@davidbisset most of my stuff is RSS now, but more sites need to really support it at a standard. It makes them less money, but hopefully they can get over that. I'm hoping #Discourse integrates #ActivityPub more, they have it in the early stages as an extension. There's also the #phpbb forum software that is working on polished Activitypub support as well. So I'm hoping we get the start of a revival of forums in 2024. I already saw momentum with #fedi blogs last year as well.
@davidbisset Theoretically everything could make a comeback this year, but why do you think these particular things would? And why do you think it will have any impact on the proprietary services you listed?
Don't get me wrong, I'd love for free software and freely available content to return as the norm, but looking at my non-tech inclined friends and family, I don't see any signs of this happening.
@HughWRoberts it's been a "thing" for many folks in my #WordPress circles and sites I follow to close blog comments because of spam and low quality responses. I've seen the occasional opening of comments on personal blogs but nothing really changing IMO... yet.
@alda@davidbisset@HughWRoberts Dropping comments would be okay as long as Webmentions are available. Or, #wordpress could find a way to consolidate both into their comments area. Disable as desired.
The #WordPress comment system could be off by default, but don't remove from core. Many plugins including #BuddyPress use it (comments are vital for social aspects) plus with the #ActivityPub they might be gaining some traction again.
It's fine to leave in and with the right defaults it won't enter into some folks minds. Win win.
@alda@davidbisset I don't agree. Comments and engagement are at the heart of blogging for many bloggers Including me). It's a sure way of knowing that your content is being read.
@alda@HughWRoberts if #WordPress was completely rebuilt today you could make an argument that comments could be a "click to add" plugin (like how you can download the WordPress import) or feature plugin. But like it or not, WP has blog DNA and comments are part of that. It's too integrated into core files to remove. A few have found clever ways to use comments and themes assume it's there.
The "does this have to be a part of WordPress core" is always a fun thought exercise.
@alda@HughWRoberts My final take is that comments being a part of #WordPress core from almost day one was a good decision. Comments in blogs were a net win in the early days and helped shape the social web. They are still being used but the trend over the past few years has been turning them off. Hence my hope there's a comeback, although not sure how that would come about.
@davidbisset@alda I've not seen a decline in blog comments over recent years. Sadly, what I have seen is an increase in low-quality comments. People say they don't have time to leave quality comments, so they will leave hundreds of low-quality comments instead of leaving one genuine comment occasionally.
@HughWRoberts@alda just speaking from my observations, quite a few WordPress people who blog in my circle turned comments off. Spam being the reason. Even with spam plugins. Also, I’ve seen lots of static site generators simply not offer comments and people are fine with it, sometimes deferring comments to places like Hacker News and Twitter (now less so).
@Rob_J They disappeared visually and beyond the scenes in a few places (when is the last time you've seen an RSS icon on a #WordPress theme). Twitter got rid of them. Google Reader RIP. etc.
@davidbisset@Rob_J They may have disappeared visually, but they have always still been there, and with discovery, you don't need to know the RSS feeds, you just follow the blog URL and you automatically get the RSS feed.
@otto42@Rob_J true... always been there but i miss the "hey what's that" discoverability of seeing RSS icons on themes that just linked to the feed. Some people started getting readers in the first place just by seeing these (rather than the other way around).
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