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If you change your mind and add a link then please send another ping and we will happily approve.
It's too bad you didn't link too because I provided the one liner code that will fix Mr. Beattie's situation. I actually provided the technical solution he said he was too "lazy" to be bothered to do on his own.
I hate to be the odd man out but I'm not sure I agree with you. The first blog I read (1999...before they were actually called blogs) http://www.theharrowgroup.com/ never allowed you to comment but it was still a blog and still worth the read.
I'm not familiar with the players in this particular little drama but it would seem to me that a blog, in it's purest form, allows the author to post his thoughts. That doesn't require comments. Anything else, is just an accepted norm. (and did any of us really accept Norm?)
IMHO, etc.
=C=
That hasn't actually been practical for some number of years, but comments on most blogs also aren't really a single conversation. They're people contributing, and having their say, but there's no serious back and forth, it's as if someone shouts a topic into a room and everyone chips in. You hear and respond to what's near you or what overpowers local chatter, but whether or not your response is heard or considered is another thing entirely.
That being said, I think that it's important for modern bloggers who want to be heard and considered to offer a way for responses to get to them. Comments as we know them know are typically easiest, but I don't think everyone should need to be a moderator of their own forum.
I agree that it's unfortunate when someone goes effectively one-way, but whether or not that's a blog is another thing entirely.
Frankly, the whole blog-comments argument is part of the marketing of blogs as "conversation", of selling it as something it's not.
too -- even if Russ doesn't agree :-)
TDavid: That's a fair point, and I will add a link (I did see that you had provided the php code for Russ to restore old comments) -- and I will clean up your original comment for you if you like.
Cal and Rob, you are both quite right -- and I'm prepared to agree that a blog without comments is still a blog, and maybe an "old school" one. I guess the point I was trying to make is that I don't think it's a very good one, and that blogs have advanced (and are advancing, with the help of things like CoComment) into becoming more of a conversation, which I think is good. It's as simple as that really.
BTW, not to get even more picky here but I don't believe I said that just because a blog doesn't have comments it isn't a blog. I'm not sure I can go that far because if one isn't going to moderate the comments (either by oneself or hiring a moderator) you probably should turn them off, lest they be infested with spam or worse.
I also have seen numerous times where comments were more informational and useful than the blog posts because the author was flat out factually wrong on something and the commenters came in and corrected him/her.
In a sense commenters can form an editorial board of sorts. Harsh and boorish at times? Sure, but how something is said doesn't alter the accuracy and without comments there is no third party where the information is posted to keep it honest. Lest we forget it is the community at large that fuels the Wikipedia.
Yeah, somebody else can post about it on their blog and point to it, but why should people give further credit to misinformation? I know on the face to some this might seem like oh big deal, it's just one's personal blog, but in a sense what Mr. Beattie did by removing the people who were keeping him honest in the comments is took away that third party editorial board. Now the search engine is left with only his word -- even when it was wrong and corrected in the comments, but not in the post body -- as the gospel.
And speaking of SE, that's a whole other can of worms ... I wonder what kind of penalites he will face with that. Comments can help a blog page in the SE because they are further adding to the overall page relevancy. I really think if Mr. Beattie doesn't add back those past comments he is cutting off his nose to spite his face down the road and though he might see his readers that are complaining about this as trying to tell him what to do, maybe he should not so easily and carelessly dismiss their concerns.
To each their own, but "no comments" seems a bit of shame to me, at a minimum.
-- Stuart
My favorite blog queerty.com has great content but they don't have comments.
Each person is free to start their own web site and do with it as they wish. If they don't want comments to appear there then that is their right. It isn't someone else's right to have comments there.
When a web author invites comments they should state in the open and ahead of time whether they reserve the right to restrict, modify, or remove comments they don't agree with, so that responders can assess whether they wish to participate in the process.
Too often, after comments are posted that the author can't accept as part of their mindset, they start disallowing comments or start banning the comments from being posted or former ones being read. Only at that point do the web owners start asserting their rights, rules, etc.
Bottom line for me is, no web owner should be expected to have their web space controlled by users or readers. But if they allow users to leave their thoughts, then state the guidelines up front so that all understand what the rules are.
Don
The thing to remember about a conversation is that it helps if everyone says something worth listening to.
ps: Interesting that your post about "no comments" has gotten *more* comments than any other post you've done, eh? Which is a comment in itself. Or not, depending... ;-)
Man, I'd really like a pina colada.
-- Stuart
Thanks for the comment. Those are some good points. Just for the record, I said right off the top that it is Russell's blog and he is free to do whatever he wants. And I don't want to get all wrapped up in who gets to define what is or isn't a blog. I just think people who don't allow comments are kind of missing out on the bigger picture.
Billg:
I think you need to find some new blogs to read :-) And it also sounds like you have pretty high standards when it comes to conversations. Maybe you need to loosen up a little bit.
Thanks for stopping by. I like the look of your blogs, by the way -- nice work.
Mathew
That was well said. Always appreciate your indepth views. Keep up the great work!
John