Are blogs still a good place for conversation?

David Griner at The Social Path raises a good question: Are blogs still good places for conversation?

Sure, some blogs still spark heated debate and commenting frenzies. But the rapid expansion of social media has left us with so many ways to communicate, it can be hard to keep a conversation in one place.

On the off chance I post something interesting here on the blog, someone might post a comment. Or they could talk about it on Twitter, a service that essentially lets you post a brief instant message to the public. Or someone might react on FriendFeed, a site that tells you about anything your friends are posting online. Or maybe the reader will just send me an instant message, or an e-mail, or a message through Facebook… In the time it would take me to list all the options, 25 new social media services would probably be launched.

I think that blogs themselves are still very useful (otherwise, why would I be writing this?), but that the conversation online has become more distributed. And that’s OK — it means more people have more opportunities to be involved. But it also creates challenges. Go over to David’s blog to read his post and my full comment to see what I mean. Then give him some attention and tell us what you think in his comments.