So Disqus has enabled support for video comments from Seesmic, which launched the feature on TechCrunch awhile back. Even Fred Wilson of A VC — who is an investor in Disqus — admits in his post that he isn’t sure about whether video comments work or not. And there are lots of people who are pretty sure that they don’t work, because you can’t scan them as easily as you can text, because they clutter up a blog and make it slow to load, and so on. And I must admit that when TechCrunch first launched them, I wasn’t too crazy about the idea either.
As I’ve said before on several occasions, I’m not really a video guy. I don’t think it adds that much to have video, unless (as Scoble notes in Fred’s comment section) you are showing someone something that relies on the visual element, like a new gadget or a new baby. But when I wrote my earlier post on the topic, I was mostly talking about video blogs — the ones that are exclusively video. Unless you’re Loren Feldman of 1938media (and let’s face it, who is?) that kind of thing reminds me of the Seinfeld episode when Kramer bought an old talk-show set and turned his living room into a fake talk show, but no one would go on.
That said, I’m actually thinking that video comments aren’t such a bad idea (some people continue to disagree). I don’t want everyone to use them, and I don’t want all the comments on a blog to be video — but in some cases it’s kind of fun to see Mike Arrington talking about Wired magazine, or to see Fred in person chatting into his web-cam. It is much more personal (which is why some people will probably never do it). But I actually don’t think it’s that bad. I think it adds a little variety — and if you don’t want to watch them, then you don’t have to. For an alternate (and hilarious) view, see this overview by Scrivs at Expert Idiot.