[xwdv]

Blogging is not dead, it's just being rapidly made obsolete by commenting.

Comments are everywhere. Total volume of comments on the internet compared to blogs is larger by several orders of magnitude. Readership is up, everything has comments. Comments don't care about SEO, or money, or fame, that makes them one of the purest forms of content you can find on the internet. You could argue that some sites have people commenting for fame because of karma systems, but ultimately that karma means nothing. Very few comments have ever "gone viral" the way a blog or youtube or tiktok video tries so hard to. Comments are like graffiti; ephemeral, and meant to be enjoyed in the moment you stumble across them. Very few comments make any kind of money for their author the way a blog does.

Marketing firms have not latched onto comments yet the way they latch onto blogs. But when they do, it's over.

[AQuantized]

I think this underestimates how much exploitation of this idea of comments as unbiased is currently taking place. There's a reason you can sell a Reddit account with a ton of karma and activity for a decent buck. Tons of PR firms now utilize faux accounts on almost all social media.

[JoshTriplett]

> There's a reason you can sell a Reddit account with a ton of karma and activity for a decent buck.

What does "a decent buck" amount to, these days? How much does it take to get people to sell their reputation to an unethical marketing firm?

[MattGaiser]

$16-$20.

https://www.playerup.com/accounts/redditaccount/

Not a lot for Westerners, but that is a week of wages in a place like Ghana. Decent pay for re-posting popular content.

[ImaCake]

I think that is just enough to make it worthwhile even for a poor American. If you can coordinate and plan ahead a little you would break minimum wage.

[xwdv]

Any similar place where you can buy or sell hackernews accounts? Trying to figure out how these downvote farms get accounts at scale.

[xwdv]

Those however are a small portion of total comments.

Pretty much whenever you see a blog you can bet it's being monetized somehow or used for some financial gain.

When you see a comment, it's unlikely there is any motive behind it beyond expressing an idea.

Now imagine the world where every comment is also some kind of ad or invitation to buy or subscribe to something. Hell.

[kansface]

> Those however are a small portion of total comments. When you see a comment, it's unlikely there is any motive behind it beyond expressing an idea.

I haven't read or seen any studies. I'm really curious what percentage of the average reddit thread's comments are from companies, nation states, and paid for power users.

> Now imagine the world where every comment is also some kind of ad or invitation to buy or subscribe to something. Hell.

That would be product reviews!

[aSplash0fDerp]

Good points!

When we start seeing the proliferation of boutique networks (with satellite and CBRS bands), I think forums, blogs, BBS`s and the real Internet gold (comments, as you stated) will find a new canvas to graffiti.

Now that everything is under attack on Internet 1, its the perfect time to take the 1% of valuable content and setup shop elsewhere, leaving the "ephemeral" content behind (they`ll make more).

Perhaps its a western culture thing, but the easiest way to move a mountain of digital/analog fecal matter is to walk away from it.