Do blogs without comments have any value?

I’ve noticed that quite a few blogs I read have turned off comments and trackbacks and removed all trace of any previous comments/trackbacks. I realise that the comment spam problem is a pain but I find that I treat blogs without comments/trackbacks as “less reliable sources”…

I guess it depends on the theme of the blog content. Blogs that are just someone’s random thoughts and dont have an agenda probably don’t really need comments or trackbacks, after all, who cares what other people have to say on the topic. But for blogs that try to present information with an “I know what I’m talking about so listen to me” style, I find that the lack of comments makes me downgrade the value of the information being provided.

Without comments these blogs just become easily updated web sites. They’re no longer a conversation, there’s no longer scope for some form of community validation of what’s being presented. They’re just someone’s unchecked stream of consciousness, just like the rest of the web ;)

With comments and trackbacks enabled a piece of uninformed fluff can be tagged as such by others leaving comments or referencing the fluff from their own blog. I find that this provides me with a level of confidence in information that’s being presented. The blogger builds a reputation by allowing others to validate what they say and being brave enough to allow others to attach their point of view to what’s been said.

When I post technical stuff here I want people to say I’m wrong if I’m wrong, I want people to challenge me, to make me think. They might be right, I could be being completely wrong headed. I might learn from them and if I do then the fact that my wrong headed entry is there with corrections attached means that nobody will stumble across my wrong headedness in the future and think I’m right…

Wrong headed blog postings without comments rely on the author going back and correcting stuff, and that’s not always going to happen. Worse, readers don’t even get to see that people disagreed, that there might be a better way, etc. With comments and trackbacks it’s in your face.

Sure, comment spam is a pain, but turning off comments devalues your blog. Don’t do it.