I am adding a new feature to the blog where each week (on Saturday)Â we will through out a new web or business discussion topic. You can answer in the comments as to how you feel.
 This week I have been visiting a lot of blogs. Of the 350 I visited I kept tally of those that allow you to comment and those that do not. I also kept track of those that allow you to comment and notify you of a reply.
The stats are in and 56% of the blogs did allow for comments but of those 56% only 10% of them allowed you to be notified of a reply. I was a little shocked by both stats personally and though it would be closer to 90% allowing comments and 50% or more for a notify of reply. Personally I think this is a missed opportunity by bloggers to build there communities.
For example, I was reading Seth Godin’s blog and wanted to comment on one of his topics. I didn’t see the ability to do so,  so I email him. Amazingly enough he replied as to why he does not allow comments…
 ”I think comments are terrific, and they are the key attraction for some blogs and some bloggers. Not for me, though. First, I feel compelled to clarify or to answer every objection or to point out every flaw in reasoning. Second, it takes way too much of my time to even think about them, never mind curate them. And finally, and most important for you, it permanently changes the way I write. Instead of writing for everyone, I find myself writing in anticipation of the commenters. I’m already itching to rewrite my traffic post below. So, given a choice between a blog with comments or no blog at all, I think I’d have to choose the latter.”
This got me to think why those 44% don’t allow comments.
So I through this out to you the readers. Should commenting be allowed on blogs? and why?
Matt
February 11, 2007 4:51 pm
Yes, I believe that comments should be allowed on blogs, because that way, visitors can add to the topic and easily post questions on the topic of the post. It makes it so that readers can post their opinions on your posts and so that they can clear things up in the post (they can also catch any errors that might be in your post and easily report them to you). If you’re worried about SPAM in comments, a plug-in such as Akismet will automatically check if a comment is SPAM. I’d highly recommend Akismet, it works great and it’s free (for personal blogs, mostly).
Dr. Cossack
February 11, 2007 8:24 pm
I highly value feedback, and as such, I think it’s important to have a simple way for visitors to be able to leave comments. It also gives a chance to other people to cover some commonly-asked questions right on the replies, saving the poster some time by not repeating the same information again and again. Besides, the additional information added through comments can sometimes be as interesting, if not more, than the original post.
Obviously, it’s easy to fall into the trap of writing only to go along the expected set of answers. Still, that’s a risk I’m willing to take.
Thinkreferrals
February 12, 2007 11:10 am
OF COURSE comments should be allowed on blogs. I never write for comments but I do reply to them. That is a tip from John Chow, always reply to comments.
I also found that there are those people that like to spam as well as a new act of terror that Jeff Kee found where someone is trying to hurt him in google by using abuse@google.com as their email address. There are some sophisticated programs out there to intercept spam and much more, I use Akismit as well as Bad Behaviour.
Bottom line is that comments are equally as important as the original post and I would never consider not allowing comments.
Sonia
February 13, 2007 10:24 am
Sure, commenting should be allowed.
When a forum is self policing, a karma system may be in place. When a forum is moderated, delayed comments make more sense as implemented in here.
Anyway, an author must accept some level of an overhead, related to comments moderation.
Thinkreferrals
February 13, 2007 10:45 am
I would like to add that not only should commenting be allowed but it should be encouraged. Having other opinions on the blog is a must if you want it to be a proper functioning blog.
Pay attention to what people say, answer them in the comments as well.