I'm thinking about turning off comments on my blogs. I'm sick of dealing with all the comment spam. I'm no prude but even reading the names of some of the links people are spamming me with is disgusting.
One problem is I'd really like to have some back and forth with my visitors, but not many of them bother to comment.

Has anyone turned off their comments? Did you have any sort of reaction from your visitors?

I haven't, but I have thought about it for the same reason. I'm leaning more toward adding something like captcha to eliminate some of the spam.

Another reason I've heard for turning off comments has nothing to do with spam. It's more that a blog lacking comments seems like a blog that isn't read, which can keep people from coming back. Turning them off allows might help build up a readership sooner at which point you can turn the comments back on.

I'm still planning on leaving comments on for now in spite of both the above.

Have you considered using a better blog script? I use the open source serendipity system (s9y.org) and it has built in captcha, email notfications for comments, moderation for comments to old posts (you decide how old) and even comment moderation based on number of links in comment. It has saved my neck a number of times especially with the forced moderation of comments on old posts.

Since my blogs are fairly new, I can't really turn off the comments just yet as you would really lose the needed interaction with your readers. I guess, there's nothing left for me to do but to patiently delete each spam comment. Hard job, really.

I wouldn't turn off the comments feature myself. I can understand where you are coming from but I look at dozens of blogs a day and the ones with few or no comments seem to be lacking in readership, in my opinion.

Zenjen there are reasons to keep the comments off even if the blog is new. If it's new you might not get comments since you're building readership. No comments could make it look like no one's reading. Having them off could actually help you build a readership in that case and you could turn them on at a later date.

For spam I recently installed the did you pass math plugin. I first saw Tim using it on his blog actually and later looked for the plugin. I don't care much for the image verification ones like captha, because they can be alomost impossible sometimes for someone to get right.

The math one is easier for spammers to defeat I think, but for me it's almost stopped all spam to the blog. I went from getting anywhere from 20 to 50 spam comments a day to having gotten about 5 since I installed the plugin

Google turns off comments on their webmaster blog, if you want an excuse not to and you want to play follow-the-leader a bit.

You could also just force moderation on all comments. That might work.

Askinet spam cathces a lot of mine. I love it, the comments are held for moderation if the system thinks they're spam.

I know a few Blogs where comments are turned off. But I would actually love to get more visitor reactions, but I think that will increase with time just as the traffic. Right now I get maybe 1 comment in 2 or 3 days.

I currently have all comments set to moderation. I wouldn't suggest switching off the comments unless you know that you can get the same interest and interactiong with the visitors.

How about the default spam protector on Wordpress - Akismet?. Is it good or you need a better one?. Thanks

Very good. I've only had a few things slip through. And adding some new keywords to block helped out with that.

I keep my comments for all of my blogs on. Personally you never know when someone will want to leave an insightful comment.

On the other hand, lack of comments can tip away a low visitor count blog. Leaving a bunch of zero comment posts is never a good idea.

I'd suggest using plugins that draw in comments.. such as Brians Comment Plugin for Wordpress.

If found that for the more successful blogs people will comment just to get a link to thier site from the "website" field. From there the comments tend to snowball. All you need is some snow...

Good luck!

I leave my comments on, but moderate them heavily. I'm having the same dilemma you are, Jeremiah. I'm trying to find some plugins to fight the spam altogether, but so far no luck. If you find a solution, let me know!

Well, I currently have comments turned on. I love seeing new comments and moderating them. I consider them as "Testimonials" for my articles. I would never turn off moderation. But, I've read a post How Comments Can Make You Lose Readers. I'm convinced with his theory.

He says, if I've a new site, I have low readers and low comments. So, when new readers come and see the comment section. They would leave the blog thinking that no one reads the blog. Well, christhirst responded that "it is link bait at work". View the forum here :- Should I moderate comments ? .But is that completely true ? Was it John's way to get some links or is it the bare truth ?

While it may be true, I don't write the blog for other people to read. Well, a few other people, but they'll read it anyway. Mostly I write it for me, so if I have readers its's just a bonus.

Hey Waffles, write it for yourself ? Man, then take a good old paper and write it for yourself. Technology puts hand down there. I think writing for readers is the better approach. Make them convinced. Give them all you've got. Thats the spirit. Are you writing a personal diary blog or something ? In that case, you're absolutely right because, while writing diaries, writing for the readers may make it a little artificial and may veil the genuineness. Anyway, a pretty confusing question isn't it ?

Go check it out for yourself

What I meant was, I write it because I want to, and I know that a few other people in the world (somewhere around 3) will want to read it too. Plus, this way lets me write something and share it with someone if I think they'll be interested in a certain post. And if I'm lucky, they'll stick around and read more of it.

Well I understood what you meant waffles. I have a friend who travels frequently and so keeps a blog with some pictures and a few basic words of what she's been up to. It's mostly a way to save her from having to email everyone exactly the same thing.

She doesn't promote it because she's only interested in having a few friends read it and we already know the URL.