One Month Later: Reconsidering My Blog's Comment Section
After one month with a comment section on my blog, the zero-comment outcome prompted a rethink. I'll explain why I'm removing it, despite using lightweight Cusdis, viewing blogs in the SNS era as primarily for information. I also discuss the enduring importance of social sharing.
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Introduction
Hello, I'm a professional engineer.
About a month ago, I introduced a comment section to my blog, following the article Self-hosting Cusdis to implement a lightweight comment function. It was summer vacation, and I had nothing to do, so I added it as a way to pass the time.
Now, after operating it for about a month, I'd like to talk about what has changed since the comment section was implemented.
Were There Any Comments to Begin With?
To be honest, it's a bit of an anticlimax, but the number of comments in one month was zero! Yes, I frankly anticipated this result. I've been blogging for over 15 years, and in the age of social media, people who leave comments on blogs are rare.
If this blog were a site with deep technical articles like StackOverflow or Qiita, the results might have been different. Unfortunately, it's also true that this blog doesn't delve into such profound topics. There are no comments like "This method worked for me, thank you!" or "This method's performance is not great; I recommend this other approach."
I believe that in the modern era, blogs might be a place to get information, but not a place for communication.
The Comment Section Will Be Abolished
Considering the above, I've decided to abolish the comment section! The simple reason is that if users aren't using it, it's unnecessary. In the case of this blog, there was no comment section originally, and no accumulated comments. While the ideal would be for the comment section itself to become content, I've concluded that achieving that might be difficult.
About Cusdis
I adopted Cusdis as the comment system, and I had no particular complaints about it itself. However, there was also the fact that the developers stated it is "currently deprecated!" (as of July 17, 2026).
Since I'm self-hosting it, I would have to maintain it myself. If the comment section isn't being used, there's no need to take on the operational costs and risks, which is another reason for its abolition.
Incidentally, even though the comment section was embedded with an external script, it had almost no impact on page speed. It's really light, simple, and excellent. So, it's a shame that it's been deprecated.
Social Share Buttons Will Remain
Social share buttons are the modern-day comment section, so I will continue to keep them. These are just buttons with links and have no performance impact.
I'd really like to display share counts, but that inevitably increases data traffic... I'll try to tackle that when I feel like playing around with it.
Conclusion
There was zero spam in a month too, LOL. Does this mean comment sections aren't even targeted by spammers anymore?
This article was translated from the original Japanese version (ブログにコメント欄を置いてから一ヶ月経過したので、今後どうするかを検討してみた) using Gemini API.