What Do You Want For Your Blog?

I think I may have been missing the point about John Gruber’s commenting… comments. It wasn’t so much an opinion about commenting as a declaration of what he wants Daring Fireball to be.

Should a blog be like a forum where the writer makes a statement, and then the masses are free to squabble about it? Or should it be like a keynote, where the writer’s statement is delivered in a setting that only serves to amplify the impression she makes to the crowd?

There’s no right answer to this, because blogs serve a huge variety of purposes. They can be emotional outlets, promotional displays, crowdsourcing tools, news sources, public forums and billboards. Indeed, many sites are all those things rolled into one.

What John Gruber has built with Daring Fireball is a lot like a keynote speech for everything that he posts. Nothing distracting, nothing unnecessary, only his words and links, delivered to bring home the point that he’s making. He wants to have the most effective platform for his ideas and opinions.

If you thought that a clear vision and direction for your product was something that only Steve Jobs needs to worry about, you’re wrong. If your objective is to run an awesome website, you should be thinking “Does this really make my site better?” with every feature, every design element, and perhaps most importantly, every article. ¹

That said, blogging is one of the most personal forms of public speech, if that makes any sense. You’ll get the most enjoyment out of writing if you do it the way you want.