19962013
Blog Conversations
Chris Ambler: "I suspect that Ross and I could have a very productive discussion. Comments in blogs, however, are less than efficient."
Comments do generally suck as a two way vehicle. Threading and notify by email helps (both of which is supported by Blogware) but I too have found it to be a less than satisfying way to "converse" around a specific topic.
Trackbacks, on the other hand, are perfectly suited to facilitating the type of interaction that I think Chris is looking for. Trackbacks allow both of us to work within our own publishing environment to get our ideas out there, but also manages the interaction between our respective publishing environments to make sure that the thread isn't broken. Track really is just a distributed threading mechanism and much more convenient than email notifications, etc.
They do take a bit of adjusting to - let's see if Chris notices the trackback from this post. :)
Comments do generally suck as a two way vehicle. Threading and notify by email helps (both of which is supported by Blogware) but I too have found it to be a less than satisfying way to "converse" around a specific topic.
Trackbacks, on the other hand, are perfectly suited to facilitating the type of interaction that I think Chris is looking for. Trackbacks allow both of us to work within our own publishing environment to get our ideas out there, but also manages the interaction between our respective publishing environments to make sure that the thread isn't broken. Track really is just a distributed threading mechanism and much more convenient than email notifications, etc.
They do take a bit of adjusting to - let's see if Chris notices the trackback from this post. :)
See this post as it first appeared on Blogware.
8 comments
Comments are closed - these are kept exactly as they were left.
(name not saved), September 9, 2004
Ah, I get notified of comments to my blog thanks to Blogware but I do not get notified of trackbacksand hence likely not to notice it. Any plans for trackback email notifications in an upcoming Blogware version? Only makes sense.
(name not saved), September 9, 2004
Yes please yes please. Trackback notifications. yes please. ;-)
(name not saved), September 9, 2004
Fair comments both. I'll definitely see what we can do here. Such an obvious feature as well - I basically spec'ed it with that last post! ("I wonder if Chris will notice..." :)
(name not saved), September 10, 2004
Stop the timer, I just noticed it. About a day?
The problem here is that you can thread it all, and others don't get any notification. If you and some other blogger were to have a conversation, I can't follow it if I don't already read their blog. Or I need to subscribe, at least. And check back every so often.
I want a streamlined way for a couple of authors to have a discussion and be able to watch that discussion if I'm not one of the authors, too.
(name not saved), September 10, 2004
Not sure I understand. What we are talking about would give you a streamlined way of following the discussion. Blogware does that today with comment notification. We're just simply talking about extending that to trackbacks as well. Done deal as far as I'm concerned. Now Ross just has to beat the developers into adding this in the next version. Make sure when one subscribes to notifications that they can subscribe to comments, trackbacks or both.
(name not saved), September 10, 2004
Scenario:
I post something in my blog saying that Guinness is the one true beer. Ross tracks back to it saying that I'm an idiot, and it's all about Red Hook. I track back again, and tell him that Red Hook is swill, and I'd drink a Spaten, if need be. You then track back to mine and say we're both nuts, and the beer of choice is really Miller. Then 200 angry beer snobs wonder how drunk you were when you admitted to liking American mass-produced pilsner.
Describe to me how this conversation track can be followed? I'd have to subscribe to comments on 203 blogs - even our three would be too many. I wouldn't get notified of trackbacks on your or Ross's blogs, just mine, and when my friend Jennifer wants to follow the conversation, she would not only have to track it all over the place, she wouldn't know where to start!
What I'd rather see is a new kind of blog entry, called a "conversation." Anyone can start one in their own blog. Then can then specify other authors who can comment in a one-at-a-time manner, with edit locking. So I might start the beer entry and then invite you and Ross to join in. I could end (and lock) the conversation any time.
You could still track back to it, and even comment, but the main entry would be OUR conversation.
(name not saved), September 11, 2004
Wouldn't it just be easier to syndicate comments? All use an aggregator that allows you to reply to and post comments from the client?
(name not saved), September 12, 2004
Depends on how it is implemented. Some feeds I subscribe to get updated everytime a comment is made to the post. That is extremely bogus especially when I couldn't care to watch that thread.
I like the way Blogware works now with comments and extending that to trackbacks just makes sense.
Additionally if there is a comment feed (and I guess a trackback feed) that would be fine but don't take away the current functionality. Not that you would but just making sure that email notification is still very desirable for trackbacks.