Comments: Are They For The Author Or The Audience?
Jun 02 2008 
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Everyday we crank out posts for readers to respond. We try to contribute to the conversation. We aim to solve a problem or have a problem solved for us by our readers. Everyday. The overall point is to receive feedback among other things. Can we all agree with that?Yet, there’s a huge stir about conversation fragmentation. I’m not going to rehash it. My focus for this post is whether users are now commenting for the authors or for the audience.
A Shift From Author To Audience
A huge shift seems to be occurring to the latter: the audience. Louis Gray’s latest post shows that it might not be as bad as we think. However, we’re not all Louis Gray (no offense Louis). For those that aren’t very well known, the shift from the comments being directed towards the author to the audience is a tough blow. Smaller blogs won’t welcome the hassle. Those with a more established reader base won’t really have to worry. Yet, one should ask their readers, are you commenting for me or are you commenting for the audience?
Commenting To The Author
If you’re commenting for the author, I feel there’s no reason that you should be commenting on places such as FriendFeed, Digg, Mixx, or any other site that isn’t the original site. Yesterday Steven Hodson pointed out:
We all go back to FriendFeed, Shyftr or even Twitter and we talk about the post there. I know because I have caught myself doing this numerous times but it wasn’t until this morning when I click through on FriendFeed to read Fred Wilson’s post only to return to FriendFeed to make my comment. I could just as easily have made the comment on Fred’s blog and really that is what I should have done but instead I added to some perceived fragmentation of the comments around that post.
My question to Steven is: were your comments for the author or for an audience? If it was for the author then you clearly shouldn’t have went back to FriendFeed. What sense would it make? Why make it more challenging for the author to know what’s on your mind if you’re directing comments at them, but posting them in an alternate site?
The Audience Isn’t Conversation Fragmentation
If you’re commenting for the an audience, then that’s an entirely different story and really is not for the author to worry about. In this case, it’s not even conversation fragmentation. It’s simply the user going off elsewhere to get opinions on a topic. While it would be nice to have that brainstorm session on the original site, it’s not necessary and doesn’t affect the author one way or another. The conversation would eventually venture off from the main point of the conversation anyways. Why would you, as an author, want users to start getting off topic on your site? You can definitely take that elsewhere for me.
Think and Clarify
Clarity is important here. Authors have to get over what’s not entirely meant for them and those that comment need to figure out who the hell they want to talk to. Users aren’t being clear on what their goal is, which is only stirring the pot even more.
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You bring up a good point. Sort of like attending a public lecture at a local university.. if you hang around to talk to the lecturer and the gaggle of people, or get a phone number and call the lecturer up later, that would be equivalent to commenting on the blog.
However, people are going to go their own ways and talk to their friends about what they saw and learned during the lecture. They might write about it in the local paper. More discussions happen, and sometimes, the lecturer is invited back in to the conversation somewhere else, or *because* of the external buzz. I would see this more as commenting for an audience.
I would argue that I'm overweighted on FriendFeed as far as visibility, and as a result, the ratio of comments on FriendFeed vs. those on my site is actually much higher than the norm. That I'm “well known” as you put it isn't really true outside of the social media bubble. I strongly believe that external conversations will, in time, benefit the source blog, and comments can drive great conversations as well as simple replies.
I think with services like disqus now comments creating conversations of their own within a blog post. which is great! I am finding myself following more comment strings these days then i have in the past.
I love the way comments are spawning discussions and can go either way toward the author or the audience.
I started a blog a few weeks ago…I had NO idea how important commenting was. I now live for comments– I want to know that if I am taking the time to post, that it isn't going unnoticed.
I had only commented once or twice and only when I thought I really had something to contribute to the conversation… Now I see that might be a flawed way of thinking. I need to comment when I have things to contribute, but I also need to be clear as to who the audience I am speaking to might be. Most of the time I find myself writing to the blogger and not the intended audience. Sometimes the person has sad something SO infuriating that I MUST respond. I guess in those times I am speaking to both the author and the followers.
All i can say is that I am definitely going over to Friendfeed to put a “I like this post” smily on your post :)
Terry there's nothing wrong with that. And I'd definitely agree with commenting even if it's not a huge contribution to the conversation. You never know what your thoughts might do unless you post them, regardless of if they're big or small.
I think there is a fundamental difference in thinking. On the blog, you are “replying” to the author. On friendfeed you are participating in a conversation with several other people. Granted Disqus changes the game a bit with the comment threading, but it is still a comment on a blog.
I think the issue of comments affects different bloggers in different ways. If you are writing a tech blog, then you might see your readers go away and have conversations about your post on sites like FriendFeed. However, if you are a personal blogger, then your comments are going to stay on your blog because your readers want to talk to you rather than discuss the topic of your blog with others in a different forum. It will be interesting to watch what happens in this area and if one day there will exist an application that can take all comments posted on other sites and link them back to the original post.
The public lecture is a good example to compare with a blog posting. And commenting in the blog is the equivalent of raising your finger to ask the teacher a question there and then. All the other students get to hear your question and the teacher's answer. You are talking to the teacher directly, but all students benefit. It may even be the intention of the teacher to get some interaction with the students.
Commenting on another site is more like talking with the other students after the class in the corridor. Nothing wrong with that of course, but the interaction with the teacher is lost. You don't have to do that because you feel sorry for the students who were not in the classroom during the lecture: they could have taken that class themselves if they wanted to.
And what is so good about the web: They can still take that class. All that takes is for them to follow a link to the original blog posting.
My conclusion is: The preferred location for comments is on the blog they reply to.
The public lecture is a good example to compare with a blog posting. And commenting in the blog is the equivalent of raising your finger to ask the teacher a question there and then. All the other students get to hear your question and the teacher's answer. You are talking to the teacher directly, but all students benefit. It may even be the intention of the teacher to get some interaction with the students.
Commenting on another site is more like talking with the other students after the class in the corridor. Nothing wrong with that of course, but the interaction with the teacher is lost. You don't have to do that because you feel sorry for the students who were not in the classroom during the lecture: they could have taken that class themselves if they wanted to.
And what is so good about the web: They can still take that class. All that takes is for them to follow a link to the original blog posting.
My conclusion is: The preferred location for comments is on the blog they reply to.
The public lecture is a good example to compare with a blog posting. And commenting in the blog is the equivalent of raising your finger to ask the teacher a question there and then. All the other students get to hear your question and the teacher's answer. You are talking to the teacher directly, but all students benefit. It may even be the intention of the teacher to get some interaction with the students.
Commenting on another site is more like talking with the other students after the class in the corridor. Nothing wrong with that of course, but the interaction with the teacher is lost. You don't have to do that because you feel sorry for the students who were not in the classroom during the lecture: they could have taken that class themselves if they wanted to.
And what is so good about the web: They can still take that class. All that takes is for them to follow a link to the original blog posting.
My conclusion is: The preferred location for comments is on the blog they reply to.
A good post by Snel