Ryan C Briggs

I was thinking about putting some kind of comment section in my blog when I realized that I already have an amazing one. It is linked above and it is called Twitter. I realize that Twitter wasn’t made for this, but it seems to me that Twitter wasn’t made for any specific task at all. Twitter is given meaning by how people use it, whether that is posting news, darth vader impersonations, or messages from Egyptian jails.

People need to start using Twitter for blog comments. Using Twitter achieves the same goal as comments (facilitating discussion), but improves upon regular comment systems in two ways. First, using Twitter instead of comment systems forces brevity upon long-winded commenters, thanks to Twitter’s 140 character limit. Secondly, using Twitter for comments creates user-level continuity between different websites.

The second point is the real key. Twitter posts (tweets) operate like short, public emails. You carry you identity around between sites so you are less likely to make idiotic posts under the protection of complete anonymity. You also can get more credit for clever posts. For example, if someone makes a clever comment I might check out their webpage or follow them. This punishes the assholes and rewards people who make insightful posts.

Using Twitter for comments also takes advantage of the linked nature of the internet. I can see who a commenter is following and all of the other comments they have made to many different sites and people. Using Twitter in place of comments encourages better discussion, discourages trolling and creates public networks of exchanges and commenters.

Twitter for blog comments. Who is with me?