This reminds me of a post I just read on Ethical Corporation, in which the author bemoans the lack of critical thinking and analysis in sustainability. I think it applies to blogs in general, like your thoughts here.

http://www.ethicalcorp.com/con.....entID=6567

I’d rather get no comments at all than the inane compliments or insults you’re referring to. When I do get comments that expand the conversation, it tells me the post was worthwhile. It helps me develop future content in that direction. So whether I get comments or not, it’s helpful.

I do think that there is something to be said for the commenter that continually comments on a blog. I want to say that those are the the people that your messages resonates with on a recurring basis. They’re the ones who want to have a relationship with you, in some hopefully non-creepy way. ;)

Those are the people I’m looking for, because I too am looking for discussion around the topics I write about.

(heh, I don’t really do this, but beggars can’t be choosers and all that jazz)

But seriously Justin, I think you have a great point. People will use comments for their own particular purpose. The question is at what point does discourse cease, and people are just shouting at themselves?

But I tend not to be as pessimistic. We are seeing social media evolve, and the best sites and systems will be those that persist. So in the long run, I think we will see niches emerge that suit people’s needs, whether it be for self-promotion, vociferous ranting, or intelligent conversation.

Forget using captcha; is there a way bloggers can require people to pass a 20 question excerpt from the SATs before they’re allowed to comment? (Yes, I know this makes me elitist; I’d rather have one intelligent discussion than 20 “hey, good job!” platitudes.)