“Bila lah you gonna put in comments?”

This question always gets asked, in one form or another.

I asked some people a different question: “So why exactly do you allow the use of comments on your blog?”

I got two different kinds of answers. The first, and by far, the most common, seems to be ‘user feedback’. The second answer, which Hani provided, was that she wanted more people to visit her page and talk about the topic she posted in.

They're almost the same answer, except that the first seems to talk about the Great Dialogue between the Writer and the Audience and the second seems to be more about the Audience with the Audience — kind of like a Great After-Movie Conversation.

Neither option appeals to me. Not really.

The one thing that bothers me the most about answer number one is the horrific lack of control. Messages sent with answer number one in mind must be answered, because if they don't, you know it's going to stay there. Even if you remove 'em, which feels like capitulation to me, unless of course the poster decides to post nothing but invective. And those kind of posters are rare, even for the Internet.

The second answer bothers me because, well, for one, I used to be that kind of person. I used to haunt Aizuddin Danian's page a lot — commenting so often I ended up being the most talkative audience-member there, right up until MT3's wonky commenting system drove me away. And frankly, I knew that if I had so much to say on Aiz's blog, I might as well have started on my own.

It's a emotional thing. I don't want people to comment to my blog posts. Wait, that's a lie. I don't want anonymous people commenting on my blog (sullying my pristine space with their feelthy, feelthy appendages), and I don't want anyone else to see their feedback unless I say so.

Which is why I like LiveJournal-style comments. Since I can't get that, however, I'll just limit the abilty to comment to other blogger users. It's not too hard to get a blogger account anyway. If you still want to comment, but you don't want to register to blogger, just email me at tboy [at] bebudak [dot] net (you clever humans figure it out). If there's anything interesting about what you say I'll post it up.

Unless you know me. Then just beard me through whatever private channels you have access to.

Oh, and yeah. Pick Yin gave me this post of hers, talking about Blogger's commenting system. Don't know where to put this, so I put it here.