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Reading On comments and weblogs -
"With the proliferation of commenting-ability in today's weblog tools, it might make sense for people to think a bit before blindly turning on comments, whether for an individual or group blog."
it does occur to me most folks really don't have to think this hard-- you have to get some serious traffic to generate the kind of comments that causes the work she describes-- but it's a thoughtful post nonce.
Whether you get serous traffic or not, I think her points are still valid. I don't get many comments, but I always think about each of those points for all of my most recent entries. (I turn comments off after an entry leaves my homepage.) It just seems like the responsible thing to do.
I just built myself a comment tracking tool for my site as I always leave my comments on. I have only had to remove comments that were unrelated twice and pulled a string of nasty comments (somebody must have thought they were on Slashdot) only once.
I find many people find my site and content through Google and other Internet searches. There have been some interesting comment section discussions that have started a year or more after my initial post. I tend to look at the comments as a means to update information and help get people to helpful information. There has been a discussion about edesign magazine (and now its death) going for almost a year.
I have made some friends, not only in my own comment section, but also through leaving comments in others sections. I have completely changed how I view things from comment discussions and have found comments on sites that have been better than the initial content.
The downside of comments is keeping track of the message strings. I like what Dunstan (http://www.1976design.com/blog/) has done with his comments as it allows for interaction by folks other than the site owner. I don't find trackbacks to be as interactive, they are a more stale communication forum (much like a reverse bibliography), where as comments are like leaving PostIts in a library book or on a museum wall for others.
Imagine going to a museum exhibit with comments turned on? What would all the years of comments next to a Monet, Chagall, van Eyke, etc. look like? How many *I also saw a green man on my roof comments would there be?* But imagine the pointers to information about the symbolism, season painted, the type of hairs used in the brush (some still embedded in the oils of the paint).
Christina, I too also thought there was too much thinking behind the Meg's posting, but it is her site and there may be history there that would provide a lesson for all of us (if only she had comments on).