I love the fact that blogs have proliferated on the internet. It is an excellent way for people to air their views on any topic that is of interest. The biggest problem with blogs, though, is that they are one sided. There is little discourse on the site that a blog is hosted. Look at my blog, I can say whatever I want, but currently, the only way someone can disagree with me is to either, send me an email and hope that I post it, or post a counter argument on their own blog, assuming they have one and then notify the world that they disagree with me. That still doesn’t mean that I will ever know of their disagreement or have the opportunity to respond, if I desire. (As my blog matures and I become more adept with the blogging software that I am using I will be adding the ability to comment on my posts.) I feel that every blog of substance should enable the reader to comment on each post. I, hopefully, will soon add the ability for people to comment on my own posts. My blog is currently ‘immature’ at the moment, because it is new, but there are many blogs out there that I read on a regular basis that I would like to leave my own comments on, but they don’t afford me the opportunity to do so.

How many times have you visited a blog that stated X and you sat there and said to your self, “No, its Y.”? Blogs need a way to allow discourse both ways, the original thought and then those who respond. That is the Democratic way, isn’t it?

Many media sites allow you to comment at the bottom of the page on an article that was posted, then there are many media outlets that don’t. In my own unscientific survey, I have come to the conclusion that there is a relationship between how ‘big’ the media outlet is and the ability to comment. There are other factors that come to play as well, for instance, many of the technology sites I visit allow comments, although many of the ‘pure’ media outlets do not. I find this is a function of the ‘new media’ vs. the ‘old media’ dichotomy. Basically, if the media outlet existed before, say, 1995 or are not internet based, then they generally don’t allow comments, but if it is internet only or created after 1995 then they generally do allow comments. FYI, many ‘old media’ outlets do have message boards, but I find that there is a difference between a message board that you are required to register to use and then click several links to get to versus a comment link at the bottom of an article that takes you directly to a page that you can comment on the article or read comments about the article that you just read.

I sincerely hope that more blogs add a comment feature in future versions of their blogs (as I plan to in the near future).

Update: As you can see I’ve added commenting.