Is blogging journalism? Journaling? A form of online community? Or is it just software?
It's a question I'd like to pose to those pseudo-bloggers who don't allow comments on their blog posts, or who pre-screen comments -- especially those who let through only a few hand-picked remarks. (I can understand moderating comments if your blog is being hit hard by commercial spam or a deliberate troll onslaught; I'm not talking about that, but a blog's routine practices and policies.)
Pseudo-bloggers range from new media stars like Andrew Sullivan to no-kill adversaries Wayne Pacelle and Nathan Winograd. Small fry do it, and folks on the A-list do it. For them, blogging is not a form of communication nor a category of journalism, but using a hunk of publishing software.
Obviously, there are bigger things to care about, such as the entire future of publishing and journalism themselves. But I can't help but feel annoyed at those who disable commenting on their opinion pieces. Because sure, the commenter can send the blogger an email, or rant about it on his or her own blog.
But every time we've had an explosive thread on Pet Connection, for example, the commentary has deepened and enriched the original post. It's given the bloggers an opportunity to refine our arguments, to stretch the parameters of our thinking, to change our readers' minds, or even, perhaps most valuably, our own.
It can be brutal and chaotic. It can be infuriating. But in the end, we're left with a valuable record of the evolution of ideas, a pool of inspiration for future thought and exploration -- and, you know, ideas for more writing, something professional writers can't ever have too much of.
I've asked a number of pseudo-bloggers about their comment policies. One or two blame commercial spammers. To them I say: technology can protect you from most of that. Our software at Pet Connection holds all first-time commenters in moderation; that cuts out almost all commercial spam. Typepad a few years ago tightened up its pre-publishing spam controls, and that eliminated about 80 percent of the commercial messages and trackbacks being posted to this blog.
Most are concerned about being attacked or criticized, either because they simply don't want public dissent and challenge, or because they're highly controversial individuals who would naturally attract a preponderance of personal attacks if they had a commenting free-for-all on their blogs.
I understand that concern, but is the only answer to not allow any commentary at all, or to control it so strictly that only a handful of "acceptable" comments get through? Maybe they should learn a lesson from the forum and chat room communities of web 1.0, that learned that a combination of user and staff post-publishing moderation were necessary to keep a community functioning -- that's what the wild frontier known as Daily Kos does. So does Craigslist. Amazingly, they both not only function, but absolutely dominate their fields.
The last, and lamest, excuse for disabling comments is, "I don't have time to deal with assholes."
So basically, you expect your readers to have time to absorb the deathless wonder of your prose, the Socratic perfection of your monologue, but you yourself don't have time to maintain any kind of public interaction in response? Please. That's a reason, perhaps, not to respond to your readers, but to refuse to allow them to comment on a blog post?
Just how busy are you, anyway? And how on earth do you find time to blog?
And lest you think I just don't know how asshole-ish some people can be, please: Have you ever read the comments on my SFGate.com columns? I know assholes. Trust me.
I'm not just suggesting you show respect for your readers by allowing them to comment, but that you show an understanding of your medium. Without user comments and relatively light-handed moderation, blogging isn't blogging. It's just publishing. You might as well do it on ground up dead trees.
Which is fine. I contribute to the Pet Connection syndicated weekly newspaper feature, printed on the aforementioned dead trees all over the country, and our readers have to resort to snail mail or email to respond to us.
But we don't call that a blog. We call it a newspaper feature.
So if you call yourself a blogger, and what you write a blog, turn on the comments. Use technology to minimize spam and disruption. Recruit help if your readership is so large and hostile that it threatens to make your comments section implode and renders it useless. Give your community tools to moderate itself, or give trusted users moderation rights for egregiously disruptive comments.
If you really don't want to do that, fine. Just find another name for what you're doing, wouldya?
In other news, know what would make my season bright? If everyone who blogs would understand that "blog" is to "magazine" as "blog post" is to "magazine article." This thing you're reading here, the one entitled "Real blogs allow comments"? It's a blog post, not a blog.
I thank you for your prompt attention to these matters.
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