Much of the discussion over at the new Blogtank is how to handle posts/comments from all the participants. Especially the comments.
If you’re a fairly regular reader then you know that I consider my comments and the interactivity between my readers to be the best part of weblogging. And I’ve been lucky to have great readers who are not shy about speaking their opinion, and do so regularly with wit, humor, skill, and passion.
(Though it’s been mighty quiet lately — whatsa matter? Cat got your tongue?)
The thing, though, is that all these comments, these pearls of great worth, are hidden; you can only find them if you click the little mousie indicator.
I’ve had people suggest using other formats, such as pages that open with my posting on top and the comments below, or streaming the comments into RSS. Or using a comment system that allows linking directly to a specific comment.
Good ideas. And not a chance.
This is a weblog. Hopefully, the reason people come here is because they like what I say. The comments, then, become a bonus and to get this bonus you have to do a little extra effort and click the comment link and open the comment window. If you want to reference a comment in your weblog, do so by linking through my weblog post, because the post does set the context (well, most of the time) for the comment discussion.
This isn’t MetaFilter. This isn’t Slashdot. This isn’t WikiWeb. This is, to quote a wonderful posting by bumr.net my fluff.
