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Quote: "I know some people think that blogs are conversations, but I don't. I think they're publications. And I think the role of comments is to add value to the posts. If you want to rebut a post, then you can create your own blog and post your rebuttal there." Something about this rubs me the wrong way-- probably the fact that it assumes that rebutting a post doesn't add any value. If I (or Dave Winer) post about something and completely mischaracterize what it is, how it functions, what it means, etc., a comment that rebuts that mistake is certainly quite valuable. It gives the author a chance to revise or reconsider his opinion or take on the matter. A blog post disagreeing with a high-profile author like Dave Winer is unlikely to have the same kind of impact, especially when it comes from a low-profile site (which, let's face it, most blogs are). It is far too easy for an author to ignore dissenting posts at other sites than it is a highly-visible comment that appears directly under the post in question. IMHO, Dave Winer is a particularly bad comment moderator-- he routinely removes comments that disagree with his opinions simply because of that disagreement. Anecdotally, I no longer comment at Scripting News precisely because he banned my OpenID from the site when I disagreed with one of his more volatile political posts. Not particularly strong evidence, I know, but it is a routine event at SN to see Winer completely shut down or remove posts that differ with his opinions. Now, as Winer is fond of saying, those dissenters are certainly capable of starting a free blog an any number of free services (or going so far as to transform an old PC into a Wordpress site of their very own), but, as I've mentioned before, this certainly doesn't merit the same level of visibility that posting a comment does. All of which is to say: I read the above and don't necessarily see Winer trying to "improve" his site. I see him trying to justify marginalizing those who disagree with him. |