However, these are almost all specialized cases, where somebody is telling a story or a continuing monologue that does not require interaction. It would be something that would be made to be read, not made to be discussed with the author.

Because if you consider comments in their most basic form, you’re almost always talking directly back with the author of the blog entry. If you are interacting with other people, then it’s more of a forum. Conversations can go off topic, people can talk about other things, etc. But blog comments rarely do that. They’re either talking to the author or talking about the content of the article. Every once in a while they talk about other comments in the same article, but mostly they stick to a single subject: the article itself.

So I would say that there is a place for read-only blogs. It’s not for me, but it could totally be appropriate for some.

Of course I also want to know what people think in general.

I also think that making the decision not to permit people to discuss what you have written sends out more of a message than allowing it. It is generally accepted that blogs have comments, to decide you don’t want them could be seen as a statement that you think other peoples contributions are not relevant.

You’ve talked about it before though, some people don’t have the time nor the patience to deal with every incoming comments that way and more often than not, the simplest solution is to turn the comments off.

But if a blog isn’t bombarded by that kind of publicity, I see no reason why they should turn their comments off. Some people argue that tech blogs don’t have many comments, but then I beg differ on tech blogs that have their personal and original commentary on what they blog about. They get their comments while blogs that just quote on whatever news they see without much to comment on usually won’t get any comments. Then again, I rarely see them as blogs that have any worth in the first place.

It’s all about the balance what you write and how you write it. Bloggers that have blogged long enough would know it’s about inviting people to comment and not ask rhetorical questions. Then again, depending on where you are, commentors can be a ham as well, commenting for the sake of commenting without regard to the post itself. That too has to be checked with a line drawn as to how far it can go.

Writing a blog without comments is hell of a job. It is putting oneself in heavy position of not knowing who is reading and not exchanging ideas with people who share the same interests.

In some instances, it works. In others, it’s a turn-off long term, as it requires switching to email, or other means to contact any author.

Either way, it’s a personal choice and I don’t have a problem (generally) reading blogs where comments have been turned off.