How to Use Comments to Win Friends and Influence People (in 10 Easy Lessons)

Note: I was going to link to sterling examples of both camps, but decided it would be impolitic and tacky.

I find it distressing, but instructive, to realize my blogging peer group -- the people who write about professional communication and technology -- can be divided into two groups:

Blogging-for-Benjamins & Blogging-for-the-Sheer Hell of It

The Blogging-for-Benjamins crowd is all about site traffic. These are the people who are stingy about full RSS feeds because they hope you'll click-through (and then click on the ads on their site). These are the folks who obsess about how Technorati views them (Lord knows I do).

Some of these people write great content... but that's incidental to eyeballs (and ad-clickthroughs) and getting on the "A-List" (almost better: getting an A-lister to link to them). Some were taken in by the recent Blogebrity joke.

Before blogging brought them public, these people were high-school hall monitors, active in college student government, and could always be counted on to collect the boss' bag from the baggage carousel ("No, let me get that, R.J.").

The Blogging for the Sheer Hell of It Group might also worry about site traffic and blego, but you'd never know it. They just crank out good content about our profession, eschew ads and truncated feeds, and go on their merry way. They might be deeply troubled by their Technorati standing, Lord knows I am, but you aren't going to hear about it.

They are also about community. Conversation. Cluetrain. Let's talk!

A roundabout approach to the troubling, though amusing, posts at James Farmer's Blogsavvy. James is Blogging for the Sheer Hell of It guy, which is ironic since he writes  entirely for the Blogging for Benjamins crowd. His posts "Arguments for Getting Rid of Comments" and "Arguments for Keeping Comments" will surely become well-thumbed pages in the Blogging for Benjamins playbook.

Let's take a peek at why James says you should not have comments on your blog:

Argument number 1: The more comments you have the less links you’ll get - Comments lose you ranking

I’m quite serious about this. Do you really think that Dave Winer would get so many links if he allowed comments of his site? To take this down to a smaller (and perhaps more important) level, say there’s a writer who you’re really into who posts some really interesting material but doesn’t allow comments, if you want to respond then you’ve gotta do it on your blog, which gives you more links, a wider audience and…

Well, no, actually, I think Dave Winer wouldn't get so many links if he were not Dave Winer. And, to take this down to a more important level, I sometimes comment on someone's blog, sometimes post about their blog, sometimes do both. Comment facility rarely plays a role (indeed, I'm less likely to read a blog, in the first place, that does not allow comments).

Argument number 3: You’ll look the opposite of a loser - pseudo a-listing yourself

Again, I’m quite serious here. The majority of blogs that don’t allow comments are ‘A’ listers. If you don’t allow comments you are genuinely giving out the impression that you have such a significant audience / group of people wanting to interact with you that you just don’t have the time for them or the stress that all that fame brings along. Plus (and this is a pretty big plus) you won’t have that big ol’ list of (0 comments) one the majority of your posts… not a good look!

Let's parse Farmer: a) set up a blog, a website whose only purpose is to allow you to converse with others; b) turn off the conversation function; c) presto, you appear to be so popular that you can no longer take time to converse. What am I missing here?

The idea, apparently, is that it's sufficient to appear an A-lister. But who is so easily fooled? Anyone who's moved to Washington, DC (or any other capital), single, and is in need of a social life (and self-validation), will inevitably learn of the "send your card to the embassies" trick. That is, send a polite note praising the policies of an obscure country and the playful antics of its leaders to the local embassy. About a week later, you will begin receiving invitations to its receptions. Now send the same note to 100 other embassies. You'll get about 500 invitations a year to embassy receptions. You still won't be a Washington A-lister.

Let's take a look at why Farmer says we should allow comments:

Argument number 3: I’m feeling a little emotional - the value of “Thanx :o)”

How do you feel when you get an SMS? Probably pretty subliminaly excited and contented (someone is connected with me, is taking the time to communicate with me) and almost certainly not well informed (well over 50% of SMS contain no ‘valuable’ information whatsoever). That’s because the major value SMS has given us is allowing us to send emotional messages to each other really really simply with minimum hassle (quite different to the challenges of a phone call). Comments do this to. That someone has taken time out to read what you’ve written and respond to it is an incredible emotional buzz and something that, without comments, you’ll be missing out on.

I don't know about the rest of you, but most SMS's I get a) give me no frisson whatsoever and b) generally contain valuable, even vital, information such as "I hope you did not forget my mother is coming for dinner; you should start the grill now if you did." I am, generally, also up to the challenge of a phone call, having mastered the telephone during the Johnson Administration.

Another thing. I invite comments, and am pleased that commenters were moved or irritated enough to take the time to comment. But I've never gotten an incredible emotional buzz. Clearly, my commenters lack EQ and imagination.

Argument number 5: Validity and growth - what is it that you want?

I argued yesterday that there there was nothing more likely to turn a potential reader into just another surfer than a plethora of (0 comments) tags attached to your posts. However, conversely there’s nothing that say interest / authority like a ton of (15 comments) tags. Add to that the fact that you’re missing out on the chance to develop on your posts with your comments and in doing so develop your own understanding of the area… and why on earth would you want to turn off comments on your posts?

Sign me on for validity, every time.

Frankly, I wish the Blogging for Benjamins crowd would just go away. But, failing that, I hope they continue to amuse me.

Posted by Allan Jenkins on June 3, 2005 at 09:40 AM in Blogging, Blogging for Benjamins, Blogging for the Sheer Hell of It, Is Tedious in the House? | Permalink

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Comments

I worry about my Technorati standing... does that mean I'm actually Alan Jenkins? {tee hee}

Great post, Alan. I blog for the fun of it but sure do appreciate the traffic... as Nev and Shel (and others) recently pointed out, it's not about content on blogs, it's about who links to you.

Posted by: Lee | Jun 3, 2005 7:07:20 PM

"Now send the same note to 100 other embassies. You'll get about 500 invitations a year to embassy receptions. You still won't be a Washington A-lister."

No, but you will eat some swell dinners. An excellent strategy for the well dressed unemployed.

Posted by: Alice Marshall | Jun 3, 2005 11:05:17 PM

If you can live on over-sized tasteless over-boiled shrimp and the canapés your mom was serving at the bridge party in 1969 you, can, I suppose, eat some swell dinners.

Good strategy? I don't know. My friend that was into it stopped taking me as a date when I asked some ambassador "Now, are you the guys shooting the rebels on sight, or the ones who put them in prison for life?"

Posted by: Allan Jenkins | Jun 3, 2005 11:52:33 PM

G'day Allan,

Ooops -- sory for the mispealt nayhme. I've coreccted it on my owhn blogg's poste on thiz.

LEe

Posted by: Lee | Jun 4, 2005 2:12:24 AM

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