Conversational Blogs »
One thing that disturbs me about a blog is that the conversations don't necessarily flow. Sure, if you happen along and add a comment, it might prompt someone after you to do the same. But what if the topic is one that really interests you and you'd like to keep up on it? There just aren't many options.
I think the most common option taken is to just revisit the site to check for updates. I don't know this for certain, though, as if you watch the comments on blogs, you'll often see the comments expanding, but rarely does anyone come back for a second round (blog hosters, such as myself, are of course exceptions to this rule).
Some enterprising folks in the blog space have taken to producing full-site comments feeds. This is perhaps useful, but the problem I have with this approach is that the comments don't have any context. A product such as SharpReader can make use of a such a feed to thread comments into the blog, and that helps, but what if you don't use SharpReader? I don't think this threading support is widely implemented across other reader products.
There is at least one other solution for those with Movable Type - using PHP you can create a "subscribe to comments" feature that emails future posts to those on the subscribe list. The problem I have with this approach is that then the blog owner has to maintain a list, as well as make an attempt to keep comment spam from reaching the subscribers, not to mention keep up with people who later decide they aren't interested in subscribing any longer. Seems labor intensive.
The final solution I've seen is to create feeds of individual entries, complete with comments. This allows those who are interested to subscribe to the feed and keep up with the progress. At any given moment, you'll also have access to the original post and all the past comments as well.
This last option is the approach I've currently taken. I did some hacking at MT's Search.pm module that allowed me to return a single entry by using an entry ID. I then can use this to create a virtual feed that is generated as needed. I could also create static files for each entry, but I decided against that so that I don't clutter up the site.
Comments (3)
I came to MovableType from LiveJournal and deeply miss LJ's conversational commenting. I maintain my LJ because of the conversations that I have on it.
I really wanted to setup threaded comments but decided it was probably safer for someone like me to stick to plugins and not hack.
I'm guilty of breaking conversational flow. Many weblogs I visit only once or once in a while. Since I've always replied to comments via email I assumed most people would (now I try to remember to post my reply in the weblog and - if the comment seems to merit it - via email (as you yourself do).
I think threading would help some. I have a very few entries with 40 - 100 comments and it gets to be a mess. I'd thought about adding subscribe to comments but like you don't want to pass along "Nice site!" from the latest edition of the Lolita bot and I don't want to have to manage the subscription system. Even technical email lists seem to have too many clueless users.
Hopefully the Trotts will add more functionality to MT's comments system in a future release.
Posted by Richard Evans Lee | November 11, 2003 2:55 PM
Ok, somebody suggested I should start a blog, maybe because I say alot (doesn't mean its useful). I found your blog because it sounds like I could learn a few clues here. Where do I start.
Posted by John | October 6, 2004 9:56 AM
You're going to need to be a little more specific.
First, I probably can't help you start a blog. I do have a consulting company and I'd be happy to help you, but I'd also be happy to send you a bill. You likely don't want that.
Second, you should find out more about blogs. On the sidebar of my blog, you'll see links to several people that have blogs. Read them to get a feel for things. You can also use a service such as Bloglines (www.bloglines.com) to read lots of blogs more easily, rather than visiting pages individually.
Third, you should try out a blogging service before you try to set up your own. I hear that Blogger is nice (and free). Live Journal too. Those are good places to start, you may want to then move to Typepad or some other pay service so you can customize things more to your liking. If you like that, get your own domain (or space on someone else's) and install Movable Type or another content management system.
Best of luck!
Posted by Chad Everett | October 6, 2004 11:30 AM