I’ve only asked for your opinion about the way I do things here once, in regards to blog advertising. I think this is a similar case, because we’re talking about whose voice gets heard, and how many voices are in the mix. So…

There’s been much hoopla discussion about blog comments around the corners of the internet I frequent—most recently, the aforelinked Daring Fireball article, Derek Powazek’s thoughtful response and a further clarification from DF. Both articles make some excellent points about why their respective authors choose to go commentless.

I’ve been working on and off on a redesign of this site/blog for a year now, a time period during which I’ve increasingly been building side project sites in Tumblr (to wit, Blankenship à Go-Go, Blankenotes, Haiku Pickup Lines, Prom Night Fist Fight, and soon Notes to Self). Tumblr’s quick, easy, and has some measure of built-in community for sharing/liking/aggregating that I dig. My initial reluctance to use Tumblr was its lack of native comments, but I’ve come to embrace that constraint. Certain types of content just don’t need comments.

I’m not convinced I want to use Tumblr for this blog. There are aspects of the forthcoming redesign, specifically the ability to post work and play projects with ease, that need a full content management system like ExpressionEngine. But the remaining question is one of comments.

Generally speaking, I’ve always appreciated the comments here. When I started blogging in ’04, it was a place for my circle of friends to interact and goof off. Over time, people I didn’t know began reading, participating, and commenting. 99% of the time, the comments are civil, intelligent, and engaging. Against all internet odds, it seems like we’ve built a bit of a community, however loosely or occasionally it manifests itself in a single comment thread.

But is it necessary? Would you miss it? I don’t write with the thought or expectation (well, except in this case, where I’m soliciting your opinions) of comments, so their absence wouldn’t change my writing habits, voice or content. But it would still be a big shift, and I’m curious to know what you think about the possibility.

If your mission is to quit, there’s no better time than right now.
—Scott, Spartan

There is never a more convenient season. Get it done, or let it die.

“So you have a lots of followers on Twitter and your blog—are you somebody?” Thus went one of the strangest questions I’ve ever received over Chick-fil-A nuggets. “Well, I post a lot of things online. I’ve been doing it for 7 years. That’s all I know to tell you.”

As usual, someone smarter than me articulates it better than me:

Is my soapbox [big]? Yes it is. But that’s fair, because I built this soapbox myself. It’s my firm belief that all websites eventually attract the attention and respect that they deserve. The hard work is in the “eventually” part.
—John Gruber, I’ll Tell You What’s Fair

Granted, Gruber’s soapbox is to my soapbox as the population of China is to the nice folks of Cleveland, but the question remains, am I somebody? I’d argue that we’re all somebody, it’s just a matter of scale. And if you want a bigger soapbox, you best get to building.

Being uncomfortable…means you’re aware of problems with your product and are motivated to fix them. Products that never see the light of day don’t make anyone uncomfortable.
—Rob Goodlatte, Be Uncomfortable

Rob works on a slightly bigger site than I do during the 9–5, so his advice carries weight and scales down to where the majority of us are making things work online. Spooner and I have been diligently working on a completely rebuilt NewSpring site for the past few months, leaving behind a wake of diligently finished todo lists, details, and plans—but it’s fast approaching time to launch, whether we’re fully* ready or not**.

*Fully ready is a myth in web world.

**But we’ll try to be mostly ready.

If you have talent, there will always be someone telling you how to use it. Talent is in short supply, and smart people always have a vision for how you should use yours. It’s not enough to be good at what you do—you need to know where you want to take it (and more importantly where you don’t want to go).

Don’t mindlessly offer up your talent on the altar of the wrong vision. Be intentional with your talent, or someone else will do it for you.

Allow me to tell you a little story…

Once upon a time, in a Chattanooga far, far away, a boy bought a domain because he saw a phrase in a dream that brought some measure of delight to his literary soul. Eventually the boy’s computer died in a fiery crash and with it went his swashbuckled copy of Corel Draw, his first app love/hate, the only vector graphics program he had ever known. Thus he began to wage war with that Adobian beast Illustrator, with the aforementioned domain serving as a battlefield. All manner of color, typography and wit was spilled in 200+ illustrative fist fights. And then he migrated the war over to Tumblr, to make it easier for you to follow along or RSS or favorite stuff. And everyone lived happily ever after. The end*.

So yeah, Prom Night Fist Fight is back. Here are a few personal favorites to hopefully whet your appetite: Hear!, Purple Explosion, Minimum Minded Meme, Dour Words for Cowards, Glory & Grace, The Art o’ Fist Fighting, Sum of Parts, this one, this one, Antoinette, Prog Rock, La Dolce Vita, Psalm 8, Thor!, Word, Booty, Speak Up, Mmm. Vector., this one, and Music to My Ears.

*OR IS IT?

[The '10 Boston Celtics are] a very unselfish team. They don’t care where their scoring comes from. Nobody seems the least bit bothered by that.
—Stan Van Gundy, Orlando Magic head coach

Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor.
—Romans 12:10

Same thought from two very different sources, both of which give me lots to ponder about how I interact with my team and who gets the credit. Winning is better than self-promotion.