Do comments make a blog a blog?

There’s an interesting conversation happening over at TechCrunch today about the power of comments on a blog. The poll is still open, but with 2300+ votes already gathered there seems to be a strong feeling that comments enhance the content of a blog.

Poll results: Jan 1 9:05 pm est:



On a personal note, I find it annoying to read blogs that don’t encourage conversation. But that's just me. On the other hand I also think it's fine to use a "blogging tool" to merely publish time sensitive information, like press releases, library programs, etc. to easily create RSS feeds. But if you're gonna call it a "blog" and acknowledge it as such to your readers, then I think there's an inherit implication that you're interested in feedback and creating a conversation.

Anyway, there’s still time to weigh in – what are your thoughts?