Why no comments? +

Why are there no comments on this blog?

Dave Winer, Seth Godin, and Joel Spolsky say it better than I can.

I like the idea of comments as feedback to an article. What I don't like is the way blog comments are used as a discussion medium -- that's what email is for. I've learnt that when people have something significant to say, they'll usually take the trouble to email. Comments, especially the way they're done in popular blogging platforms of today, are a very poor medium for fruitful discussion of any sort.

In my ideal world, every blog will have its own discussion forum, with two essential qualities:

1. The participants will be registered, their identities established once and for all.
2. Conversations will be threaded.

LiveJournal.com had both these qualities, which is why I saw it as an ideal blogging platform. Unfortunately the site had been going to the dogs lately, turning more into a social networking space than a blogging platform as it had originally started.

I'd still like to make it easy for readers to provide feedback on my posts. Until I've found a good way to achieve that, my email address is listed on the Contact page.