Cuban Kills Blog Comments

Dallas Mavericks owner and blogger Mark Cuban has disabled the ability for readers to leave comments. In a post about being called names he finishes by saying:"For the record, Im not turning on comments, they have devolved to the point where they add no value."

Mark's move is quite surprising. He has been open to feedback throughout his entire career, especially after he became a billionaire. In fact, his consistent approachability is nothing short of remarkable. He answers many of the thousands of emails he receives. I respect his decision, but I think there's something bigger going on here.

Cuban is the second influential blogger to openly poo-poo comments this month. Earlier, Seth Godin made similar remarks. I wonder if in part this is because the tools for moderating and mining comment data are pitiful.

This is one reason why some - myself included - don't find intra-blog conversation nearly as valuable as the inter-blog dialogue. I can search and measure the latter in ways I can't with the former. Blog comments are great and valuable to read, but still hard to sift, sort and respond to if you get a lot of them. Hopefully some smart entrepreneurs will fix this soon. When a blog like Mark's gets hundreds of comments per post, you need something to help you mine it all.

Technorati Tags: Mark Cuban, Comments

Comments

[David Weiner]

I think the heat of losing the finals finally got to him. Are there way too many puns in that sentence? unintentional foul.

[David]

It's a tough call for a popular blog like his, but his sports-related (99% NBA) posts bring out the crazy sports fan in many and I can understand why he'd flip them off. Too many nuts, too many trolls. However, I wouldn't be surprised if he flipped them back on for some tech-related posts in the near future.

[Amanda Heismann]

I wonder if there is a better way to manage the community that revolves around bloggers. There almost has to be, but don't ask me what it is.

[Daniel Bernstein]

Typepad could easily package a solution as an uber-premium service ... using some of the same technologies as Gmail. Thing is, I wonder if it's actually worth the investment to develop. Really, how many bloggers actually face similar problems??

[David@mokum]

I think that Daniel in the post above has hit the nail on the head; the market for a product like this would be very small. the criteria would be:
a - huge volumes of comments
b - an author who is actually concerned about the content of the comment
Micro market I think. (Sorry, no pun intended here either...)

[makethelogobigger]

It’s a pretty amazing turn considering his openess. I previously posted there a few times, and the discussions were for the most part, intelligent back and forth. Not sure what happened recently between him and fans though.

As for market for this kind of tool to mine content? I see it as VERY useful for agencies and brands to scan all the blogs out there for any relevant consumer insights/comments based on key search phrases and/or words.

[Randy Charles Morin]

I think Mark is just going thru a hard time. I'm sure he'll turn on comments when he cools off.

[Will McInnes]

Bloggers with significant communities are finding it tough to manage trackbacks, comments and spam to both especially.
Whilst we wait for decent tools to emerge busy bloggers are closing down these areas of functionality, but I believe we're losing a critical piece of the conversation that shouldn't be underestimated. Dialogue is what it's all about, and - whether it's easier to track or manage or not - that dialogue isn't as direct or 'democratic' if it relies on the other half of the conversation taking place on the reader's own blog. Many people will not write their own blogs, for example.
I really hope comments don't die in the long term, and certainly don't expect them to, if only because of their enormous value.

[Chris Bayiokos]

First thing that comes to mind is the digg comments feature that eventually hides the comment when enough people give it a negative, and can be viewed only if the user chooses to. Secondly, this could prevent negative comments due to the fact the poster would know it will soon be buried and thus a waste of time and in some ways embarrassing. Automatic filters will never work to the extent that "democratic" filters will.

[Daniel Bernstein]

Chris, do people really care enough to digg comments??

[Chris Bayiokos]

Of course. You do know of Digg, don't you? The thumbs up and thumbs down feature on individual comments. If people are spending time commenting, they would surely exercise expressing their opinions on another comment by clicking a button to give it a positive or negative vote. This would assist in controlling comments, in a different way.

[Darren McLaughlin]

I don't think he should do it. It seems like he doesn't want feedback anymore.

He could have easily implemented technology to make moderating the comments very easy.

[Josh Morgan]

Everyone seems to have conflicting numbers on how many people read blogs and how many actively participate by posting etc. But as the number that actively participate grows can a single person with a popular blog actually be expected to keep it completely interactive?
With a corporate blog, a team can be assigned to moderate comments, and while Cuban could definitely afford 'people' to do this for him that doesn't seem to be his style.

[kenji mori]

comment is disabled on this entry. but you can comment on later entries.

[Reading Online]

he'll turn on comments when he cools off.

[Reading Online]

I really hope comments don't die in the long term, and certainly don't expect them to, if only because of their enormous value

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