Are blog comments a dying art?

I'm a member of the LinkedIn Bloggers group where this question was recently asked, "What do you think? Is commenting (on blogs) a dying art?" The blogger referenced this post by a fellow member.

I responded by suggesting the real issue, and one us long-time bloggers may have trouble adjusting to, is the fact that there are now so many other places to comment than a few years ago. For example, I had a Twitter exchange with someone yesterday who read my latest post. He made several comments, none of which ended up on my blog.

When you think about it, apps like Twitter, Plurk, or Pownce may be the best places to comment. Because they have the character or "feel" of instant messaging applications, they are much better suited to carrying on a conversation than a blog.  Besides, who really reads comments anyway, especially when there are a number of them.

This begs the question, how does one follow the conversation that may be going on about a post? Or rather, how does one catalog the conversation if it's happening on disparate sites? One answer, Friendfeed has an embeddable  widget which can be added to WordPress and Blogger. (It's not yet available for Typepad users however.) I'd expect to see similar widgets for Twitter being made available as well.

I certainly hope conversation is not a dying art. If it is, then why are we spending so much time trying to engender it. We just need to find ways to "corral" it...but that may be tantamount to herding cats.

Comments

[Keli]

You make a good point Paul. Many times I hear about a blog post on Twitter or in Plurk and then am faced with responding where I heard or leaving a comment. Very occasionally I do both, particularly if the plurk or tweet was not made by the blogger, but usually I respond where I first heard about the blog.

[Mark Eckenrode]

i had a similar occurrence several weeks ago where i asked for some feedback in a blog post... the post received a couple comments but i was surprised when i also received several replies on twitter, DMs on twitter, an email and even a phone call.

people will choose the communication channel the feel most comfortable... so we're back to the question: how do you track conversation?

[Drew McLellan]

Paul,

I think much of this depends on the make-up of your readers. If your readers are primarily social media pros/bloggers, then I think you have a very valid point.

But if many of your readers live/work outside of the social media space, then I don't think comments are diminishing anywhere near as much.

Drew

[Paul Chaney]

I think the thread that's developing here is that people will use what they're most comfortable with or what is most expedient. The issue remains of how to catalog the conversation.

[James Helms]

Hi Paul, I think leaving comments are severely under rated. People can benefit from reading and leaving comments in a variety of ways.

So will commenting change as people harness tools like Seesmic and the ability to leave video comments?

Will tools like Disqus allow us to aggregate the comment data and combine comments across many sites concerning the same topics?

I think it's a great question and a great discussion. Thanks for the link to LinkedIn's blogger group, I haven't utilized the platform yet. Is it recommended?

[Ari Herzog]

When was the last time you walked into a bookstore with a significant repository of magazines and saw premiere issues of new titles?

Magazines don't appear without cause; and similarly, as long as that cause exists, there will be a reason for blogs and the community of people to comment on them.