gemini.git

96bddd9c7bb17f65372d735a6f99bfe7b69cc432 - Matthew Ernisse - 1596328556
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+Title: Why my web blog doesn't have a comment system
+Date: 8/1/2020 20:35
+
+Years ago when I wrote the software that underlies my web blog I made the
+explicit decision to not support comments.  I was replacing WordPress and
+one of the design goals was to not rely on dynamically generated pages.
+I felt (and still do) that generating a page on every view (either on the
+server or the client) is a tremendously wasteful thing to do for most web
+sites.  I also wanted to minimize the attack surface and the amount of
+exposure to security risks existed on my web site, and finally I wanted
+to have a publish-only system.
+
+Creating a publish-only system certainly made writing the software a lot
+easier.   It meant I didn't need a database, I didn't need to accept any
+user input, and I didn't need to think about farming out a comment system
+to some third party that I'm totally sure I would have been able to trust
+not to spy on my visitors.  The real motivation though was I really can't
+stand comments on the web.  The worst seems to tend to come out in people
+when you can let them leave anonymous comments on pages, especially if they
+think those comments will get seen by others.
+
+As a result I decided to provide a link to my e-mail address on each post to
+encourage readers to interact directly with me if they care to.  Something
+about writing an e-mail feels way more personal than leaving a comment.  I
+feel like there are two angles working unconsciously there, one being you've
+got a window with a single 'To' address, the other being when you drop a
+comment in a comment form you are as much speaking to the other commenters
+as you are the author.  I wanted to encourage the one-on-one, human to human
+connection and honestly I like it.  I don't get a lot of comments, but what
+I do get is pretty high quality.
+
+While one-on-one is certainly nice I do see the value in having a conversation
+out in the open.  I like the convention on the Geminiverse of reply posts.  It
+enables discourse out in the open but requires more investment than just
+filling out a form and ties the reply to the reputation of the poster.  All
+in all a really good outcome.
+
+The funny thing is that I think the web has moved on beyond where something
+like what is happening on Gemini is even possible.  The systems that have been
+built to drive engagement and encourage people to give away all their data
+seem to ultimately encourage dog-piling, not useful discourse.  This is probably
+because we are more apt to react to something that makes us angry and of course
+engagement is the end goal, right?  I think it's a big part of why web comments
+irritate me so, the whole system has the same feeling as the layout of a
+department store, designed with the sole intent to get what it wants out of
+you.  It doesn't help that more and more you can't tell what is actually a
+person and what is a bot, so add to the stack of reasons you're unlikely to
+ever really have a discussion in that environment.
+
+I remember the web before all of this.  And the sad thing is that I don't
+really see a way back for it.  It feels like the web is going to continue to
+basically be a corporate application delivery platform and it's up to us
+to continue to seek out places where we can actually form communities.