I never really understood why Author disabled comments on Ani・Nouto, mainly because I am a comment whore; on the whole, I’ve enjoyed the witticisms, benefited from pointers, been introduced to new artists/pr0n as well as being reassured that the posts are not disappearing into a black hole. Thus his post on Os helped me to understand that he is a Man on a Mission.
Events like the ABA aim to build community. While ’spectaculars’ can grab attention and focus minds, the thickness and stickiness of community (like a good gravy) comes from the more mundane practices of everyday animu blogging - such as outgoing links to other posts, something which I try to do in most of my posts.
This is probably due to reading too much academic stuffz in general and Michel de Certeau in particular. But the standard four questions of academic research can sometimes be useful for animu blogging too:
- What’s the point you’re making? [Research question]
- Why should others care? [Relevance]
- How are you going to make your case? [Methodology]
- Who else has written on this already? [Literature Review]
This applies to both good episodic and editorial posts. Outgoing links are kind of like citations / references. They show that you are aware of other points of view. And they are also a useful tool against tl;dr - a shorthand to point readers to information, ideas, arguments that you need not reinvent the wheel rehashing yet again. Some posts, like some seminal academic books or articles, gain classic status by getting cited/linked repeatedly e.g. on AWESOMENESS, the monomyth or Insane Rants Full of Hatred.
Having said that, comments are kind of like peer review or refereeing. Their sheer convenience was also one reason why I was told about Gundam SEED Chara Theatre while Evirus was not. ;)