Robert Scoble, owner of the Scobleizer and FastCompany.TV, has had an interesting opinion about comments on blogs—Simply put, he believes comments are dying. It really is a coin-flip, but comments on blogs are really becoming the subject of discussion lately. But why would they be dying, and does this mean that blogs are dying as well?

As for the old ways of doing comments, “Let’s just stick a fork in it,” Scoble stated on his blog. “Comments are dead.” However, a comment left on another blog by Robert Scoble clarified that he meant “comments are about 2/3rds of the way to dying.” Still, the opinion is strong against blog comments.

Scoble is most likely of this opinion because of his ability to generate plenty of conversation on services like Twitter and, most recently, FriendFeed. Other services like Disqus and Intense Debate offer third-party solutions to commenting on your blog, but FriendFeed could also serve as commenting service to anyone’s blog (or any other posted items) as well.[2. FriendFeed offers the ability for users to comment on items posted on a FriendFeed account. For example, when I complete this article, a notification will be sent to my FriendFeed friends. My friends on FriendFeed will be able to comment on that item if they please.] However, one must question if this is a viable option for those of us without hundreds of thousands of followers.

My Thoughts

Well, let me begin by stating that I have disabled comments on OnlyJames. Why? Well, it is simple really—I don’t generate enough comments to justify leaving them on. Now, I know that several of you like to post comments on many of the articles I write, but, at the same time, I know many of you are friends with me on Twitter or know me more personally. In that case, I always invite you to write to me on FriendFeed, Twitter, email, or even on Facebook. I also love when people write blog posts in response to my content. I will surely consider writing a reply back. Nevertheless, none of the recent news has had any impacts on my decision making about this—I had been planning on doing this for weeks.

As for the thought that FriendFeed could replace blog comments, I must admit that I have not generated any comments through FriendFeed. Then again, I don’t have thousands of friends (like Scoble) on FriendFeed.[1. I have 10 FriendFeed friends at the time of this writing. If you want to be my 11th friend, check out my FriendFeed page.] It does prove that if someone is going to use FriendFeed as an effective commenting platform, that person needs a number of friends to do this effectively.

With regards to Scoble’s statements, I believe it was quite a drastic opinion to come make when considering that blogs are still experiencing a major growth period. Commenting is sure to grow in parallel. People have opinions, and people want to share those opinions as well. This is what blogging is all about. Also, new methods of commenting like video and audio are beginning to make a prolific appearance within the blogosphere.

Scoble was only trying to generate a buzz throughout the blogosphere to gain traffic—that is to be expected—but at least it gets us all thinking about this kind of stuff.

Blog readership desires new and effective ways to manage and post their comments. A service like Disqus is great for this because a user doesn’t have to sign up for various blogs to leave comments, but if a particular blog or site does not utilize the Disqus service, that user is back to square one.

To sum this up, commenting on blogs will continue to increase in popularity—Scoble was just being Scoble.[3. The best bloggers are those who can make themselves sound like geniuses but cover their ass if need be. I don't appreciate this form of blogging, but you do what you got to do.]

If anything, more blog comments will begin moving from first-party blogs to third-party services. It’s not the end of the world, and is nothing to concern yourself with. The blogosphere shall move forward.

That is the end of this story, for now.