As prominent blogger Steve Rubel notes, two high-traffic blogs -- Blog Maverick and Seth Godin's Blog -- have disabled the comments feature on their sites. According to Mark Cuban, author of Blog Maverick, comments have "devolved to the point where they add no value." And while Seth Godin thinks "comments are terrific," he has decided that they don't work for him. He does not have the time to review and respond to them and he anticipates that his writing may change over time as he anticipates the responses he will get from his readers. Certainly, comments can be a problem. Everyone has seen blog comment spam. Plus, comments can be rude, off topic, too

long, too cryptic, etc. For someone who doesn't have the time or doesn't want to invest the time, comments may not be worth it. But, I hope this isn't a trend. Comments can play an important role. They can add good information and make readers feel part of the discussion. And, there are ways to address the problems created by comments. For example, bloggers can review comments before they appear. Or, like Slashdot.org, the community itself can be given the task of monitoring the comments themselves (read more about this on Slashdot.org). In the end, comments will stay or go based on their perceived value. Personally, I do not to read comments as much as I used to primarily because I don't have the time. But, I also go right to the comments when I want more information on the topic being discussed. So, if you are a blogger, there are a few questions you should ask yourself: Are your comments causing a problem? What value do comments add to your blog? Should you screen comments before allowing them to appear? Do you need to consider a more sophisticated system like the one used by Slashdot.org? Answering these question should help you decide what you need to do, if anything.