A Comment on Comments

Here's my take on why I don't enable comments on this blog.

A piece of creative work, be it a film, a song, a book, a video, or a simple blog post, is the final word from the creator. In this context, it's a blog post from a blogger. 

A specific post is the final word on solving a specific problem and having comments does not make any difference in most cases. While blogs are non-fiction, the same applies to creative work like film reviews, book reviews, and other reviews. I understand that comments are not reviews, however they act like micro-reviews with different or similar viewpoints on a creative piece. 

All creative work stands for itself, and does not need any validation, appreciation, or further engagement other than it's consumption. In this context, it's reading the blog post. 

For a film, it's watching the film and experiencing it, and there's nothing beyond that. Even if a creator receives a comment, there's nothing that can be done and there's nothing to be done in the first place, so it's a waste of time and effort from both parties.

Also comments demand responses and it's highly time consuming. If enabled, it would be rude to not respond to kind people who love your work. Best to avoid such scenarios. Even though good comments are encouraging, it should not feed the creator. A creator needs absolute intrinsic motivation and not external motivation. Comments Are not creative fuel. All creative work has to come from within. 

On the other end, if someone has a totally different take on a post, it's not even worth responding to the comment, because that's what a piece of writing does and should do. Either you agree to it, see some value, or you have a totally different perspective, and even a better one. (In such a case, comments might help as sharing better ideas can help other readers. However this is an exception) The only purpose of the blog post is to instigate thought and it does the job either ways. So, no point in enabling comments. 

If it's a corporate blog, then it's a different story as the objectives are clear. 

Well, as far as feedback is concerned, a creator doesn't need one. Feedback is not for original creative work, it's for process driven work like serving food at a quick service restaurant, customer service, project management, etc. It's process driven and not creative driven. (You can find creative ways to do such work as well, however it needs validation from the collective and the work is done mostly by the book.) A film, a song, a painting, a book, a blog post does not need comments. It's only purpose is to be consumed as an experience by the audience, as they go on with their wonderful life.