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If you know me, you know I preach community in everything I do. I tell everyone who comes to my blog that I don't talk to people - I talk with them. I bring up ideas, inspire thought, and facilitate discussion - learning as much as my readers (hopefully) do along the way.But it it's one thing I've learned - it's that the end result is not, nor does it have to be the same for everyone.
An interesting tweet passed through my stream recently from someone I respect - Chris Pearson - the creator of the widely used and much loved by yours truly Thesis Theme for Wordpress. Chris states:
Kiss the comments goodbye on the next version of Pearsonified. External validation is one of the current scourages of humanity. YOU own it.
The idea of "closing comments" on posts is something I've seen more and more of recently around the blogging community. Typically - comments get turned off on more personal articles - something that may more or less be venting or opinion that warrants no real discussion. But what about an entire blog sans comments?
Chris and I went back and forth briefly and he brought up a great point. While I value and promote community, it's not for everyone. In Chris's case, he writes purely for himself - commenting and discussion is not necessary - Proving that there are clearly different strokes for different folks.
Another point worth discussing here is the "validation" comments bring. Admit it or not - the number of comments you get on your blog is what many people on the outside looking in will use as a primary measure of success. And who doesn't get a little excited to see a new comment pop up on the blog?
My question is - do we measure ourselves too closely with the number of comments on each post? Are we seen as failures when comments are low? Does a lack of discussion discourage you from writing?
If the answer is yes to any of the above questions - maybe comments are doing more harm than good.
What do you think? Have you closed comments on a post before? Why did you do it? Would you consider disabling comments on your blog?
Share some thoughts in the comments below (pun intended).