Blog Discussions

Can we find middle ground between blogs and forums?

In yesterday's blog entry, I looked at why registration doesn't always work.  Today, I'm going to look at some of the things that encourage participation in blogs and forums, and see if there's any middle ground between the two.

No registration.

I think this is a big part of why even a brand new blog can get lots of comments if you promote it in the right places.  If a visitor can post a comment without having to sign up and log in, the entry barrier is far lower than if they had to register first.

Unfortunately, a lot of forums do not allow you to do anything without registering.  Some forum systems provide this as an option but many do not.  Many forums do not wish to be overrun by spammers, which is fair enough - but if blogs have found a way to deal with this problem, why can't forums do the same?

No post counts.

Most forum software has a "post count" feature so you can see how many times a member has posted.  Some forums even use this as a way to give long-term members access to private areas.

Blog comments do not usually indicate this.  You just comment and that's it.  Post count doesn't give any guarantee of quality and can encourage spamming to boost someone's post count.  I think that removing the post count indicator allows people to comment as often or as infrequently as they like without worrying about how many times they post.

Keeping track of new content.

Most blogs are very focused on the latest posts and people add comments to those - readers do not add their own content.  This means that a blog traditionally displays the newest blog entry first, regardless of whether new comments are still coming in on the earlier entries.

Some blogs also provide a way to see the newest comments across all blog entries, so if you want to keep track of posts that have new comments, you can still do so.  On the other hand, forums usually push topics to the top whenever a new comment is posted.

I think that both options have their merits depending on what kind of content you're publishing.  I'd like a blog to show the newest content at the top regardless of comments, but a discussion area should show content according to the last comment.

Running blogs and forums together.

This is just a short list to highlight a few differences.  Now let's look at some problems with running a blog and a forum together on your site.

Integration troubles.

Some systems support integration.  Say you have a blog and a forum on your site.  Integration would mean that you only need one username to comment on both the blog and the forum.  Very handy if you have lots of different components on your site.

But on the other hand, running lots of different systems can be fraught with problems.  Upgrades have to be done one system at a time, and the risk of problems occurring with integrated systems is higher than if you just run one system.

There's also the issue of having to learn more than one system, as all systems work differently.  I would rather just have one system.

Blogs and forums don't go well together.

My opinion, of course.  The main issue I have with running a blog and a forum for the same site is that they become very separated.  The blog is one area, and the forums run totally separate.

Typically, a discussion area has several separate forums - sometimes duplicating some of the site, such as an area to comment on blog entries!  Why wouldn't you just ask people to comment directly on the blog?

True integration.

Instead of having half a dozen forums in a "discussions" section that is separate to the rest of my site (even if it uses the same theme), I'd much rather have a properly integrated forum.

By this I mean that I could put a discussion area at any point in my site.  So if you go to the Tutorials section, there would be a discussion area under there for people to discuss tutorials.

I would still encourage readers to comment directly on a tutorial if they wanted to say something about a page that's already on the site.  The forum could be used for people to suggest new tutorials or have a bit of fun and perhaps vote for their favourite tutorial.  Or give general feedback on the tutorials section - the kind of comments that wouldn't really apply to one tutorial, but to all of them.

I could also have discussion areas in my Music section, one for each album.  This might encourage more people to comment on the music there.  Sometimes you just want to list a few of your favourite tracks and say that you like the album.  It wouldn't really fit as a comment on one of the tracks as it applies to the whole album.  It would be better not to have one big music forum as this would make it harder to find comments on each album as they'd be mixed together.

Why I think this would work.

Let's go back to blogs.  If you're reading a blog entry and you think "hey, good point, but actually I have experienced something different"... will you comment if you have to scuttle off to a separate set of forums, find the forum you want to post in, register, log in, and post?

Now, if you went to my Tutorials section and wanted to suggest a new tutorial, would you be more likely to post your ideas if you could just add a post in a discussion area under Tutorials?  Or would you rather join a forum first?

It would eliminate duplication - you'd have one forum for each section on your site, but actually IN the site itself, instead of as a separate set of forums.  It would reduce confusion as to where certain comments go - you'd always post them in the area you're looking at.

What would you like to see?

I'd like to incorporate my discussion areas idea in one of the next updates for my website system, Majestic.  If you have any suggestions or comments on any of this, particularly if you'd be very interested in having this for your site, then please leave a comment.  Looking forward to hearing your ideas.
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