The Quest For Comments

Comments were once the heart of blog communities but are more of a rarity now.

Do Blogs Need Comments?

A few years ago  and then some, comments were the heart of blog communities. Where writers and readers introduced themselves and discussed parts of an article. Or asked questions about it.

These days it's more likely that a blog has comments turned off. Or they are filled with spammer comments, linking to a dodgy site or part of a low budget SEO operation.

Here's an article from 2019 at fizzle.co discussing blogs on comments in more detail.

Alternatives

Some blogs have moved to social sites, such as twitter hellstorms, subreddits or facebook groups. These are fine but require being on that platform for readers and the writer.  And having infrastructure elsewhere. And having a certain amount of publicity / exposure.

Others run membership sites, newsletters or forums. Again these are hosted somewhere or require more setup. All can set up a more cohesive following or community than social media or blog comments.

But they still need setting up and for most personal blogs aren't needed.

The Big But

But... for a small site like mine with low readership and no objective of building a globe-spanning empire they make sense. I'm not a great user of social media (although I am on a few platforms)

And I'm unlikely to get enough comments that the time taken to moderate or review them is significant.

A Step-Up

I've gone back to the not-so-great Disqus for my comments, as at least it works. And this site doesn't really mind if it takes a little longer to load.

I need to look into a few other Ghost options such as Hyvor or Cove.

Or I could activate the membership feature and leave it as free, just allowing people who care enough to register and login!

Finishing Up

Feel free to leave a comment. Or Not.

Duncan