Friday, June 8, 2007

Poll: Comments on Tech Blogs (aka Diablogue)

Tech blogs are a mix of fact and opinion. A writer will receive criticism (rightly or wrongly) as sure as a hockey player will get hit: it's just part of the gig.

Because of the "fact" aspect, and because geeks are cool, a given post can turn into a useful 2-way thread between the author and commentators.

Call it *pause*... having a diablogue. (Bonus: it may also be Spanish for "evil post").

But what's the best way to conduct a diablogue, in terms of logistics? What do you think:

Option 1: Consolidated.

The gist: Use the comment feature of the blog exclusively, like a moderated micro-forum.

Pros: Easier for readers. One-click shopping -- the post, the comments, the rebuttal, all right there

Cons: Harder for writers. Most blogs' comment editors really, really bite (*). And if it's harder for writers, that ultimately impacts readers.

Option 2: Distributed.

The gist: Post a comment saying "check out the post on my site"; write the post with a link back to original.

Pros: Commentators can "stretch out" and write comfortably in their own environment.

Cons: Things can get scattered across multiple posts and sites. A good conversation might branch into its own micro-web.

Option 3: the Write-in candidate.

Some kind of hybrid of 1 and 2 is obvious, but is there another option?

Vote: Which one do you prefer?

(*) I recently spent 1/2 hour writing a thoughtful comment only to see it marred by formatting problems (and I couldn't change it). No preview, no revision, no fun.

4 comments:

rhyolight said...

I think I would prefer Option 2 if I had to choose the way I read blog diablogues (http://diablogue.com/ is taken, btw [dammit!]). And that is because it allows the rebuttals to be taken to the next level by allowing them to be written in their own element: the writer's blog.

Tracebacks are nice so you can see there is obviously someone talking about this exact subject somewhere else and you can go get their point of view.

rhyolight said...

Did I say "traceback"? I meant "trackback". (We are in a bug bash at work... )

Weiqi Gao said...

I'm on the "write my own blog entry and trackback" camp.

Commenting systems are unreliable and sometimes too restrictive. The commenting system on my blog, for example, is broken right now (probably misconfigured by me, not the fault of the blog software vendor) in that some comments are simply lost.

Comments on other people's blog also become the "property" (as in copyright) of the blog owner (most of the time).

Another tool for distributed dialogs is the usage of unique tags, as in "To participate in this discussion, tag your blog entry with 'blahblahblah'". That way, you can go to The Google and search for all such comments.

Anonymous said...

Technology is really shaping the way we live today. Household appliances is one of the great examples on how the world is now. Tech Blogs is one way to get the latest trends out there. Option 2 is what i prefer, because i can express myself much easier