Blog Comments vs Forum

[Breakaway]

Which is better for a site?

[JimOfferman]

Depends on the site...

If you're just starting out, I'd go with comments because nothing kills a community faster than an empty forum. As you're building your blog/site, you use the comments to grow your community.

[missing]

I like forums. For one thing, old topics can be "bumped" so new comers can enter into old discussions, and perhaps revive them. But the main reason is that it's less authoritarian. "Blogs" tend to fall victim to a cult of personality, where it's the blogger who initiates new topics, and shapes the overall direction of a site. With a forum other members can choose to make themselves prominent. Consider these forums, and how many regular posters we have; many whom take on a sort of personality we get to know in addition to the blogger. We don't have to pay attention to every poster, but I imagine we all have our favorites whom we follow, and give extra special attention to. Consider if Steve Pavlina just had comments and no forum. He'd make a blog post and have 9456 comments in an unorganized line. Who in the hell is going to read all of them? Nobody. How much great stuff will one miss as a result? Forums are much easier to navigate so you have a better chance at finding the stuff most pertinent to you.

all that said, Jim has a point in that dead forums are really lame. So starting with comments might be a good idea. But a true measure of your success comes when you can have an active forum.

[ruchirkc]

Forums. I rarely comment on blogs solely to engage in a conversation...

[floslib]

I prefer forums. As was stated above, it's easier to follow any posters you happen to like in forums than in a thread of comments, and people can start their own conversations that relate to the topic at hand. Also, forums tend to have more organized conversation and less jumping around in any given conversation, due to the fact that they have more space for any conversations that come up.

That said, comments are good for small blogs, as they provide a place for discussion about the blog when a forum isn't viable yet. As well, there's no reason not to have comments unless the blog owner doesn't want to deal with any accompanying issues that go with them.

Basically, I think a forum is a better medium for a conversation, and the blog proper is a better medium for a presentation. Both have been used successfully outside what I think are their optimal areas though. I usually see this happen when people have limited resources and want to make the most of what they have.

[Brutha]

A forum needs a certain critical mass to get going. If having blog comments as forum gives you that criticial mass, get them in a forum.