Comments are not blog posts
Fred Wilson started a discussion about blog comments today. Here is the final paragraph of his post which pretty much sums up his thoughts:
What’s the difference between a great comment and a great blog post? Nothing. What’s the difference between a great commenter and a great blogger? Nothing. At least in theory. It’s time for practice to meet theory.
I don’t buy this for a second. There is no difference between a blog post and a comment? Fred goes so far as saying that Techmeme should track comments just as it does blog posts (which of course also means that Fred doesn’t quite understand how Techmeme works).
The difference between a blog post and a comment is very simple: a blog post is meant to spark discussion – a comment is part of that discussion. Bloggers spend a long time thinking about what they write and maybe edit and rewrite their posts once or twice. Comments, on the other hand, are written within a few minutes and while they themselves can often spark new posts, they are definitely in a different category from blog posts.
Don’t get me wrong – I love comments – I try to write lots of them and few things in blogging make me happier than when my posts spark a conversations in the comments here, on FriendFeed, or anywhere else. There is lots of value in them and in the relationships they can create.
Comments and blog posts are symbiotic – without a blog posts – there can be no blog comments and both have their own kind of value.
Sure – a Twitter tweet, a Flickr photo, or even a change in your Google Talk status can spark a discussion on FriendFeed these days and Steven Hodson would probably rightly say that this is an example of the ever changing landscape of blogging.
However, I think there is a qualitative difference between a well-thought out blog post and a 140 character tweet, just as there is a major difference between a full-scale blog posts and a comment.
Update: Just moments after I post this, a post by Alexander van Elsas shows up in my RSS reader – looks like his thoughts about this are quite similar to mine:
But at the same time I also feel that commenting is easy. Easy, not because the stuff that is written down is obvious in any way. But easy because the original blog writer triggered a commenter to think and react. And that is what Blogging is all about. Some are in it for the money, some are in it for the fun. But a great blog post, no matter what it is about, makes the reader think. And that is what is so hard about blogging.
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[...] today’s times, people say that comments can be blog posts. Others disagree with this idea. The idea that comments are blog posts comes from that many comments are as high quality as blog [...]
[...] my credit for point taken?” Which is why I disagree with Alexander van Elsas and Frederic. Alex and Frederic support their arguments well enough to understand their point of view is as [...]
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great blog very nice!
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I would agree that's it all about making the reader think. Besides if comments were as long as some blog posts I've seen, I'd have more of my time occupied by blogging and I spend to much time blogging as it is
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I would agree that's it all about making the reader think. Besides if comments were as long as some blog posts I've seen, I'd have more of my time occupied by blogging and I spend to much time blogging as it is
.
I agree with you that there is a qualitative difference between blog posts and blog comments. First of all blog comments cannot exist without blog posts and second most blog comments are not cool or constructive. Comments like great post, thanks man, cool, first and many others can be considered as spam in my opinion.
In blog comments should be constructive and interesting, if it's not the blog owner should think twice about approving the comment.
I agree with you that there is a qualitative difference between blog posts and blog comments. First of all blog comments cannot exist without blog posts and second most blog comments are not cool or constructive. Comments like great post, thanks man, cool, first and many others can be considered as spam in my opinion.
In blog comments should be constructive and interesting, if it's not the blog owner should think twice about approving the comment.
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Thats great to great piece of information you shared here through post…
One is the originator or instigator (blog post) and the other (comment) is a free-form thought or response to the originator.
That was great!! Thanks
Yup i tagree with you and with what has written Baratos. There is huge difference between posts and comments. Many comments are not constructive and provide us just a few information but they are on the other side openin g a discussion on certain topic which can be then analyzed much more deeply.
Good tip! And nice job! It gives food for thoughts
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why u said this?who says that comments r blog posts?
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Thanks for the article
Totally agree with you. People should be able to differentiate the effect of a good blog post and a blog comment. Each does contribute to the effectiveness of the post to readers. No matter what a post is all about – the comments should reflect on the theme of the post. Thanks
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Thanks for the in-depth article. I can tell you put a lot of work into this one. Thumbs way up.