Ending Blog Commenting With NeoVictorian Computing

Attending Podcamp Boston this weekend I saw Mark Bernstein's presentation on NeoVictorian Computing, he had some interesting ideas, the main being that people in computing are unhappy, and he had some ideas to bring the joy back to computing.

He thought that comments on blogs are detrimental because of detractors. Companies especially don’t want to give a venue to competitors or other detractors.

Mark suggested that it would be better for a corporate blogger to encourage people to write their comments on their own blog and send a trackback, while I and a number of the audience did not entirely agree.

For some time I have thought that there is more motivation for someone to write on their own blog rather than post comments on another blog. You get to keep the content on your own site. While I am not advocating blogs abandon comments, it is worth thinking about, from the perspective of social interaction design and what motivates people to interact.