Comment On Comments And Trackback

In case anyone was wondering, it is my approach to manually approve all comments. I do that for two reasons, first and formost because of the problem of unwanted comments, or SPAM. During the last week, I have been hit with close to 100 SPAM comments for the usual assortment of medications and vices. The second reason is because in the heat of the moment people sometimes fire off comments that are not fully considered. I like to give people the chance to rethink what they have said. This has only happened once in the current life of this blog, but when it did happen, it was a good thing.

Sadly a number of blogs cutting out comments and more frequently, cutting out trackback. I can understand why some bloggers might do this, but part of the strength of blogging is the way it builds networks of discussion and debate. Some of the most interesting blogging voices I read have come to my attention through comments and trackback. To some extent lists of links to blogs can help us navigate to new blogs, but such links are static. It is not always clear why a blog is on such a list; by contrast comments and trackback give us a dynamic picture of relationship.

My hope is that as much as is possible, bloggers will continue to keep comments and trackback alive.