My comment on other bloggers saying “no comment!”

January 7th, 2006

Some of the best bloggers in the Milwaukee-area do not allow comments.

These include, best viagra cialis sale but are not limited to:

Charlie Sykes
Jessica McBride
John McAdams
Peter DiGaudio

And while each of them are completely within their rights to prohibit comments, clinic I have to say I think it’s contradictory to the special nature of blogging.

Turning off comments:

• Transforms a conversation into a lecture.

• Diminishes the special sense of community that blogging engenders.

• Recreates the one-way nature of traditional media in a space that usually serves as an antidote to traditional media.

Both Jessica and Peter posted their reasons for not allowing comments on their blogs.

Basically, shop they felt that many of the comments they received were ugly and off-topic.

My answer to that is to not approve comments you don’t want on your blog or delete them if they sneak through.

Of course, they had considered this, but they were under the impression that deleting, editing or not accepting posts would somehow make them legally responsible for whatever their commenters wrote.

Well, let me ease that fear by pointing out what the Electronic Freedom Foundation has to say on the matter:

Your readers’ comments, entries written by guest bloggers, tips sent by email, and information provided to you through an RSS feed would all likely be considered information provided by another content provider. This would mean that you would not be held liable for defamatory statements contained in it.

And if newspapers can accept Letters to the Editor without being sued out of business, why can’t bloggers accept comments?

So come on guys…turn your monologues back into dialogues.

I’m sure we’d all love to drop by and say “hi!”

Entry Filed under: Milwaukee,Observations

11 Comments Add your own

  • 1. Aaron  |  January 7th, 2006 at 4:39 pm

    What’s an appropriate comment to a blog about allowing comments on a blog?

    I’m hoping that Peter will turn his comments back on. There’s always the moderation option, where comments don’t appear unless you approve them. The only down side is that it would slow down the real-time discussions, like the ones that have appeared on my blog lately.

    I feel like bloggers that don’t allow comment are treating their opinions as infallible or superior.

  • 2. Administrator  |  January 7th, 2006 at 4:55 pm

    Damn. I thought I had set Aaron’s comments to auto-delete.

    Anyone see where I left my WordPess user’s manual?

  • 3. Belle  |  January 8th, 2006 at 1:53 am

    “turn your monologues back into dialogues”

    DITTO

  • 4. Sean Hackbarth  |  January 8th, 2006 at 10:43 pm

    In Charlie’s case he’s stuck with lousy weblogging software made by Journal Sentinel geeks. He can’t even change his blogroll by himself. With Peter’s and Jessica’s weblogs I don’t think you can moderate comments on blogspot. Besides moderating is a chore.

    Turning off comments doesn’t turn off a conversation. There’s always the power of the link. There have been many times a comment was so long and thought out that it deserved its own post. If someone wants to reply so badly they can start up a weblog of their own.

  • 5. Administrator  |  January 8th, 2006 at 11:52 pm

    I think this may be the only time I’ve ever felt sorry for Charlie.

    But I just went and checked and it’s really not that hard to manage posts on blogspot.

    Plus, Althouse is on blogspot and she allows comments.

    I’m not saying they have to allow comments. (They should do whatever they want. God bless, America!)

    But I do think the blogging community loses something everytime a blogger (especially a popular one) turns off his or her comments.

    I stand by everything I said above.

    And, I’ll go even further: I think that turning off comments actually hurts a blogger.

    It makes their site seem less vibrant. An active community of commenters lends a blog an attractive air of activity. A blog that doesn’t allow comments can seem static and stale in comparison.

    You don’t really need to defend Charlie, Jessica, John or Peter. I’m not attacking them.

    But you allow comments, Sean. I’m sure you must agree with some of what I’m saying.

  • 6. steveegg  |  January 9th, 2006 at 7:22 am

    It would only be a lecture if they also didn’t post their e-mail addresses. That having been said, Blogger/Blogspot now allows one to moderate comments before they’re posted.

  • 7. From Where I Sit » &hellip  |  January 13th, 2006 at 12:29 pm

    […] (But if he doesn’t turn his comments back on, I’m going to send him a very cranky email.) […]

  • 8. From Where I Sit » &hellip  |  January 14th, 2006 at 10:19 am

    […] My only complaint is that, like so many other bloggers, Tom has his comments turned off. […]

  • 9. From Where I Sit » &hellip  |  January 26th, 2006 at 4:07 pm

    […] (Especially since I’ve given him a little grief over not allowing comments.) […]

  • 10. From Where I Sit » &hellip  |  February 17th, 2006 at 8:44 pm

    […] …hmmmm, maybe there’s something to this “no comment” thing after all. […]

  • 11. From Where I Sit » &hellip  |  March 12th, 2006 at 12:37 pm

    […] WISN-AM Early Spin Blog is another “blog” that doesn’t allow comments. […]

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