Tech billionaire Mark Cuban, whose forthright communication makes him one of my heroes, has turned off comments on his blog….
He said that “they have devolved to the point where they add no value.” I hope he won’t take offense that I am taking one of his quotes out of context, but he told Online Journalism Review in an interview, that there is “nothing smarter than listening to your customers.”
However, considering that many of Cuban’s blog posts get a thousand or more comments, it’s not hard to see that managing comments could be time-consuming. But Cuban is Mr. Open Conversation, so I hope the policy will apply only to his posts about sports and not to his posts about business and technology.
I emailed him to ask for a comment on the comment issue, but have yet to have a response. That’s odd, because Cuban lives by email: it’s how he does his media interviews; it’s how he recommends that executives improve their images; and it’s often how he initiates conversations. If you read this Mark, I’d love the opportunity to do an interview with you.
Cuban has had a remarkable impact on dead-tree journalism, and on C-level blogging. He also just snagged Dan Rather to become an investigative reporter for his HDNet, and is soon to start the already controversial sharesleuth.com which will focus on “corporate chicanery and securities fraud.”
I hope Cuban will provide a little more perspective on his decision because removing comments also makes a blog a one-way medium instead of a two-way conversation.
My comment policy is that I won’t allow anything to be said on my blog that I wouldn’t allow in my living room, and I certainly won’t let people call me names as they have Cuban. But I won’t turn comments off, despite tons of spam, because comments are a type of checks and balances for blogs.
I’m going to throw this out there…
Seriously, something like this does tend to come across as “feedback is a hassle now” kind of attitude.
I think all of us human beings are wired with an “elite gene”. This gene can become “activated” once we reach a certain level of success.
It’s something that needs to be overcome.
Maybe this is not the case entirely–but like you said BL, how do we know without “a little more perspective on his decision”
Well said. Given how Mr. Cuban admits he talks in his home, were he to apply the same “living room” policy as you, none of his readers’ posts would be declined anyway. I am a big Mark Cuban fan. I hope he opens up his blog again.
I think most people thought he meant he was turning comments off forever. He just meant that post. His two posts since have comments on.
Comments are back on with his shout out for a site that breaks down the balance of officiating in the Finals. The Mavs (an Acxiom Direct client) and especially Cuban came up short on the court, but are the Web 2.0 champions of professional sports.
I don’t think Cuban is being elitist. I think he’s trying to keep the conversation from falling to the lowest common denominator. I think he considered his other readers who weren’t rabid sports fans, and decided that they might not want to read the commnets that particular post was generating.
But I still want to know why I haven’t gotten an answer to my email to Mark Cuban. What am I, chopped liver? I hope you ego-check technorati. we’re talking about you.
:>)
BL
It seems to me that if you’re not going to allow comments on a blog, then you’re not doing a blog anymore. All you have is one person writing to a bunch of passive readers..which is, well, like a book. So, those people who do this should just say they are writing a book and forget about all this blog business.
If your blog allows trackbacks, and if you have a blogroll, and if you have lots of links to illustrate what you write, it’s not really a book.
I agree that comments should be part of a blog.
But the fundamental blogginess comes from the community that is created by a blogger who is active in the online community conversations (like Ann, that busy little bee.)