Dave Caolo

Every so often, the discussion regarding comments on weblogs resumes. This week John Gruber got the ball rolling on Daring Fireball. Shawn Blanc and Marco Arment responded in favor of disabling comments. I agree with all three, but my reasons are much simpler:

• Comment management is very time consuming.
• The vast majority of comments detract from the experience of reading a blog.

Management

If all I had to do was respond to constructive comments, I’d keep them enabled. However, when I accepted comments, I spent most of my time repelling spam, adding IPs to blacklists and hitting the delete button. By the way, that’s a war than can never be won. Therefore, it’s a waste of time. As WOPR will tell you, “The only winning move is not to play.”

Trolls

I deal with hundreds of comments per day at TUAW. Many of them are left by thoughtful readers. Many are not. While Marco contends that comments follow a many-to-one model (many commenters converse with one blog author), I say comments are many-to-many. As any database designer will tell you, that’s a no-no.

Comments quickly devolve into an off-topic discussion among the commenters, of which the original post’s author is omitted. That discussion too often mimics the vibe of a junior high school playground. No one is better for it and the blog owner is forced to either ignore it, leaving a mess on their blog, or play referee. I don’t have time for that.

If you want to respond to something I’ve written, do so via email or Twitter. Better yet, write a post on your own blog. For now, comments are closed.

I noticed this today and I’m elated about it. When you’ve got a slew of tabs open and you click a link that opens a new one, it opens immediately to the right of the tab you’re currently in. Previously, it opened at “the end of the line.” I often have 30 or 40 tabs open at once, and all that scrolling was a disruption.

Hurrah for this small but welcome feature.

A good reminder from Jared Earle boils down to this: Someday the legions of readers you’re after will arrive. All at once. If you’re running WordPress, you’ll want WP Super Cache installed, or they’ll only find a crippled server.

[Via Daring Fireball]

Several months ago, I listed the plug-ins I add to every WordPress installation. This post is an update to that list. Here are my standard WordPress plug-ins.

1. Akismit eliminates comment spam and trackback spam effectively. You’ll need a WordPress.com API key to enable it. I occasionally see something sneak through, but those occurrences are the exception, not the rule. Akismit is the first plug-in I set up.
2. Thank Me Later sends first-time commenters a single email thanking them for their participation. Customize the time delay between receipt of the comment and deployment of the email, the body of the message itself and more. It’s not essential, but a nice touch.
3. WordPress.com stats provides real-time statistics in your dashboard. Again, you’ll need a WordPress.com API key to enable this one.
4. WordPress Database Backps does just what the name implies — creates a backup for your blog’s (or WP-powered site’s) database files. For some real fun, check out my super-simple instructions for setting up automated, off-site backups.
5. Share This lets visitors share your articles with their favorite social sites without having to leave your blog.
6. All in One SEO Pack certainly isn’t a replacement for SEO best practices (see “WordPress and SEO“), but it makes certain aspects easy.
7. Subscribe to comments allows readers to receive email notifications of responses to posts they’ve commented on. It fosters conversation and gives readers following the thread a reason to return.
8. Related posts scours your tags each time you publish a post to find older entries that are a match. Those are listed just above the comment box. This gives readers a reason to dig into your archives.

So there you have it, my basic WordPress starting point. What’s yours?

I’ve spent the last few weeks with Posterous, a relatively new blogging platform from Sachin Agarwal and Garry Tan. The result is both a modest record of my travels and a powerful enthusiasm for the service.

Posterous is going to be huge.

I’ve used every blogging platform I’ve found, including (but not limited to) WordPress, Typepad, MoveableType, Squarespace, Vox, Livejournal, Blogger and Textpattern. The easiest among those are the hosted solutions, like Typepad, Livejournal, Blogger, Squarespace and Vox (Note: Typepad, Livejournal and Vox are all products of Six Apart). WordPress and MoveableType are (usually) self-hosted and require the blogger* to create and link to a database.

After installation is complete, they all require additional fiddling. Customizing the layout, design, colors, graphics etc. takes time. Adding something like an image gallery is even more time consuming, and typically requires a plug-in which you must find, upload, configure and test on your own.

By contrast, here’s how you create a complete blog with Posterous: Send an email message to post@posterous.com. That’s it.

Here’s how you create a full-featured, thumbnailed photo gallery with built-in navigation on Posterous: Email your photos to post@posterous.com.

Want to post a video? Same thing. It’ll even encode it for you. Send nearly any codec you want.

It’s brilliant because there’s nothing to learn. Everyone knows how to send an email message. Additionally, there’s nothing to download, install or configure. You can use the email client you already know; the email client you probably have with you all day via your laptop, phone or iPod. Additionally, you can have Posterous notify your other accounts, like Facebook and Twitter, each time an update is posted.

I oversee many bloggers at my day job and some are more technically savvy than others. We use WordPress, which I love, but does pose a challenge for some of the writers. However, they’re all proficient with email. If I could simply tell them, “Just email your posts and pictures to this address and you’re done,” they’d fall down with gratitude and relief.

The sticking point right now is the lack of customization. If I’m going to embrace Posterous for work, I’ve got to be able to customize the CSS and other layout features. But that’s an extreme case.

For the vast majority of people, Posterous is a very desirable option. Sachin and Garry took an incredible idea — get out of the way and let the blogger write via a familiar and nearly ubiquitous tool — and executed it wonderfully. I can’t wait to see where this goes.

