There was a time when it was very important to have a list of recent comments on your blog, almost like a place people could see interaction, but as the Internet and Social Media has progressed, I now feel that showing Recent Comments is no longer important.

Several reasons why I have removed mine:

• Most people who read blogs know you can leave comments.
• People arriving at a blog usually arrive on the single.php page, which shows the comment form.
• Plugins like subscribe to comments lock people into those pages.
• Real estate space – recent comments take up a lot of space, this could be better used for something else and reduce clutter.
• Bigger blogs use caching systems, so recent comments aren’t always up to date anyway.
• Display how many comments have been made on a post, is enough of a hint that conversation is happening.

Those are just a few reasons that came to mind very quickly.

What is your opinion?