Everything in the story.
by welshkaren via Flickr
This is a synthesis post. Since I’m trying to build new ideas that all function in the same space (narrative design/transmedia), here are some ideas combining previous post concepts from this week.
I know I haven’t posted a lot this week, so it’ll be a short one.
In my previous post this week dealing with the downsides of a system like DISQUS or Facebook comments I focused on the issues of SEO and historical record. But I think that there is another commenting issue to address. Comments on a blog post or article are narrative-additive artifacts. This means that comments are part of the overall narrative of your post.
This is true in a general sense, though is not always applicable in the specific sense. Trolling comments, spam or the occasional crazy don’t add any real value or substance to the narrative. However, there are constructive comments, some addressing the post’s content directly, some replying because of a mention in a post, or just a conversation around the content.
With content being built around your post, it becomes an evolving narrative. There are possible tellable events growing right there on your page.
As I discussed in the previous post, a narrative is all about how we tell a story. Comments may and should become part of that. Another reason we need to be even more wary about giving up our control (and possibly losing) site comments.
Did my blogging this week make you think of anything cool? Tell me in the comments.
[…] long been of the opinion that comments are part of the stories that they run on. Many organizations will give up control of their comments to an external provider, or turn them […]