Can a blog be a blog without comments?

Out of all the blogs I subscribe to, and most site feeds, I can’t think of one that doesn’t allow user comments. I subscribe to a gaming site that didn’t allow comments until late last year, but now they’re on some sort of weird “invitation only” thing (Gawker blogs seem big on that).

I recently came across a blog run by Mozy, makers of free remote backup software. Lack of content aside, they don’t allow comments on the “blog.” I may be alone, but I can only think of a handful of reasons as to why a blog shouldn’t allow comments, or better yet, when an organization shouldn’t have a blog (5% of organizations maybe?): 1. The person behind the blog is a celebrity and wants to avoid the abnormally high influx of comments, and 2. It is some organization that needs to be extremely careful in what is posted on its site, even user generated comments (think church site or something). The reason behind both cases seems to imply a community is not desired, so maybe the use of the word blog is not a good fit.

Blogging without comments is just a website of yesteryear with more frequently updated content. That’s fine in some cases. But if you’re trying to build a community, why would you not allow comments? They play such an integral part in the building of communities where editors and members collide on like subjects. Blogs are nothing more than democratized websites.