Michael Heilemann recently had an idea for a comment system based on Twitter @replies. Not a new idea, to be sure, as there are several rather well-documented solutions for this floating around out there. But that isn’t the bit I’m interested in with his post. I’m interested in the bit where he says he misses the old days of blogging.
“Twitter killed a lot of blogs, and I’m beginning to think that it’s killed even more comments. I love Twitter, but I do miss the old days of the blogosphere, back when blogs where as common as opinions (I was traversing my archives earlier; it was like visiting a graveyard, with URLs for headstones). Back when even a half-assed entry would garner comments from near and far, and people would link to each other and the sense of community was in-between people and their writing, rather than in-between 140-character quips.
Those days are gone, and a new batch have arrived, where if I write that I’m eating a strawberry pie on Facebook, it’ll get more replies than if I dig up a super-rare interview with George Lucas and write about it on my blog… What’s a man to do?”
Michael and I share these feelings. I really do miss the old days of blogging. I do like Twitter and Facebook, but it doesn’t distract me from reading and participating on blogs. Although it seems to do just that to the majority of ‘the blogosphere’.
A few examples of this in action, if I may.
The other day I wrote a link about Gmail labels and asked a question at the end of the post about how people currently use labels. That question got zero replies. Back when I was one of the authors of the now defunct TheUberGeeks.net that question could have garnered 10-20 replies before the sun set. Even here on my personal blog I’d get a few replies to a question like that – back in the old days. After a day or so of not getting any replies I Twittered a link to the post. That managed to get three replies. As irony would have it, Michael was the very first person to respond.
Here is another example. And one that fits in well with Michael’s comment about strawberries and Facebook. Yesterday I was eating a banana. So I Twittered nothing other than the word banana. I got at least 8 replies on Twitter, Facebook, Friendfeed, and other services. Wow. Fruit is still popular.
Well Michael, my friend, the old days of blogging are long gone. They will more than likely never return. As you say you may be able to adapt and overcome – but I like to think that we’ll just have to live with it like old men that wish for ‘the old days’ again.
I think twitter, etc. have enabled much shorter durations between responses. Anyone with SMS can use twitter, wherever they are able to bring their phone and have SMS service. Despite the internet’s rabid obsession leading to what is a growing trend of popularity, web enabled phones with modern browsers are in the vast minority.
This allows people to stay and be connected in a much more visible and immediate presence to those of us where the grass is greener and there is web access.
I think part of the issue is perception (as mentioned above), but also trending interests play a factor in this as well. I don’t know your audience for this blog, but you seemed to get a ton of replies when you posted your Random 60 videos, but there haven’t been many comments on your more recent posts. While I think it’s great to get comments, you shouldn’t change your message or your writing just to attract comments or controversy.
I think a slight change in the design organization to include a ‘comment’ link at the top and bottom of the posts displayed on the front page might improve your ‘reads to comments’ ratio. Sometimes if a post is sufficiently long enough, I’ve scrolled past the top and no longer see that ’0 Comments’ and I’m looking at the tags, then next post. — I almost feel like I’m nit picking and I don’t want it to seem like that– I think in terms of flow, I like to read an article and then I look for a link to comment, but if it’s not right there at the bottom, I’ll just keep reading to the next post or look at the next picture.
Also, in a general terms, I think somewhere along the line we’ll figure out how to include the relevant ‘social network’ conversation just in the same way we include trackbacks to other people’s blogposts in the same conversation
I agree with you. But just so you know, this isn’t a complaint about not getting comments at all. I’m not too worried about that. And I certainly won’t change what I write about or how I write to force commenting – I just miss the old days where blogs were the medium.
It’s a bygone era, and while it hurts to see it go, as comment conversations on ones blog was a much more personal and intimate affair than when similar conversations take place on a hosted service, I don’t fault the new services; they’ve simply made it easier for people to throw an opinion at someone or something.
But it’s a shame to see context go out the window. I have tons of old entries on a subject, for which there are very informative and entertaining threads that are even better than the accompanying entry. Now, if people comment on Twitter (a non-starter idea BTW), there is stab le connection between the tweet and the entry, and the context and conversation is lost.
On Facebook it’s better, as they at least have threads, but I trust them much less than I trust Google with my information.
You win some, you lose some.
Ironically enough I happened upon this post via Michael’s tweet.
I cant disagree with the sentiments but I do however just wonder if it’s just an evolution of blogging into something more dispersed.
You might lose some of the intimacy but then I wager you may gain a wider audience from these disparate systems.