In an interesting article Amy Gahran recently published her '10 Reasons Why Blogs Are an Awkward Conversation Tool'. While she brings up some valid arguments I don't agree with all of her 10 reasons. Therefore I figured it would be nice to write a response to each of her ten reasons similar to what I did before with my item called Me versus Jakob Nielsen's weblog design mistakes. Let's take a look at what Amy has to say!

1. THEY'RE NOT INTUITIVE: Well, not to everyone, especially to non-geeks (and that's most of the world, folks.) Face it: blogs have serious usability issues.Amy Gahran

I strongly disagree with this one. Just like with any other type of website you'll find blogs that aren't intuitive as well as blogs that are. When surfing the web you'll find plenty of blogs that are well laid out and easy to use and navigate. You will also find plenty of non-blog websites with horrible interfaces which make it almost impossible to find the information you're looking for. In short: This isn't anything related to blogs in particular. It relates to a proportion of all websites on the internet.

2. THEY'RE TOO BUSY. Even the best-designed blog (for example, the new PBS blog MediaShift looks very nice indeed) tends to be visually busier than a decently designed weblog or forum. If you're accustomed to blogs, this probably doesn't bother you. But if you're not used to blogs, this probably bugs the heck out of you and discourages you from exploring and conversing.Amy Gahran

I like to think this very site proves that blogs don't necessarily need to be 'too busy'. I can see where Amy's coming from though. Many weblogs just have too much 'stuff' on their frontpage. This is an aspect of blog design I tried to deal with when designing this site. I really don't think this site is 'too busy' and there are plenty of other examples to be found on the net. Therefore: Again I believe this statement applies to any 'busy' website and isn't limited to blogs at all.

3. WHO'S RESPONDING TO WHOM? Few blogging tools allow for threaded comments, like what you would see on a discussion forum.Amy Gahran

I guess I have to (sort of) agree on this one. It's true the comments don't show any threading on most blogs. However, personally I look at the comments on a blog as a conversation between the blogger and his/her readers. Providing a conversational tool to others is at best a secondary purpose of a weblog, at least it is to me. The main reason for comments on a weblog is, in my humble opinion, communication between the writer and the readers. For this purpose I believe the comments work fine as they are.

4. COMMENTS DON'T NECESSARILY = CONVERSATION (...)
But finally, some of the most interesting conversations involving weblogs happen between weblogs, when bloggers post back in forth and engage each other. It doesn't all have to happen in one place. But until you're used to blogs, it can be hard to recognize that kind of interaction as conversation.Amy Gahran

True. A lot of comments on weblogs can't really be called 'conversations'. We see a lot of random remarks and sometimes even off-topic remarks. On this particular blog there's even the occasional comment written in Dutch which really isn't the language of this blog even though I'm a Dutch fellow. I fully agree with Amy that trackbacks / pingbacks (at least I think that's what she's referring to) are awkward and confusing to visitors who don't really know the blogosphere all that well.

5. COMMENTS DON'T ALWAYS GET A REPLY: Well, actually, this is true even in face-to-face conversation, and it's definitely a conversation killer. I've been guilty of that sin myself, right here on this blog.Amy Gahran

While this may be true, I don't believe all comments actually call for a reply. Whenever someone posts a question on this blog I try to answer it. Whenever they suggest something I try to give back my opinion on it. Still, some comments justs don't call for a reply. I do agree with Amy that bloggers SHOULD respond to comments that pose questions or offer suggestions.

6. (USUALLY) NO NOTIFICATION FOR FOLLOW-UP COMMENTS: Some blogs offer a really cool option that lets you subscribe to a feed or e-mail alerts for further comments in a thread to which you've contributed. That makes it easier to stay engaged in conversation. However, most of the time if you comment in a blog, it's up to you to check back to see if there was any further discussion -- a major hassle. Even I don't bother with it most of the time.Amy Gahran

I have to fully agree on this one. I consider myself a rather experienced person when it comes to blogging, the blogosphere and the associated 'culture'. Yet even I sometimes find myself commenting on a blog and forgetting to check back on the discussion. Even worse, sometimes I even forget which blog it was exactly where I saw this interesting discussion in which I participated with a comment. It's definitely hard to 'stay tuned' with what's going on in those discussion threads. The 'email me when someone comments on this thread' options that some blogs (including mine) offer definitely helps here. I use it whenever I find the discussion worth tracking.

