by Coturnix
Comment threads on blogs are an important aspect of the blogging culture. But I disagree that it is a defining aspect - there are many excellent blogs out there with no commenting allowed. Such blogs usually have a prominently displayed contact information for direct e-mailing to the author. One can always link to and trackback on one's own blog in response: blog-to-blog conservation is just as important to the blogosphere as a whole, if not more, than comments on any individual post. Other blogs have their feeds exported to LiveJournal or FriendFeed where one can post comments as well.
See how Dorothea Salo explains (not for the first time) why her blog has no commenting function. John Hawks explains it at the end of this post.
Then, there are hybrids - for instance some posts have comments and some don't on Leiter Reports. Or, you cannot comment on Talking Points Memo, but you can on other parts of the site, e.g., on TPMMuckraker, TPMDC and TPMCafe.
But if you allow comments on your blog, how do you, yourself, behave in your own comment threads?
This post tries to make a classification of commenting tactics of blog owners. I think I mix them up, using one or another as I see fit, depending on the context, etc.
What do you do on your blog? What type of host's behavior you prefer to see on a blog's comment thread? Do bloggers who never respond irk you to no end?
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