I agree completely. Tumblelogs are a minimalists haven, and should stay that way.

By the way, what blogging platform does this site use?

Ah. I had always assumed you were using Wordpress or coded your own solution.

You integrated it with this layout extremely well though. :)

Why not have it as an option so people can choose?

Tumblr with comments would not be the same as the other blogs you mentioned, or remotely like the poor mouse analogy!

Absolutely. Comments are evil. Should not be allowed. Never ever.

...hang on a minute….

Look, Tumblr is a platform, an application. It’s not an idol to worship. Applications that try to enforce a specific model of use are always a pain in the arse.

Some of us do not have the luxury (in terms of money, time, what have you) of having a seperate blogging platform like this one so they can say A:comments bad B:comments good.

Saying that tumblelogs should not have comments is one thing. Perfectly reasonable opinion. Saying that Tumblr should not support comments is quite another thing.

Forgive me, but it would certainly take me twice the time to update two blogs than it would one blog.

And, more to the point, shouldn’t it be up to me how I use the platform? Shouldn’t the platform be designed to work in whatever way I want it to, rather than forcing me to work in the way it wants me to? Good software tends to do that, you know.

You seem to be assuming that I adopt this stance out of ignorance. (On the contrary. I just have uncomfortable trousers.) If you follow the link to my blog, you’ll see it generally follows the tumblelog pattern. With comments.

Matt, I agree. Tumblr’s focus is on simplicity. And what’s done is done, a post is “important” today and all but forgotten tomorrow.

No need for archives, categories or comments. If you want to add all that stuff, just stick to a traditional blog format.

I don’t really care. I don’t think comments are core to tumblr being simple. The integration of RSS feeds is superuber. The ease in which to submit is cool. The simplicity is good. But look through this lense what could you do with a blog ap that is unique to tumblr? I can pair down blogger or wordpress to be a tumblr. It is the simple UI and the RSS merge that skif me up. Plus it seems to have it’s own little community focused on media and small quips of info. Blogging is for journalism. Tumbling is for stream of content. What I yearn for though is “drafts”. I want to mixilate them all and publish at certain times. I like your solution- a tagboard/forum. Works for me.

The mighty mouse analogy is perfect, i was looking a solution to add comments on tumblr, but you had open my eyes

Thanks

My 2 cents…if you think that posting to a wordpress or blogger is as easy as tumblr you are on crack. Yes they are all easy, but not as silky smooth as tumblr.

Wow, I just posted about this yesterday. I’m debating whether to switch to a tumblelog but comments mean so much to me, I’m wondering if I can live without them. Only time will tell. Going to play with it for a while.

Tumblr is useful for other purposes as well. Since the dashboard is so minimalistic, its the perfect platform to use for people who would like to blog, but are intimidated by the complexity of wordpress such as older parents, grandparents, and other relatively new computer users.

Telling people to “use wordpress instead” because they want to allow comments is like saying “use Final Cut Pro instead” to an iMovie 2008 user who is accustomed to simplicity and would like to make a clip play in slow motion, but can’t because the platform doesn’t support it.

You’re pushing them to a platform they aren’t comfortable with because their current platform won’t implement some very basic functionality.

Matt – any suggestions on a blogging platform that lets me update via SMS or email, add photos and videos, and pull down RSS feeds? That’s my main reason for using Tumblr.

So to change things up (*crosses fingers that one day this might happen*) – instead of me requesting Tumblr adds commenting, I’m requesting that Davidville come out with a new product that has all the great features of Tumblr+commenting but call it a blogging platform.

That would be the perfect blogging platform for me :).

Sorry – one more thing. I do everything from my mobile phone. That is I snap shots and videos on my phone and email it to Tumblr, and of course I send SMS messages to Tumblr. It’s great for those on the go moments you want to capture. But sometimes those on the go moments include questions on life that I would like to hear what my friends have to say, which is where that commenting requesting arose.

Last comment – I just finished a plugin for TXP that will effectively replace Tumblr for me. The plugin will import rss feeds (Tumblr, Twitter, Last.FM, Flickr, etc.) into TXP articles. This will give me central management of commenting plus more control of customization.

Tumblr still rocks, but Tumblr’s philosophy and mine don’t.