Blogs live and breath because of comments.
For me they are the life blood of blogging. They are the rich tapestry of conversation around ideas that add so much value to what bloggers write. Sure there are the fluff you r0x0r type crap but for the most part they are overshadowed by comments that are sometimes worth of blog posts by themselves.
The problem is that comments are dying. At least the comments on the originating blogs are, if not dying, slowly fading away. Instead we are seeing them happening on social network sites like Facebook, Buzz, Twitter and others like them – many of which bloggers will never see or read.
I don’t blame our readers for deciding to move away from the blogs themselves, even if I really hate that it is happening. After all commenting has become a tangled web of sign-ons and other hindrances which do more to dissuade people from commenting at the original source. So in turn bloggers are put in a position of having to make sure their content is available everywhere possible. Personally I think this dilutes the pool of great conversations but like I said I understand.
There’s a lot of blogs out there giving all kinds of advise; some good, some not so good, and some just plain bullshit meant for pageviews. I know because I see their posts almost everyday and it never ceases to amaze me just how many time the same basic principals get re-worded, mashed up, or pointified.
If there is one thing that is constantly being crammed down our blogging throats it is that if you write great content the masses will come.
