Signal to Noise

In musing on the proper way to make a comment to the blog of a friend of mine, who does not have a comments feature implimented, I started really thinking about how the modern comments feature is used and why my friend, who is quite technically knowledgeable, might not choose to impliment one.

I don't know if I actually figured out his reason or not, but I did come up with a plausible one: signal to noise.

In making this post, I am rather likely to get back responses to it. People will be quick to chime in and say yes, that makes sense or no I don't think that's true. They might say that's an interesting way of looking at things, or talk about the way things were done in the past or how they might be done in the future. Maybe they'll just comment saying whether they like the comments feature or not. But probably, they'll comment. Why not, after all? It's easy. Hardly takes any effort at all. Not like the old days, when the best way to reach someone who posted something on a website was through email.

That's the thing, though. It IS easy. Really easy. So the threshold for when it is used is lowered dramatically. I'm quite inclined to leave comments in people's livejournals or blogs where comments are enabled. I'll get in little conversations, even arguments with them. Feedback is good, right? I know I enjoy it more when I write something that is responded to. But what if I had to email each person in order to do the same? I'm not as likely to do that, so my comment would have to be far more important (and likely more thought out) for me to make that effort.

I wonder if there are other technologies which have done the same thing, lowered the threshold and allowed for a lower signal to noise ratio to exist in cyberspace. I wonder, too, if there are ways to combat that trend.

Well? Any comments?