It is a question that comes up fairly regularly in blogging circles and one that different bloggers take different approaches to.

• Most bloggers have them – they’re on by default when they set their blog up and they never switch them off. They see the comments as adding a lot to the blog – making it a place of shared learning, interactivity and dynamic conversation.
• Other bloggers decide not to have them. Their reasons vary from not having time to moderate them to being frustrated by comment spam.

Between these views other bloggers take a variety of other approaches ranging from:

• having comments on some posts but not others
• switching comments off over a certain amount of time (to protect from comment spam)
• to not having comments in the early days of a blog and switching them on later once there is a big enough audience to justify them (this is what I did on DPS).
• to requiring membership for comments (thereby effectively switching them off to the general public and reserving the privilege to comment for those willing to sign up).

There are many options – but I thought it’d be interesting to open it up for some discussion.

• Do you have comments on your blog? Why or Why Not?
• Do you think a blog is a blog without comments?
• What are the advantages of having or not having them?

Interested to see where this discussion leads us.

Further Reading on Comments on Blogs:

• Blogging with or without Comments?
• Should Low Traffic Blogs Disable Comments
• 10 Techniques to Get More Comments on Your Blog

Originally at: Blog Tips at ProBlogger

Should Blogs Have Comments?