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Like many bloggers, I was surprised and concerned this week to read Copyblogger‘s notice that they were turning blog comments off. (See Sonia Simone, Why We’re Removing Comments on Copyblogger.)
The post sparked many echo posts discussing the decision. Some bloggers praised the decision while others questioned it.
If you’re not in the writing or blogging field, you may not realize that Copyblogger is one of the largest and most prominent blogs on the topics of web content, blogging, and writing. Hundreds of writers and would-be writers turn to Copyblogger every day for advice.
So, not only are we losing comments on Copyblogger, there’s the potential that other bloggers will follow their example. Which led me to ask whether blog comments are necessary.
Personally, I can see both sides of this issue. My opinion is that the pros of having comments on your blog outweigh the cons. I won’t remove them from WritingThoughts, at least not for now.
In this post, I address the pros and cons of blog comments. I also invite you to share your own opinion about blog comments. (Yes, share your thoughts in the comments here).
Why Blog Comments Matter
I’ve always loved good comments. A comment adds to the discussion. Some of the best comments could even be posts in their own right.
Here are some other pluses to including comments on your blog:
- Centralized location. When the comments are on your blog, it’s easy to find them. Sure, your post may be discussed elsewhere, but the comments that appear with your post are more likely to be seen over time. This is especially true for evergreen content. Who wants to go back and sift through a social media site looking for comments months after a post is published?
- A sense of community. I met many of my online contacts through the comments right here on this blog back when I started blogging. Yes, I’ve also met online contacts through social media, but it seems that I got to know the folks who left comments more quickly than those contacts who I just interacted with on social media.
- A part of blogging. There’s a blurry line between blogging and article writing as it is. Many of my clients don’t really understand the differences. While comments are not the only difference between a blog post and an article, comments are a very visible sign that you are probably reading a blog post and not an article.
- Accessibility. Bloggers who allow comments on their posts seem more accessible than those who do not. In fact, a blog post without comments seems empty to me, like a ghost town. If there are no comments, I wonder whether anyone actually read the post. A lot of people share content without reading it, so a social share doesn’t mean the content reached it’s target.
Of course, there are problems with blog comments.
Why Blog Comments Are a Pain
There are some very real reasons why a blog might want to shut comments off. Here are a few of them:
- Too much spam. Spam’s annoying. And any time you leave comments open you’re going to get spam. Yes, there are plugins to filter comment spam, but those filters are not infallible. The best spam filter is still the human eye. Reviewing possible spam comments is a time-consuming and thankless task–especially for a very large and popular blog.
- The problem of trolls. Any time you open the door to comments you also open the door to comment trolls. Trolls are commentators who just seem to live to post mean comments–often under an assumed name. Even if the troll’s comment is never published, odds are that the blogger who reviews the spam file sees it anyway when they moderate comments. The mean words of troll can easily spoil your day.
- The conversation is moving to social media. If you’ve blogged for a while, you’ve probably noticed a trend. Blogs that used to have dozens of comments now have only one or two. Comments used to be detailed and well-considered, but today’s comments are often little more than a word or two. The trend is definitely towards commenting on social media.
- The need to answer comments. Unanswered comments make a blog look bad–like the blogger doesn’t care. A blog is meant to be a conversation, and conversations are two-sided. But these days many bloggers aren’t present in the comment stream at all. I can certainly understand why. If you receive a lot of comments, it takes a lot of time to write thoughtful responses.
When you read the drawbacks to comments, it’s easy to see why some blogs might choose to disallow comments.
Your Decision
If you blog, you have a decision to make. Will you follow Copyblogger‘s example and turn comments off? Or will you allow comments on your blog?
As you can see, there are compelling reasons for doing either. You decide whether blog comments are important for your blog.
Share your thoughts in the comments on this post.
13 responses so far ↓
1 Steve // Mar 27, 2014 at
One thing to remember is what Simone said to us in the post:
—————————–
Should every blog remove comments?
I don’t think so.
Blog comments are an amazing resource for any blog when it’s getting started. It’s a super convenient way to take the pulse of your audience. It’s a quick metric for getting a sense of how strongly the audience responds to a particular post. And it lets a community start to grow up around you — around your ideas and how you express them.
—————————–
In other words, it’s up to each of us to decide for ourselves. I can see why CB is taking of the comments. I can see their reasoning.
Smaller blogs probably should keep their comments as they build up their audience. There will be the inevitable worthless comments and comment one-up-manship (trying to make a comment that is “better” than the blog post, a feeble attempt at self promotion).
As Copyblogger would tell us: each of us must make that decision based on our own experiences.
Great post, Laura. You’ve made some valid points that we should all consider.
2 Laura Spencer // Mar 28, 2014 at
Steve,
Thanks for the well-considered reply. (I am glad I got a comment on this post, at least.)
