The Minimalists on Comments

During the interview Seth talked about a part of his brain that distracted him from his writings when his blog had comments. This voice would constantly tell him that his writings weren’t going to be appreciated by his readers. So Seth would argue with himself about a sentence here, or he’d add an extra sentence there to justify his point of view and avoid offending his readers. Seth said, “I realized I had a choice: I could have a blog with comments and no posts, or a blog with posts and no comments.”

That was our lightbulb moment. We felt the same way: we could have a website with comments and no essays or a website with essays and no comments. So we killed the comments.

In short, we had to kill the comments before they killed us. Kill or be killed. We turned off comments because we didn’t want them shaping our writing into something inauthentic. If that happened, we’d be doing you a disservice. Plus we were spending 20 to 25 hours a week moderating and responding to hundreds of comments, which wasn’t adding as much value to our lives as it was taking. The comments were meant to engage readers, but let’s face it: less than one percent of the people who came to our website actually left a comment. There are better ways to stay engaged.

Comments Killed the Internet Star: Why The Minimalists Killed Comments on Their Site

I am always mystified as to why anyone would publish a blog on the internet and turn off comments. Seth Godin gives his reasons for turning off comments. The Minimalists give an amen to this strategy. But Godin's reasons strike me as post hoc rationalization for being thin skinned. No one wants to admit to this, so they proffer other high minded reasons for turning off comments.

The reality is that comments sting like a bitch. Well, they don't with me, but I could see where other people aren't like me. The beauty of a blog is that it is interactive. People get to respond to what was written. You can't do this with a book or a magazine. The result is that a blog post is more of a conversation starter than anything else. Even if you don't want that conversation, it will be had on Facebook or other blogs like this one.

I find comments to be valuable. Commenters on this blog have literally changed my thinking and my life by the things they have written here. Granted, you get some fucknuts who take a heaping shit on the convo, but these are opportunities for comedy. I see them as a challenge to come up with something witty as a comeback. Hell, a large part of my Facebook popularity comes from those witty retorts.

The downside of commenting is the spam. That can be a pain. I am quite fine with people voicing their opinions or spewing bile and hate. I'm not too fond of people using my blog to link to crap or scams they are trying to sell. I do delete that shit. But for the most part, I find comments to be a valuable part of my blogging experience, and I don't censor.

The upside of commenting is that I judge the success of a post by the amount of comments it generates. Pageviews are worthless. When people care enough to write a reply to what you wrote, you have done something special.

Some people can't handle it. I understand. But I cut my teeth in internet messageboards and other places, so I'm used to it. It is like what I am learning in martial arts. You learn how to fight by getting your ass kicked repeatedly in sparring sessions. The same applies to blogging. If you can't handle the battle, don't step into the arena.

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