Comments, links? Useless!

URL: http://blog.bjorkoy.com/2006/04/21/comments-links-useless/

Comments, links? Useless!

I’ve often come across some random blog, observed that there’s no comments, and as a consequence dismissed the blog for being unpopular and surely also quite bad. Obviously I can’t be bothered reading such miserable blogs. Prime example of how wrong one can be, ey?

Comments should never be the scale on witch the greatness of a blog is measured. Comments imply popularity and attention, but as most people know, this is hardly a sign of goodness. What I now pay more attention to, is the length and quality of the articles (duh!). But here’s the problem:

Many blogs that make up most of their content by simply saying that: “Hey, this guy posted something. It’s a great article. Go read it!” doesn’t add any value to the web. Sure links are important, but at most they should be a compliment to the main dish of your blog, which in all cases should be interesting, challenging or even provocative entries. If not to anyone else, they should be this for you own sake.

When a blog in my feed reader has a new entry, I’m often sorry when I find out that the entry is merely a bloated link to another persons work. I want something original, something that constitutes the reason why I subscribe to that particular blog. If not, I’ll just delete you, and subscribe to the blog you so easily linked to.

Links I want to find through sidebars, through bookmarking sites and when other blogs use them as a basis for a proper entry. Write real entries in your blog, do some real work - and make a difference. Now let’s hope my feed reader give me some really crappy entries today, so that this one doesn’t become one of them! ;)

End rant!