I definitely agree with your point about everyone making the decision for themselves. I actually said the same thing in my last paragraph. 🙂
Copyblogger certainly has the right to do whatever they want with their blog. But even though they stated that not every blog should remove comments in their post, the fact is that Copyblogger is a leader in this field. Others will probably follow their example.
I’m particularly concerned about small businesses, who have the most to lose by removing comments and seeming less accessible to potential customers.
3 Paolo Fabrizio (@Pfabr) // Mar 28, 2014 at
Hi Laura, that’s an interesting issue.
As for private Blogs/small Business Blogs i would always keep ears (i.e. comments) open.
They are a useful source to get hints and new ideas. However, when it’s about big Corporate Blogs, it’s more difficult to take a standard decision.
In fact, high traffic volumes impct with many comments to be handled and Spam messages to be rejected.
I guess Copyblogger was not happy to take such a sharp decision, they just had to do it.
4 Laura Spencer // Mar 28, 2014 at
Hi Paolo,
Thanks so much for the comment.
There can certainly be a huge volume of spam on a popular post. Moderation can be a big task if there are a lot of comments. And that can impact a company financially.
On the other hand, allowing comments gives a company an insight of the public’s response to a particular idea, product, or announcement. That insight can be priceless.
I guess my fear is that blogs will shut down comments simply for the convenience of it, without considering whether it’s the best option for their situation.
5 Lillie Ammann // Mar 28, 2014 at
Laura, I intend to keep comments open on my blog, but I certainly don’t get anywhere near as many comments as I used to. Where a post might get dozens of comments–I’ve had more than a hundred comments on a single post in the past, now many posts don’t get any comments and the most I see is three or four on a single post. At the rate comments are going on my blog, they may go away on their own!
6 TXWriter (@TXWriter) // Mar 28, 2014 at
Lillie. I’ve noticed the same trend. I think that it’s partly because the novelty of leaving comments has worn out and partly because we’re all overwhelmed by how much there is to read online. However, I think it’s important to keep the comments that are made with the blog.
7 Sharon Hurley Hall // Mar 28, 2014 at
There’s definitely been a fall off in comments since I started blogging, with interaction shifting to the social sites. I don’t know if I’d ever remove comments from my blog, though dealing with spam can be tiresome.
8 TXWriter (@TXWriter) // Mar 28, 2014 at
I can only imagine how much spam really large blogs must get…
9 Gazalla // Mar 28, 2014 at
Thoughtful and insightful post, Laura. I feel that while it’s good to have social media comments, SM is still not your property. When you take the conversation to another property, you lose any right over it. When you have comments on your own post, you can always go back and see what people have liked based on the number and type of comments. It’s like inviting people over to your place and feeling happy that they visited.
Copyblogger has an Alexa ranking of 1,500 – they can basically do whatever they want and get away with us. For the rest of us, comments are the one way we can keep in touch with our readers and other bloggers as well.
10 Laura Spencer // Mar 28, 2014 at
Gazalla, You make some excellent points. I can remember social media sites that everyone thought were strong that no longer exist today. You may think the popular social sites will be around forever, but will they?
It’s funny that you mention having a blog being like “inviting people over.” That’s always how I’ve pictured it too. 🙂
11 Julie // Apr 3, 2014 at
I’ve been blogging for over 13 years and I remember the “golden” days when blog comment sections were hopping. Lots of comments, long comments, activity, debate — but social media has all but stripped that away and, as you pointed out, the comments I do get are quite a bit shorter. Plus, there are a lot more people blogging now and they tend to do things such as “I wrote about this on my blog” and leave a link and little else.
I can’t blame people; platforms have changed. But it is a source of disappointment. I remember how much fun comments were to receive and respond to. Social media conversation is just not the same. It is temporal; once the news feed cycles through, that conversation is gone. I still go back on my six and seven-year-old posts and read the comments and get a great deal of enjoyment reading them and remembering the readers who were almost like friends. Oh well.
12 Laura Spencer // Apr 4, 2014 at
Julie,
13 years of blogging–wow, that’s a really long time. I bet that you’ve seen a lot of changes. 🙂
There are still a few posts that get comments, but yeah, it’s not happening on most blogs like it used to. Even good posts don’t generate the same level of discussion.
The temporal nature of social media comments bothers me too. I’ve always viewed comments as sort of an extension of the blog post. They can’t really function that way if they’re separated from the blog post.
I have noticed that some blog posts are linking to a specific discussion on a social media account. While that helps current readers who might want to give feedback find the discussion, I have to wonder if that social media discussion will still be available in six months, a year, or even longer. And if not, will the blogger remove the link?
BTW, thanks for your nice long blog comment here. 🙂
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