Ask HN: Are blog comments a thing of the past? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: Are blog comments a thing of the past?

#51

Post by Jefenry » Wed, Mar 30, 2022, 1:20 PM UTC

username223 wrote: post #26

I've been writing a non-tech-related Wordpress blog for 12 years, with comments turned on the whole time. Akismet automatically filters out almost all spam, and pre-approval for first-time commenters catches the rest. I find the comments usually positive, sometimes helpful, and never abusive. I can only conclude that some threshold of popularity, and subjects (like politics and maybe tech) that draw the wrong kinds o…

This has been exactly my experience as well. I've got a blog detailing how I built a small sailboat and the trips I've taken in it. The comments have all been either supportive or questions about some specific detail. I only get maybe 5 comments a year, but it's a good feeling to know my website has helped someone out.

Re: Ask HN: Are blog comments a thing of the past?

#52

Post by pranit10 » Wed, Mar 30, 2022, 1:29 PM UTC

sm_ts wrote: post #37

The following is my personal experience (so I can't comment on the general nature of blog comments). I have a "strictly technical" SWE blog with approximately 4k to 8k users per month, which I have been maintaining it for 3/4 years. I use Disqus for comments. I virtually have no spam (if I had some, it's been so little that I don't remember it). The comments are generally good quality (some even improved the articles…

If you don't mind sharing, how did you obtain that many users in such a short period?

Re: Ask HN: Are blog comments a thing of the past?

#53

Post by rosndo » Wed, Mar 30, 2022, 1:41 PM UTC

marginalia_nu wrote: post #39

Botspam killed blog comments, same way it killed discussion boards. Even if it's not link spam, the bots are using comment fields for C&C for botnets. Besides that, I think there is a point in removing comments and interactivity in general. They hardly ever invite any interesting discussion. Comments are generally impersonal and low effort and invite a lot of shitty behavior. If you have something substantive to say,…

> Even if it's not link spam, the bots are using comment fields for C&C for botnets

Any examples of this that aren’t just PoCs?

Re: Ask HN: Are blog comments a thing of the past?

#54

Post by account42 » Wed, Mar 30, 2022, 1:42 PM UTC

Part of it might be due to the rise of static site generators which almost by definition do not directly support comments without having an additional non-static service, external or not.

Even just having an endpoint to submit comments seems a lot to ask when the site otherwise doesn't even need a database.

Ultimately I think the need/want for discussion is better served by different websites rather than asking every site to provide comments. It would be nice if browsers could integrate or at least link those comments for you.

Re: Ask HN: Are blog comments a thing of the past?

#55

Post by superlopuh » Wed, Mar 30, 2022, 2:01 PM UTC

tjansen wrote: post #46

gregdoesit wrote: post #5

I have been blogging for about 14 years - 7 of these on a blog dedicated for software engineering topics. I removed all commenting options after about 8 years of blogging. The reason was spam, noise and little value add. Around 2015 70% of comments coming in to my blog were from bots and another 10% from anonymous folks making irrelevant, and sometimes insulting comments which I all had to delete. About 20% of the co…

Maybe that's an idea for a product: find discussions on HN, Twitter, Reddit, FB etc about your blog post and embed them on the blog where you would usually see the comments. Not sure how big the market is, but...

I've thought about this, and would love a browser extension that would let me see all the past discussions when I visit a website that has previously been submitted to HN. Maybe one day I'll make it.

Re: Ask HN: Are blog comments a thing of the past?

#56

Post by jboynyc » Wed, Mar 30, 2022, 2:02 PM UTC

tjansen wrote: post #46

gregdoesit wrote: post #5

I have been blogging for about 14 years - 7 of these on a blog dedicated for software engineering topics. I removed all commenting options after about 8 years of blogging. The reason was spam, noise and little value add. Around 2015 70% of comments coming in to my blog were from bots and another 10% from anonymous folks making irrelevant, and sometimes insulting comments which I all had to delete. About 20% of the co…

Maybe that's an idea for a product: find discussions on HN, Twitter, Reddit, FB etc about your blog post and embed them on the blog where you would usually see the comments. Not sure how big the market is, but...

I believe Lobste.rs is a good citizen and sends a webmention. Other services could follow suit. There'd be no need for an additional product then.

Re: Ask HN: Are blog comments a thing of the past?

#57

Post by account42 » Wed, Mar 30, 2022, 2:05 PM UTC

liotier wrote: post #17

Running any public forum mostly means moderation. Trawling through hundreds of spam comments that got through the filters, to find the occasional jewel, ceased to motivate me. Should we be sad that discussion about a piece doesn't occur centrally, or is it actually better that several discussions occur - each of them with their hosting venue's specific tone ? As someone else mentioned, webmentions might bring the bes…

Do you know if webmentions do anything against spam or if they just defer that problem until the technology gets popular enough for spammers to catch on?

Re: Ask HN: Are blog comments a thing of the past?

#58

Post by marginalia_nu » Wed, Mar 30, 2022, 2:08 PM UTC

rosndo wrote: post #53

marginalia_nu wrote: post #39

Botspam killed blog comments, same way it killed discussion boards. Even if it's not link spam, the bots are using comment fields for C&C for botnets. Besides that, I think there is a point in removing comments and interactivity in general. They hardly ever invite any interesting discussion. Comments are generally impersonal and low effort and invite a lot of shitty behavior. If you have something substantive to say,…

> Even if it's not link spam, the bots are using comment fields for C&C for botnets Any examples of this that aren’t just PoCs?

It's very hard to actually demonstrate without a doubt, but a lot of the blog spam you see basically has a very clear numbers station vibe. No links, just fairly obviously machine generated word salad.

Re: Ask HN: Are blog comments a thing of the past?

#59

Post by rasen58 » Wed, Mar 30, 2022, 2:08 PM UTC

marginalia_nu wrote: post #39

Botspam killed blog comments, same way it killed discussion boards. Even if it's not link spam, the bots are using comment fields for C&C for botnets. Besides that, I think there is a point in removing comments and interactivity in general. They hardly ever invite any interesting discussion. Comments are generally impersonal and low effort and invite a lot of shitty behavior. If you have something substantive to say,…

Why doesn’t HN have botspam then?

Re: Ask HN: Are blog comments a thing of the past?

#60

Post by dcz_self » Wed, Mar 30, 2022, 2:18 PM UTC

account42 wrote: post #54

Part of it might be due to the rise of static site generators which almost by definition do not directly support comments without having an additional non-static service, external or not. Even just having an endpoint to submit comments seems a lot to ask when the site otherwise doesn't even need a database. Ultimately I think the need/want for discussion is better served by different websites rather than asking every…

That was the case for me: I built a static site generator in 500 lines of Python.

Adding comments took me a long time and lots of effort in comparison – I described that on the blog too: https://dcz_self.gitlab.io/posts/potion/

It's been up for almost a month and I already engaged one person. That's less than discussions on Mastodon, but it serves as an obvious meeting point for readers, so I guess it's not entirely a wasted effort.