Don’t comment on this blog
Who cares about comments on a blog? Answer: No one.
Think about it. How many times have you read a blog and actually read the comments on that blog? Maybe one time out of ten? Now, think about how many times you’ve read a blog and actually left a comment. Maybe one time out of 20? 50? Yeah, if you’re like the vast majority of internet users, you comment on a blog almost never.
So why are we now seeing all this activity around blog comment systems? You’d think that blog comments are the Friends List of 2007, at least to hear Techcrunch go on about them. Of course, TechCrunch tries to make everything sound interesting so they can justify all the articles they churn out every day despite the fact that there are only one or two Web 2.0 happenings that are actually important enough to write about on any given day.
But back to my point: blog comments just aren’t that important. In the big scheme of things, no one really cares. Read through the sites that have the most active commenting community like Digg and Slashdot, and you’ll see that most commenters:
- don’t know what they’re talking about
- don’t bother to read the other comments
- are illiterate
- can’t assemble their thoughts into a coherent point
The blog commenters have become victims of their own enthusiasm. These trolls who reside under the most-frequented bridges of the Internet have so much zeal that they ignore common rules of composition, grammar, and logic, and have therefore doomed themselves to irrelevancy. These trolls make up less than half a percent of the visitors to these sites (source: my flawless intuition), and they never click on ads, so they do little to actually contribute to the sites they comment on.
So, why do we need four companies (mentioned in TechCrunch’s article) devoted to helping us keep track of our comments? Why does the tiny, tiny fraction of people on the ‘net who comment frequently need such powerful tools to organize the dreck they serve up daily to the rest of us?
Of course, they don’t need them. No one needs them. These services exist because we’re in a bubble again, and any idea remotely related to social networking — or the new buzzword: conversations – can raise VC money and hope for a buyout by a company that makes a valid, useful product. And these companies are only buying because they’re also sucked in to the Web 2.0 hype, and they think they need some of that Ajaxy hawtness to justify their valuation multiples.
These comment systems are trying to exploit bloggers into sharing user data with them so they can because big all-powerful comment aggregators. Perhaps they’re trying to take over MyBlogLog’s market position? If so, they’d better focus more on what they can offer the bloggers and less on what they can offer the commenters.
So stop it, guys. Let’s make products for people who really need them. And for God’s sake, don’t comment on this blog.
Explore posts in the same categories: Blogs, Internet, Social Networks
August 8th, 2007 at 12:34 am
Couldn’t resist :)))
But… comments create a degree of “relevancy” in search engines, raising the likelihood that random searchers land on your web site, and possibly, click on an advert, because they’re not really looking for your website, they’re just looking for something that was discussed on your website. It happened to me last night — I was searching for an ESL school for my niece — the first click from google put me on to some rant about ESL students in a forum — by scanning around the rant, my very next click got me to what turns out to be one of the best ESL schools in the city.
Interesting comments about the trolls — so true!! But I think they’re contribution to the economy of clicks might be more than you think. It’s a paradox in a sense. I know there are a few trolls on Answerbag that made it much more entertaining, and therefore more relevant… it seems like quite a paradox.
August 8th, 2007 at 1:12 am
Some good points there, Peter, but I still assert that the majority of comment activity is useless. Yours excepted, of course.
August 17th, 2007 at 2:09 pm
Always good to get a concept of what my kid is thinking about these days. I guess “blogs” is as good a theme as any.
However, it’s true, my response is essentially useless except for letting him know I’m thinking about him.
October 1st, 2007 at 3:03 pm
I strenuously disagree. It is true that people infrequently leave comments, (in most cases, but there are notable exceptions. When the NYT publishes an article for which they activate comments, the comments will number in the hundreds, typically) but the comments that people do leave are frequently as interesting as the post itself. What would be great is if you could track people’s comments throughout the blogosphere. What I mean by this is if by clicking on the comments of a particular person you could be brought to a page that would list all the comments posted by this person on all blogs you would see a lot more people leaving comments because the person leaving the comments would have a much stronger incentive for doing so. You could track a person’s travel through the blogosphere by following the comments they leave. This would be very good for blogging generally because one would then have a way of being exposed to more blogs. It would also give people an incentive to leave better comments too. Essentially it would be like Digg in reverse. Someone just has to write the code for it. I guarantee that it would change the blogosphere.
October 1st, 2007 at 4:28 pm
As mentioned above, there are already several companies trying to do this. And while it might change the “blogosphere”, it’ll do little to change how the vast majority of people use the web.
November 6th, 2007 at 11:21 pm
maybe we’ll get lucky and some weird virus like in the tv show Heroes will wipe out half the population, then the leftover people will have to give up thier blogs and get back to growing food that we can live on, and we won’t have this problem of worthless blog comments. and it’s neat that your Mom comments on your blogs. my mom wouldn’t know what a blog is, she’d think it was a typo. try being a system administrator and see how people use their copmuters and the web. it’s scary, like Idiocracy the movie. nice web spam too!
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October 8th, 2008 at 5:13 pm
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October 15th, 2008 at 6:40 pm
Очень занимательное место, мне тут понравилось, правда…
Столько всего класного и позновательного, я тут останусь на долго.
October 19th, 2008 at 10:47 pm
Test message
Sorry me noob…
October 23rd, 2008 at 8:29 am
There was this guy see.
He wasn’t very bright and he reached his adult life without ever having learned “the facts”.
Somehow, it gets to be his wedding day.
While he is walking down the isle, his father tugs his sleeve and says,
“Son, when you get to the hotel room…Call me”
Hours later he gets to the hotel room with his beautiful blushing bride and he calls his father,
“Dad, we are the hotel, what do I do?”
“O.K. Son, listen up, take off your clothes and get in the bed, then she should take off her clothes and get in the bed, if not help her. Then either way, ah, call me”
A few moments later…
“Dad we took off our clothes and we are in the bed, what do I do?”
O.K. Son, listen up. Move real close to her and she should move real close to you, and then… Ah, call me.”
A few moments later…
“DAD! WE TOOK OFF OUR CLOTHES, GOT IN THE BED AND MOVED REAL CLOSE, WHAT DO I DO???”
“O.K. Son, Listen up, this is the most important part. Stick the long part of your body into the place where she goes to the bathroom.”
A few moments later…
“Dad, I’ve got my foot in the toilet, what do I do?”
October 29th, 2008 at 9:29 am
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