*Some web hosting companies provide a one-click install for WordPress and MoveableType.

Squarespace is a web-based publishing tool, often used by bloggers. It’s very slick and unlike others like Typepad and hosted WordPress. Today they revealed plans for an iPhone app, which I’m very eager to see. Good luck to them.

From Nick Cernis at Put Things Off

“I’d like to see online publishers building businesses with their content — not on the back of it. I have a lot of respect for any online publisher who can make a living using the regular models, but I can’t help wonder: Why not just sell some of the content that people are already coming to your site to read or download?”

A slippery slope, as people are largely unwilling to pay for something they’re used to getting for free, even if it’s a great product. Satellite radio, for example. Read the whole article, or my interview with Nick from last year.

When I was at Berklee, we had a joke.

Q: How many Berklee students does it take to change a lightbulb?
A: 10. One to change it, 9 to say, “You’re doing it wrong.”

Joshua Blankenship is right when he says, “…will everyone just STOP thinking they have the market cornered on how I’m supposed to use the web? You don’t.”

Whether your goal is to make per-click dollars or produce ad-free, killer content, you’re right. Define what you want to do, how you’re going to do it and then do the best job possible. That’s the only real rule.

What is the one thing that prompts us to subscribe to a weblog? It’s not a beautiful design, thoughtful layout or frequent updates; it’s the quality of the content. I return to blogs that offer something valuable in exchange for my time.

Quality posts attract readers. Unfortunately, great ideas don’t appear out of thin air. The good news is that they’re easier to generate than one might think. Here are six things I do to help me consistently produce super posts.

1. Notice Everything
A basic concept, but not as easy in practice. Recently, I became frustrated while unsuccessfully brainstorming ideas, until I realized that the very experience I was having would make a great post – the post you’re reading now. It was only after I had considered an experience that I would typically ignore that I became productive. Half an hour later, I had six great ideas for feature-length posts. To use a photography analogy, I was using the macro lens when I needed the wide angle.

2. Be Prepared

The American Boy Scout motto applies to bloggers, too. As noted above, almost everything we encounter – a chocolate milkshake, a walk in the woods, a conversation with a friend – can trigger a great idea. Compensate for this unpredictability with preparedness. I have a stack of index cards and a pen with me at all times, so I can immediately jot down any idea.

But even that’s not bullet-proof. Recently, I was listening to NPR in my car when I got an idea for my (now defunct) daddy blog. While I could have managed to write it down at 40 m.p.h., I used my cell phone to leave a voice mail message at my office. I captured my idea, and no one got killed.

3. Talk With a Variety of People

I consistently discuss certain topics with certain friends. One guy is my “geek buddy” – we talk about computers and technology. I discuss books and writing with my “literature buddy.” While I enjoy their company, things get really interesting when I’m discussing a novel topic with someone outside of my daily experience.

When I moved to Boston at 18, I was alone in a new city. Eventually, I befriended many people whose experiences were much different than my own, and my interactions with them changed me tremendously.

Now, I’m not suggesting you up and move to improve your blogging, but the internet represents as diverse a community as you’ll ever find. Look beyond your bookmarked blogs. Visit new message boards and see what people are saying. Flickr’s “Explore” feature is a great way to do this. In fact, that’s how I met a friend who works on a chimpanzee reserve in Africa. Poke around the global neighborhood and see what you’ll find.

4. Create a “Blogging Only” Workspace

Psychologist B. F. Skinner is the father of behaviorism, or the study of why and how people do what they do. Critical to his work was the exploration of how a person’s environment can influence their behaviors. With this in mind, I’ve set up a “Blogging Only” workspace in my basement.

It’s simply a small room with a computer, a long table and a printer. Whenever I write, I do it in this room, and only this room. I’ve conditioned myself to associate this area with writing, so my brain goes into “writing mode” as soon as I sit down. Call it a “kick start.”

Of course, you don’t need a dedicated room. A cozy corner of your kitchen, the back porch, your favorite coffee house…the location itself doesn’t really matter. The important thing is that you use it consistently. Soon you’ll be able to achieve the proper state of mind just by sitting down.

5. Step Away From the Blogosphere

The blogosphere is a tremendous source of inspiration. However, “information overload” is very real! Time spent away from the computer is just as beneficial as reading inspirational posts. Do whatever you like – run, take a walk, have coffee with friends, listen to the birds in the back yard – to clear your head. Once we de-clog our brains of emails, chats and so on, creativity can flow freely.

6. Create a Crappy First Draft

As a student, I learned that anything I commit to paper had better be worth reading. I wrote and re-wrote one paragraph before starting the next. The flow of my writing suffered, and I lost useful ideas to a flurry of obsessive editing.

Today, I permit myself to write “The Crappy First Draft.” The goal is to get my ideas and intentions written…damn the torpedoes! There will be plenty of time to go back and make it pretty. Allow yourself to write a dreadfully awful first draft. During your re-writes, you’ll be glad you did.

Here’s a very simple trick that’s been serving me well this week. I made a “Postable” smart folder in The Hit List as pictured above. Now, whenever I get an idea, email or inspirational link that could become a post, I add it to The Hit List with the Quick Key Entry shortcut, tag it with “/postable” and it’s ready and waiting the next time I lauch WordPress.