As a rule, I hate blog posts about blogging. I also particularly hate blogs that cite posts that in themselves are citations on other blog posts. It is then, with regretful hypocrisy that I find myself citing Joel Spolsky whose post in turn cites Dave Winer. Even worse, Joel is citing a blog post made nearly 8 months ago. That said, I think the point being made is of interest and might change the way we think about user-generated content over the next 12 months.

Joel’s main point is that comments are next to pointless. He doesn’t allow comments on his blog, neither does Dave Winer. Their argument is that as a means to self-expression, the author has a right not to be bombarded with people shouting them down and they shouldn’t have to see “their space” polluted with garbage.

The flaw with this idea is the idea that blogs are a means of self-expression. They are not. They are a way to find like-minded people and to provide a low barrier of entry to getting involved in w global discussion about the things you care about. They are not billboards, they are not magazines, they are not leader columns in newspapers. Nor are they journals or fascinating insights into your unique and tortured soul (you delicate little snowflake, you).

They are about a two-way dialogue, a means to advance ideas and to further understanding in the most cost-effective and uncensored way possible. I could produce a magazine about innovation in software but that would bankrupt me - instead, when I get time, I put articles up here as and when. I might not get tens of thousands of readers, but I certainly get hundreds (in fact, 2,167 unique visitors in the last 30 days have visited blog.vagueware.com which is not too shabby). And some of them - very occasionally - leave a comment here.

The purpose of all this is to encourage a conversation. Comments and trackbacks are typically an important part of inviting people and saying “Please! Come on in and tell me what you think!” and help move things along.

The real problem is that really interesting ideas are never in the comments. I don’t get the turf wars that spark off on other blogs because every comment is moderated - I don’t allow through spam, abuse, or one-liners and so the comments are worth reading normally, but normally nobody ever reads them. The comments are typically idle thoughts, occasional insights, sometimes intelligent but often just a throwaway quip. They intrigue me, but the comments are not what excites me about the conversation around here - it’s the people who link here.

When somebody sits down and decides to push the conversation further by spending 30 minutes writing a piece about something I’ve written, edited it, made a decision that they’d be happy for their name to be next to those words for all eternity (the Web never forgets), and then publishes it with a link back to here, the quality is generally higher than somebody who quickly fills in a little box at the bottom of the page.

I haven’t had many inbound links, but the ones I’ve had have always made me think more about what I do and why I do it than any comment ever has. There used to be a load of links when this blog lived at a different URL, fewer now, but in time I expect that’s where the interesting ideas will come from.

This line of thinking seems to be an emerging trend out there.

Recently, there has been a lot of love for Tumblr, a blogging platform without comment facilities. I think it’s a daring tactic, and one that will improve the quality of the content they carry. It’s also wise engineering with a direct impact on profitability. All of a sudden they don’t need to worry (quite as much) about spam. They don’t need to worry (quite as much) about authentication. They need less storage on their servers. The code is simpler. It even helps their authors. If I see something on a tumblr blog I have a choice:

• Do nothing
• Link to it in an article here that expands my own thoughts on the subject

Either way, the noise level within the conversation is minimal and providing I’m not an illiterate moron, the signal goes up. What’s more, the author of the tumblr blog doesn’t just get his own audience thinking about what he wrote, but perhaps some of mine as well. A few people might link to my piece so I get their audience, and so does the tumblr blog. This is how it’s meant to happen.

The author has no worries about spam, or about people cluttering up their space with thoughts that just don’t “get it”. They just get to go on linking to people and watching out for who links to them by way of Technorati or similar.

In short, comments aren’t a bad idea because you have a right to not be shouted down, they’re a bad idea because they slow the conversation down. They raise noise, deplete signal and keep the A-list static.

As such, I’ve decided that as of today comments are closed here. It makes my life easier, and hopefully yours too. If you’re a friend of mine on Facebook, you can make comments on the notes that get imported from here automatically if you want, but if you really have something to say about anything you read here, I’d ask you to post a link on your own blog. I’ll see it (I track every inbound link) and if I think it’s relevant I’ll update the article you point to. I may even write a new article pointing back at you. We both benefit.

If you don’t have a blog, I have to ask: what on earth are you waiting for? Tumblr awaits…