Posted by Joanna Martin (Senior Account Manager)
I came across an interesting article on Mashable.com about the use of comments in blog posts today. It got me thinking about the age old debate that always surfaces when clients want to add blogs to their sites.
It tends to start with clients opting for full blog privileges, such as free comments, responses and ‘like’ buttons, allowing anyone viewing the blog to participate. Then, for many different reasons and after long debate, the desire for comments starts to wobble and then gets removed completely. Alternatively, a pre- or post-moderation function is brought in so that inappropriate comments can be removed either before they ever get shown, or are removed after they’ve been flagged as inappropriate.
It’s personal opinion as to whether blogs need to have comments enabled; in an editorial blog the conversation doesn’t necessarily have to happen in the blog space, as long as the piece gets people talking and thinking, but allowing comments with no moderation (or minimal moderation) does show a certain amount of confidence in your brand or product.
Is a blog a blog if it doesn’t have comments enabled though? Yes, I think so. It can even be more effective if this is the route that is adopted. It’s when comments get watered down by over moderation that blogs lose their integrity, sound too corporate and become forced. In this way the original purpose of the blog-style ‘informal’ format is lost.
Editor's note: we appreciate the ironic nature of Joanna's post, but must add that full commenting functionality will be added to the Zone blog shortly. In the meantime, if you'd like to get in touch with us, why not drop us an email.