I just finished reading Robert's thoughts on corporate versus personal blogs and am curious about the comments made below his post. While his post is thought provoking, some of the comments are more interesting. This leads me to wonder if we go to blogs with more comments because we are more free to express ourselves or are we more comfortable in being anonymous? Maybe there is another reason - we want to know what others think.

A few years ago I recall people starting blogs and advertising the new blogs through comments or trackbacks. Additionally, the quality of comments on sites like Slashdot were poor, at best. Because of this noise no real conversations took place. But the quality of comments appears to have increased. What do you think? Are you seeing an increase in quality comments when you go to your favorite blog?

Does the increase in quality prompt you to think about the original post in a different way? For example, is Robert's post naive? Several comments focus or reasons for WWII or the space race; some comments focus on the money aspect of blogging; others focus on the conversation and importance of variety; and finally other comments focus on the need for bloggers to get back on focus - as if they have lost their way.

Where am I going with these questions and observations? is there a missing element to blogs? I wonder if blogs are missing an important element found in Social sites. MySpace was popular because people were sharing a part of themselves and getting immediate feedback. Once the corporations took over then MySpace lost its appeal.

Many bloggers get the same high when people comment but the conversation is slow in comments. Forums allow people to post more information but remain apart from blogs; that is to say, most forums are separate from the community. Wikis are great tools, too. Yet, again, the problem is that the conversations are not streaming.

Loren created thredr because he is always curious about everyone's thoughts. He gets excited when people discuss technology. Most people I know love to engage in conversations in which there is an exchange of information - not a transmission from one person to another - but an exchange.

Maybe twitter is on the right track and the missing element. No, twitter has become people just giving out links to their blog posts. Maybe l am just following the wrong people.

Maybe comments should be tied to twitter and instant messaging applications. Imagine a live chat room of people discussing different elements of a blog posting-but the chat room includes people entering from their own blogs, twitter, IM, forums, Wikis I and aggregators (RSS feeds). Would that excite your mind?