LooseSuits

Well this is kind of both awkward and interesting because 9rules will have similar functionality in Ali2, but our implementation doesn't involve blog comments which is why I'm curious you went this route. Wouldn't blog owners want to keep the discussion on their site?

Once we get further along in our development we will drop some previews for everyone. We are still deciding what page to show this week to show everyone that we are working on beating the 2010 deadline.

I think this is an interesting initiative but at the same time it points out the flaws that are inherent in blog commenting. Comments are scattered all over the blogosphere as it is a distributed network. We need tools such as CoComments to keep track of our comments in one location. But I agree with Scrivs because instead of comments being scattered across the distributed network they are placed within the discussion they belong to. If we use this tool we redirect our comments to a hierarchical centralized node where there is no keeping track of the different blogs.
We definitely need a solution for commenting in the blogosphere but I wonder if this is the right solution.

PS: Where can I see this function in action? Where is this general forum located? Is it http://nuponuq.com/table/ ?

silvertje: WikiFray is the node for a group of bloggers and all comments there go to the WikiFray Forum. Open any of the recent top posts with the "[LINK]" showing after the subject line and you'll see how the comments tie back to the blog.

Scrivs: I do find I'm hesitant to broadcast what I'm up to--especially since I'm not really a pro at this stuff--but isn't competition inevitable? Anyway, the threaded forum like the one we're using has a limited appeal, so I figure copycats and parallels will most likely adopt the more popular flat forum model, as well as pack their applications with lots of bells and whistles. For nuponuq, it's more about the "words" as it were. Quality of contribution/conversation over quantity. The aim is to create a large, diverse and vibrant forum community that is attractive (challenging) to people who like to write, but don't write for a living. From there, we'll start drawing from that pool of forum writers--Writers for the (parent) Magazine side of the equation. It's ultimately a commercial endeavor. Crowdsourcing (ugh!), but with the goal of paying people who earned their chops in the forum real money to write for the magazine.

As for the "route", I suspect it's been a very long time (never?) since you're traffic software showed an average of 2, or 5, or even 10 visitors per day. However, that's pretty much the reality for many many bloggers. Some because they're just getting started, others because they don't write every single day, etc. The forum right now will probably generate more than a dozen views per comment, and that number will only grow...

Oh, we don't mind competition at all and it's always best to get your ideas out there to see what people think. As I said before you have a bit of a different take on things than we do functionality wise. Again, though I ask why would anyone want their blog comments to appear on another site where you won't even know what the discussion is?

The blog posts are the topic of discussion.

Let's see. I'm not much of a fan of the "push button" web. Rating posts with a click, surfing the web almost exclusively with your mouse. That's not to say I don't recognize how hugely popular thumbs up, thumbs down mob surfing has become, but I think there are still people out there who prefer to "express" their opinions in words (with a keyboard). So the first hurdle of a blogger with nuponuq comments is to write something that's worth "commenting" on. Of course, spam is an issue, so that hurdle is even higher since the commenter has to register in order to comment. Not a lot of people are going to volunteer for that test. But I don't care about them. I care about attracting the type of people who enjoy a challenge, who want to be challenged.

With that in mind, if a comment pops up on the forum from a blog, that comment is an endorsement, even if it's critical of the blog post it is in response to. And it also says something about the commenter. Here is someone who went through the trouble to register and express their approval or disapproval in words.

Welcoming that comment/bookmark are a pool of people with diverse interests, opinions on just about everything, and most importantly, who aren’t afraid to express those opinions in words. Conservatives, liberals, independents, Canadians... Housewives, scientists, administrative assistants... All people who have chosen not to plant roots in an echo chamber.

Of course, as the site grows so will the need to funnel topical posts to topical boards. In time there will be a Politics board, a board for Science, Technology, Advice... So if your blog is about Politics, you can send your forum comments to the Politics board. But although that board may be favorited by political wonks, it will also be frequented by the housewives, Canadians...

So sure, it won't be for everyone. It's not about being easy, or exclusive, or immediate gratification, or even being nice. It's about discovering whether your opinions, your writing, can matter. Ultimately, that's the topic being discussed, and challenged, and honed.

Where's my pulpit?

Here is where I see the flaw. The average blogger puts a lot of effort into their blog, some more than others but the effort is there. For those bloggers that want people to read their words and interact with users, they work hard to bring people to their site. They use different means to attract people to their site and foster interaction.

For most bloggers it makes no sense for a comment on their copyrighted material to appear anywhere else but their blog. It would be a disadvantage for them to do this. Not only a disadvantage, there is no advantage for them to do it. A lot of advantage to the forum (easily populating the forum with threads), no advantage to the blogger.

Bloggers usually do one of two things: close comments all together (and perhaps use something like Technorati to point to other people talking about their entries) or have comments open and want to interact (read opinions) on their content. Those that want the interaction...I don't see them going to another site trying to keep track of what is being said about their entries.

Am I missing something about your concept? I realize you don't want to give full details but perhaps you can explain what the advantage is for the blogger to do this.

Well, there's the increase in traffic advantage. A comment to the forum includes a link back to the blog which forum users will follow--and traffic counters will point right to them (i.e. that's how you keep tabs). Simple as that. As for hording comments, I don't see people upset that their content is being discussed on Digg, or someone writes a post on their blog in reply instead of a comment. In fact, it's just the opposite. Comments happening elsewhere only serve to increase the size of the audience. nuponuq is no different in that respect. Also, and I think this is probably the deal maker or breaker, "threaded" discussion is fundamentally different and has some important (to some people) advantages over a flat list of comments. You either appreciate the different quality of threaded discussions, or you don't care. If you're the former, if you've always wanted threaded comments on your blog, now you can have them. One last point I don't want to get lost: It's not an either or proposition. You can have regular comments right along side forum comments. This way, your readers have a choice, but I'll be willing to bet blog authors will come to hope their readers choose the forum since those are the comments that will result in a direct and quantifiable increase in audience size.

I would like it more if there were a way to share replies from the forum as blog entry comments, and the comments on the blog as forum replies. However, that would be software specific such as code for a Wordpress and SMF forum combo.

Already I am dealing with finding good things to post on my SMF forum and also, sometimes wanting to post an excerpt on my blog. I have the WP java button for tossing the forum post over to the blog, and I actually cut and paste the div from the source of the forum post and get the smileys into the blog post.

Other than that, I use a widget on the homepage to show the latest blog entries to entice my forum users to use the blog.

Decidedly the information that I find for my users on blogs, I post excerpts with their links on my blog, and the stuff I find elsewhere I post on the forum.

shrugs...

I a learning as I go... but I do not think I will end up with a rule either way, but allow myself to make a decision based on the content of what I am posting whether it should go on the blog, the forum, or both. Even my own commentary on the blog, sometimes needs to be reiterated on the forum.

a coded bridge between the forum and blog would be nice, but these days we do not even have a bridge for the user database between SMF and WP, although someone is working on that right now.

I made a simple portal for SMF and the website homepage, but a competing portal with clout on SMF barred it from being made available to all SMF sysops. :(

so be careful, you never know whose toes a great idea might step on...

nada