7. YOU CAN TURN OFF COMMENTS AND TRACKBACKS: Blogging tools offer a lot of useful features to support conversation, and all of them are optional. It's entirely possible -- and on rare occasions even a good idea -- to turn off comments. Granted, by doing this you severely limit your blog's ability to be part of the public conversation.Amy Gahran

I guess it's hard to 'comment' on this one. It's true, comments and trackbacks can be turned off. This turns a blog into a one-way communication medium. I wouldn't even call it a blog anymore myself as I feel the communication with readers and intercommunication with other blogs is an essential part of the whole blogging experience. I wouldn't call a blog with no comments a blog but rather a 'news site' or something in those lines. Amy also states some people switch off comments because of massive spam, either in comments or trackbacks. This is a sad thing. But then again, spam is a sad thing in general. I guess there isn't much we can do about it except for trying to protect our blogs with anti-spam-ware.

8. PERCEIVED INEQUALITY: In this comment, Lawrence Coburn wrote: "There is an inherent inequality in the conversation that goes on in [blog] comments. One insider, everyone else is an outsider." Yeah, I agree, that's a problem.Amy Gahran

I disagree. In any online communication medium in which users can interact there will be 'insiders' and 'outsiders'. Heck, the same thing is true in real life even. One just can't walk into a bar and start a conversation with a group of people who have been frequenting this bar for years already and expect to be 'one of the guys' after 10 minutes. The same thing is true for comments on a blog and for posting on online forums as well. Amy also cites Lawrence where he states forums or online communities don't suffer from this problem. I strongly disagree. The insider / outsider thing is only human and as far as I'm concerned this is happening anywhere, both on the internet and in real life.

9. LOTS OF PEOPLE DON'T LIKE BLOGS, AND THEY NEVER WILL: This is why it's a good thing that there are other conversational media choices, such as e-mail lists, online forums, and even call-in radio. Probably sooner than we think, some other hot new tool will become the darling of conversational media, and blogs will become not just clunky but outdated.Amy Gahran

This is a very general statement. It's hard to really bring anything against it but I question it's relevance. Some people are bound to 'not like' certain things. Blogs are simply one of those things people may or may not like. I myself don't like podcasts. I don't see the purpose of listening to someone rambling while I could have read them as well. I also don't like mailinglists. They add too much clutter to the already large volume of email I receive. This is pure personal preference. Does it mean podcasts are bad? Does it mean they'll disappear anytime soon? I doubt it just as much as I doubt that blogs will disappear or become outdated any time soon.

10. IT'S MUCH FASTER JUST TO TALK: See how much effort I put into creating this posting to reply to a bunch of comments? I could have talked my way through it in 1/20 of the time. The effort currently required to converse via blogs can be daunting. There's no way anyone can keep up with all of it.Amy Gahran

This is where it gets close to being funny. A total nobrainer. I guess everyone will agree it's easier to just talk to people than to converse with them electronically. However, we just CAN'T talk to everybody we would still like to interact with. Imagine me having to talk to all people commenting on this blog individually. It's not possible. Yet I appreciate a lot of the comments I receive. They often bring in new insights and sometimes start interesting new email / IM conversations. This 'disadvantage' applies to any form of electronic conversation including email, forums etc. etc. Of course I agree with the statement that a face to face conversation is a lot better than exchanging text with any kind of internet based medium. Yet I wouldn't want to miss any of the interesting contacts I have thanks to the internet!

Well Amy, I guess those were my 5 cents on the issues!