In the time I’ve been blogging I’ve seen this question crop up regularly. The debate this time has come across my screen sparked by White Hot Truth writer Danielle LaPorte making space for creative credo. Two other viewpoints worth reading are Blog Commenting and Your Community written by Kelly Livesay and Why I Leave Comments Open by Charlie Gilkey.

I’m not sure I understand the reasoning behind a popular blogger (it doesn’t matter who and I’m not one) turning off comments to make space for whatever specific reason. If it’s to make time for creative work or writing, but people can still engage with me via other media, where is the time saved?

Email, Twitter, Facebook etc. are all great time drains, more so than comments on my own blog, in my opinion.

We can’t read the blogs of everyone who reads ours, so if the discussion moves there how will we know what our readers are thinking? Why close comments when they can provide an insight into what our reading community is talking about?

People make connections in comments, answer others questions or offer insight. That will be lost if I make them discuss it elsewhere, and our experience will be poorer for it. In the post above Charlie expresses this beautifully;

‘Over the past few years, I’ve learned a lot from you because of your comments and reactions. You’ve also given me plenty of things to think and write about, and I would miss learning from you and writing about things that I know you’re interested in. When I stopped answering and paying as much attention to comments, I felt more disconnected from you all and my writing.’

When I grow up I want to be you Charlie!

Here at InfoJunkiesAnon comments are open because I want us all to communicate, to share ideas, to encourage each other to use what we already have. Of course, discussions will take place elsewhere, and that’s an important aspect of spreading the word. But there should still be a place for readers to express their thoughts immediately they have read my post, if they so wish.

I accept that not every blog author can reply to each and every comment, I accept that not everyone will feel moved to comment on every post. I strongly believe that the opportunity should still be there; indeed I will be actively seeking your feedback in the comments because InfoJunkiesAnon is not all about me.

It’s about all of us.

What do you think?