My blog has comments and I have noticed the rate of comments per page view actually increasing over the last few years.
I have spam blockers though.
Ask HN: Are blog comments a thing of the past?
71–80 of 147 posts
Re: Ask HN: Are blog comments a thing of the past?
#72I just started writing a blog and I went through this thought process then. The reason I don't have comments on the blog is that I don't want to spend time moderating, and I usually access blogs from a forum like HN or reddit, where there is already a discussion. I know there is some fraction of the community that searches for blogs directly, but the main engagement I get is from reddit, so most of the audience doesn't need a comments section.
Re: Ask HN: Are blog comments a thing of the past?
#73Blogging without comments is weird to me. I have a small handful of blogs, one of which just turned 21 years old, and the reason I blog is the comments. I want to hear what others have to say. I want to know when I am wrong. I am not an unquestionable pillar of truth, I am a dude that finds things interesting and wants to talk about it. I want to learn more, and the collective peanut gallery inevitably knows more tha…
Books don't have comment sections either. Neither do plays. Do you think everyone who writes a book or stages a play does so only because of ego? Some do, surely, but many just have information or insight or entertainment they want to make available to others. In some subset of those cases, the incremental value of adding comments is nil (or worse). Maybe it's those who do crave comments who are blogging out of nothing but ego ... or maybe such dismissiveness is just generally ill considered.
Re: Ask HN: Are blog comments a thing of the past?
#74I have Discord and Telegram groups for my blogs. I think most people that reach it bounce after seeing how loooong and hard to parse (at first glance) my posts are, but there's three or five people who AFAIK are reading me.
Ima just go ahead and spam it: https://asemic-horizon.com -- I don't think it's for the median HN dude/tte, but this forum is a meeting of diverse minds...
Re: Ask HN: Are blog comments a thing of the past?
#75The internet has become larger.
People's attention is more dispersed (additionally, several platforms are actively fighting for their attention by using all tricks in the book).
Hence the signal-to-noise ratio has dropped. The people who would leave thoughtful comments are busy with other things.
A few communities still stand (hacker news included).
Re: Ask HN: Are blog comments a thing of the past?
#76Blogging without comments is weird to me. I have a small handful of blogs, one of which just turned 21 years old, and the reason I blog is the comments. I want to hear what others have to say. I want to know when I am wrong. I am not an unquestionable pillar of truth, I am a dude that finds things interesting and wants to talk about it. I want to learn more, and the collective peanut gallery inevitably knows more tha…
Books don't have comment sections either. Neither do plays. Do you think everyone who writes a book or stages a play does so only because of ego? Some do, surely, but many just have information or insight or entertainment they want to make available to others. In some subset of those cases, the incremental value of adding comments is nil (or worse). Maybe it's those who do crave comments who are blogging out of nothi…
> Do you think everyone who writes a book or stages a play does so only because of ego
Yes. Especially in this day and age when there are other options, like a Blog, with a comment section.
You write a book because you want something to put on your resume.
A notable exception here would be Andy Weir's "The Martian", which started as a blog, with a comment section, where he received many corrections as he developed it.
Re: Ask HN: Are blog comments a thing of the past?
#77Earlier quoted context omitted.
Books don't have comment sections either. Neither do plays. Do you think everyone who writes a book or stages a play does so only because of ego? Some do, surely, but many just have information or insight or entertainment they want to make available to others. In some subset of those cases, the incremental value of adding comments is nil (or worse). Maybe it's those who do crave comments who are blogging out of nothi…
> Do you think everyone who writes a book or stages a play does so only because of ego Yes. Especially in this day and age when there are other options, like a Blog , with a comment section. You write a book because you want something to put on your resume. A notable exception here would be Andy Weir's "The Martian", which started as a blog, with a comment section, where he received many corrections as he developed i…
Only? You can't imagine a selfless motivation? Someone wanting to share or help others without requiring recompense and/or feedback? Just want to be clear here.
Re: Ask HN: Are blog comments a thing of the past?
#78Our company blog https://www.construct.net/en/blogs/construct-official-blog-1 regularly gets good amounts of comments from our community, the way we implement it we see it as a key opportunity for our customers to open dialogue with us and get their feedback. We have no plans to disable comments, benefits far outweigh the positives. It's also a nice moral boost for the team on occasion! https://www.construct.net/en/b…
Can you please tell me what tools you use to remove spam accounts and spam comments ?
Re: Ask HN: Are blog comments a thing of the past?
#79Botspam 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,…
How do you use comment fields for a botnet?
Hosts can check a specific URL for instructions, which can be in the form of a blog comment
Re: Ask HN: Are blog comments a thing of the past?
#80Earlier quoted context omitted.
> 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.
It should be as easy as linking a malware sample, no?
I think the spam you’re referring to is usually targeting the “Website” field of Wordpress comments, which turns the username of the commenter into a hyperlink.