also web content, not everybody can be authors of a given arthicle.

All due respect, man, it's time to step out of the "Scoble Bubble" and say hello to the rest of the world. So you use friendfeed, fantastic. For ALL of my clients still struggling to understand the point of Twitter, to all of my relatives that can't remember to check my flickr stream, and to my friends in the industry who only sometimes visit my blog because they're busy working, blog comments aren't dead as much as not quite understood. We may agree that blog comments aren't getting the traffic they should but that's because you've moved past them while the rest of the world has mostly yet to find them.

I'm curious though - if blog comments are so dead (whatever that statement means), why are we seeing an uptick in Disqus/Intense Debate adoption?

41 comments.. looks like they're alive and kicking, Robert. ;)

Isn't comments on a blog post synonymous with the blog traffic? Who cares about your post if your blog has little to know traffic.

Friendfeed is a herd utility. Let be there cause everyone else is.

Isn't comments on a blog post synonymous with the blog traffic? Who cares about your post if your blog has little to no traffic.

In the early days, a blog attracted comments severely based on it's content weight. Now, it is all about track back, link backs and residual traffic.

Friendfeed is a herd utility. Let's be there cause everyone else is.

i think what has killed it is the nofollow tags... people only thought about how to increase their rankings on google and commenting on other peoples blog was one way to do it and ignored the potential traffic flow for the forseeable future atleast... but that also presents opportunitiues as less ppl are commenting... the likelihood of your link being shown is greater

if you are going to comment.. you want to find blogs that are ranked high in google, technorati or have high ratings on social bookmark sites.. thats how i find blogs to comment on

I agree. I run a blog at www.angryguildleader.com about the game we play, and almost everything I get is spam :(


Tauntress
www.dvdwizards.net

I had a musician friend who kept a daily blogging. Usually would get about 2-3 comments a year. So... clearly a blogger can go without comments... but maybe that's just narcissism.

- Imar
http://www.musicianforest.com

Yeah, but over on FriendFeed I like commenting a lot more than I like commenting on individual blogs. Note that over on FriendFeed, in just a few minutes, this post already has gotten tons more comments than here on WordPress (and the WordPress item was up longer).
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Disable comments on your blog, then. Put up or shut up

Would Robert Scoble stop sharing his incites and thoughts if the comments came to a halt and all social interaction

commenting on bloggs has never been a bad idea. Some people love it, some hate it.

It's because people want to OWN their own comments. You can store your own comments wherever you like because they belong to you. I wonder how many people started blogging because they wanted to join the conversation on their own blog rather than just replying on other people's blog? - Chris Paton

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