1938Media provocateur and curmudgeon Loren Feldman had this to say about Disqus, Phreadz and Seesmic, startups trying to make a go of comment conversations (the latter two via video):

Now, it’s fair to mention that Loren likes to get mileage out of bursting bubbles (and the world of Web 2.0 is full of them) but I think it’s fair to tease out his arguments.

- Bloggers don’t care about comments; it’s all about the blogger’s vanity. For any blogger that is sensitive to the idea that s/he’s speaking to an actual audience, comments do matter. (For sploggers, they might be completely superfluous) If you’re blogging and no one’s listening, aren’t you just journaling?

- Most comments are one-dimensional and lame (”I agree with you! What a great post! Here’s a link to my Website!”). Yes, maybe some are. But it’s a law of numbers. For every 100 readers, 10 will comment. 5 will leave spammy/meaningless comments, and a handful will leave insightful comments, some of which are in response to previous insightful comments. The total number of comments might be meaningless, but the number of insightful comments gives a clear indication to how many people you’re really reaching and connecting with.

- Who has time to comment? Well, it’s clear Loren’s not a commenter! But plenty are. And some frequent commenters develop a following of their very own on certain blogs, regardless whether the blogger has the time to interact with them or not.

What’s clear, though, at least to me, is that there the reason blog comments are superficial, and conversation attempts so clumsy (via “here’s a link to my blog” entries), is that there hasn’t been a platform for them. There’s a latent need for blog readers to interact with the blogger and other commenters, and, like most latent needs, the solution isn’t necessarily always well-articulated by would-be beneficiaries.

For that reason, I like attempts like Disqus and SezWho to thread blog conversations and follow them across blogs, and even Phreadz & Seesmic for bringing the video dimension to commenting.

We at Dyalogues also understand that blog readers are not all passive, not just providing feedback and “vanity votes” to the blogger. A small number are interested in deeper interaction. The blog post is only a springboard for discussion. The question becomes: where and how does that conversation take place?