---
title: Are Blogger Users Part Of The Conversation?
date: 2005-03-08T22:27:15Z
modified: 2005-03-08T22:27:15Z
permalink: "https://redmonk.com/jgovernor/are-blogger-users-part-of-the-conversation/"
type: post
status: publish
excerpt: ""
wpid: 160
categories:
  - Uncategorized
timestamp: 2005-03-08T22:27:15Z
tags:
  - Uncategorized
---

The reason i ask is i rarely post comments to Blogger sites, because i am not a user. The forced registration is just not cool, something i have blogged on [before](http://www.redmonk.com/MT-2.661/mt-comments.cgi?entry_id=105). The latest blog i can’t post too is [Mythinformation of Sewing, Patterns & Production](http://www.designer-entrepreneurs.com/blog/2005/02/tailoring-and-english-cut.html)

Why am i looking at a sewing blog? Because i am interested in open source business models beyond software.

So what about Blogger? Well i never post to [Simon Phipps](http://www.webmink.net/2005/02/patents-wildlife.htm). Why he uses a tool with a a forced identity system that doesn’t even work all the time is beyond me. But each to his own I guess. But how many interesting comments is Simon missing? If you’re a Blogger user that chooses to only allow comments from other Blogger users that’s like not allowing deep linking or something. It’s fine if your blog is a broadcast, but not if you want a feedback loop.

Of course I appreciate that comment spam is a big problem for many blog platforms, or in MT’s case, trackback spam (**I would like get hold of the people responsible for the Texas Holdem poker spam and give each of them multiple papercuts on their eyeballs and then pour salt, lemon, tabasco and tequila into their bleeding corneas**. now **rinse**…. and **repeat**…). Registration can significantly reduce the problem, but i dont want to have to register before i post to your blog. That is a barrier to entry that winds me up. Sometimes you don’t want to do a trackback. Or post anonymously and enter details in the body text.

Even MSN Spaces users, which you would expect to be fully Passport protected, seem more open to comments.

I can’t help thinking that Scoble makes a [solid point](http://radio.weblogs.com/0001011/2005/03/03.html#a9505) about how Google is held to different standards than MS, even when it does things that freaked people out badly when Microsoft tried them. Ah [The Power Of Context](http://www.gladwell.com/tippingpoint/index.html). If Simon Phipps was using MSN Spaces he would have migrated a long time ago.

What is Blogger’s detault? And are Blogger users having less rich interactions ? What do you think?