I have a feeling that blogging as a medium for passing news is becoming less authorative as we are going on. Bloggers used to be symbols of authroity who – because they had a website – you should listen to them.
Not anymore. And here’s why.
Three years ago blogger launched a new comment system. The system, that pretty much killed YACCS and crippled Haloscan, is the commenting system you see on blogger blogs today. The system had one flaw: if you weren’t on blogger, you couldn’t leave your website address. You could comment linking to your blogger account, or leave your name, or leave anonymous comments.
Needless to say, people were quite up in arms about it. There were blogs here and there asking why they couldn’t link to an external website that wasn’t a blogger blog, and eventually Google recinded.
Now, they’ve removed the box to link to an external website, which I only found out after commenting on A.T.’s and Mike’s website:
Why, I have no idea. I take Randa’s thoughts in that Google Have Become Too Big For Their Britches. It can’t be a spam measure, as 60% of Google Blogspot Blogs are Spam. My thoughts are that Google are trying to create an enclosed blogging network, whereby you can’t advertise your blog unless it’s within the network. Of course, I use the word advertise loosely. I do visit every blog that leaves a comment on mine. It just seems like it’s creating a closed internet, and I don’t like it.
If you’ve got a blogspot blog, there are a few things I can suggest.
1. Switch To WordPress – It’s not that expensive! And you’d show more authority by switching! Unless of course you are someone like Diamond Geezer, who’s huge, and is already taking advantage of point 2.
2. Switch To an Offsite Commenting System – Free, but often quite limited, but lets be honest when was the last time you read a comment on an old post? Of course e-mail notification is lacking on most of these. The best at the moment in my opinion is Haloscan, but I’m willing to hear other people’s arguements.
3. Blog About It - Seriously, kick up a fuss, make an arguement, and say why you think Google have removed the external link box. It’s something to blog about.
Comments: 20 Comments
Rhys Wynne, the author of this blog, is a 20 something web designer from Colwyn Bay. 
I noticed this too, but didn’t mention it on any of my blogs.
I hate the new system, now I can’t leave a comment and my url, unless I use a blogger screen name…weak.
Blogging was never authoritative for the exact reason you give – it’s just some guy with a website!
I noticed that too, and it’s a bit disappointing really. I’ve started putting my URL as a link in the footer of the comment.
The more effort i have to put into leaving a comment the less likely I am going to comment. Time is money.
That’s bad, and I use Blogger and haven’t noticed.
I’ve been busy localizing a truly multilingual small Basque blogging platform called Nireblog into Welsh, but hadn’t swithched my personal blogs over to it as I’m not 100% how well supported the service will be, despite the developers being very helpful during translation process.
I’ve just been looking again at WordPress.org (which is 33% through the long localization process into Welsh) and this could be the just the last straw.
Yeah i agree, i found a couple of blogs yesterday that interested me and i wanted to leave a comment but it wouldn’t let me without a blogger account.
I think people are far too keen to see controversy where in actual fact there is none. It seems like everyone wants to attack Google right now because it makes them look smart, and part of the ‘big crowd’. Er, no, it makes people look like sheep.
LiveJournal doesn’t allow you to leave your URL with comments unless you sign up for an account (or leave the url in the comment). Neither do its derivatives GreatestJournal and InsaneJournal. Vox doesn’t allow you to leave your URL with comments unless you sign up for an account – in fact, I’m not even sure it’s possible to comment on vox journals without an account full stop. ClearBlogs – guess what? No URL allowed unless you sign up. Blog.com – no ‘add comment’ form for a user without an account. Blogster.com .. oh would you look at that, no way to leave a comment, let alone a URL, without an account.
Stop spreading FUD, Rhys
While I think you are partially right, I think there is one point everyone is missing.
Just like Google is trying to squash Do-Follow ads, this measure is trying to squash Do-Follow comments. Blogger comments have always been No-Follow by default but can easily be hacked to Do-Follow but with this new change they have eliminated that possibility.
I look for them to soon eliminate any Do-Follow links from Blogger blogs and begin penalizing all blogs for any non-content Do-Follow links just like they have with PPP and TLA.
Yes, these are spam reduction techniques because in Google’s eyes, anything that doesn’t pass through them is spam.
I’d never want to use a blog commenting system that required you to be “a member of something” before you were allowed to leave a comment.
I can see why Livejournal, and Vox, and now Blogger are doing it. But it kills any attempt at online conversation stone dead.
Hurrah for Haloscan, I say.
I have to agree with many of the above comments. It’s just one more irritation that deters me from commenting on an interesting article. As far as I can tell it’s not good for bloggers, nor for commenters, which makes me wonder exactly what the benefit of such a system is!
Yeah I agree with you on this. It is one of the reasons that I moved from Blogger to wordpress. Much more flexibility with comments–although my wordpress blog could still use more comments
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Blogging is becoming non. Don’t know if it ever was authoritative.
Maybe bloggers are just fooling themselves. Nevertheless, electronic media will crush the staid mainstream media most of us grew up with.
Network news and newspapers are becoming a joke. I look forward to their demise over the next decade or so.
They really are not authoritative either. Maybe they were fooling themselves of their importance to society.
I just noticed that too and it almost pissed me off! Google are dorks!
I wrote my own system that combines the flexibility of a CMS with the simplicity of a blog. I use it for three of my own sites plus several others. WordPress is not the only alternative.
Yes, this is really annoying. I have a non-Blogger blog myself. Fortunately I have a Blogger account from back when ‘Blog About Your Blog’ was on Blogger and I used to contribute to that. The difficult bit was remembering how to log on. (I don’t think you *need* a Blogger blog to have a blogger/Google account, do you?) So if you look at my Blogger profile, I’ve included a note to say ‘click on web site’ to see my blog. This means I’m accessible but it’s an extra click of the mouse. The other possibility is just to add my blog URL at the foot of the comment (as someone suggests above) though that’s a little spammy.
Yeah, I noticed that too with blogger. I don’t like it, but than again I am not a fan of blogger blog to begin with…
I would so love to switch my blogger blog to WordPress. (I use WordPress for my other blog, and really. No comparison.)
But how can I do it elegantly: without losing subscribers or link juice?
There’s the rub!
i think you are rite but thats not good and i am a bit sad about it.
Im thinking that with OpenID being tested in blogger commenting area, it makes me consider stay with them
But I don’t want to sign up to OpenID to comment!