Comments Gone, Gammas Hardest Hit

An unusually wise and insightful commenter who calls himself “Savantissimo” is complaining about the absence of post-Google comments here at AC’s place:

Looks like Vox Day isn’t going to have comments at his new site, and is going to leave deleted all the hundreds of thousands of comments that people, many of them unusually wise and insightful, collectively spent many years writing.

He really does think that it’s all about him, or should be.

First, I have made it perfectly clear since 2003 that I don’t care about the comments. I permitted them as a courtesy, nothing more.

Second, it is a distinct pleasure to no longer have to spend any time moderating the hundreds of spam and troll and wise and insightful comments. I had no idea how much time I was wasting on it until I suddenly didn’t have to think about it anymore.

Third, why was it my responsibility to preserve the comments of those unusually wise and insightful individuals? I arranged to back up my posts, so why weren’t they wise enough, or insightful enough, to preserve their own comments? It’s precisely because I didn’t regard their comments as mine, or think their comments were all about me, that I did not consider myself to be responsible for them.

Fourth, we’ve already been through this. Literally no one cared that all the Co-Comment comments were lost. Comments are intrinsically ephemeral, and while they are not entirely devoid of value, they are seldom worth the effort that is required to police them. And furthermore, despite what certain wise, insightful, and totally disinterested parties insist, literally no one reads any site for the comments. As has been repeatedly confirmed on this blog, and numerous other sites, getting rid of the comments doesn’t reduce the site traffic at all.

And fifth, we have SocialGalactic. Chats and superchats are coming to UATV. There is no shortage of opportunities for engagement within the community.

By the way, the comments aren’t actually gone. So, if you are seeking unusual wisdom or insight in them, you can still do so.

Discuss on SG.