Ask HN: Are blog comments a thing of the past?
I have been blogging for about 14 years - 7 of these on a blog dedicated for software engineering topics.<p>I removed all commenting options after about 8 years of blogging. The reason was spam, noise and little value add.<p>Around 2015 70% of comments coming in to my blog were from bots and another 10% from anonymous folks making irrelevant, and sometimes insulting comments which I all had to delete. About 20% of the comments were still valuable, but moderating felt like an additional stress, on top of writing.<p>After a few of my blog posts made it on to Hacker News, I noticed the discussions here are far more interesting and productive, surpassing the best comment threads on my blog over the 8 years while I still had comments open.<p>I removed all commenting and never looked back. When I write, I focus on writing. If anyone wants to, they can find my contact details to share insights about the post - and some people still do.<p>As someone writing a blog, I&#x27;m much better off with no comments open to the whole world. I suspect this is what most other people have also realized.