I was reading some articles which debate the merits of allowing or not allowing comments on websites and blogs. On one hand, you have people who argue that not allowing comments is akin to silencing "free speech" and that webmasters should be held accountable for their content via open commenting. That it encourages community, sharing and return visits. On the other hand, you have people who simply don't want to deal with the hassle of moderating and managing comments that are 99% troll-filled bile that are made and viewed by a very small percent of their overall traffic. The time management issue of comment moderation doesn't make sense from a business standpoint, so sites just keep them closed. I'm curious what the DP community thinks?
I would support you allow comments on your site. Comment is a nice way of getting feedback from your loyal readers. Also, though it depends on ones website but if you offer a website that teaches people how to do something, you will be expecting questions from your readers and comments is one way of solving this.
I wasn't talking about my site. I was talking about all sites in general. I'm not confused on whether I want comments or not on different sites of mine.
I think it would depend entirely on the purpose of the website. For example, on my Amazon Affiliate sites, I don't allow any comments because it would serve no purpose... On the other hand, a website designed to help people on a topic - even though moderation is a pain, allowing comments only makes sense.
My opinion is that every webmaster needs to alow commenting! It's so helpful for building relationships with a potential customers. And Google actually ranks higher sites with social engagement. We are living in an era of social media expansion, so to make better marketing results webmasters need to include social proofs by being open and supportive!
It helps if you use the facebook or twitter login widgets with your commenting system instead of just a generic login. That eliminates a huge percentage of trolling and spamming.