This is a fascinating debate, and I’m not just saying that because bloggers are being hoist by their own petard. There’s more than a little disagreement on whether it’s good to have your content commented on elsewhere, rather than on your own site, and users are divided on whether RSS readers should evolve into “communities” or networks.

    He said he was uneasy about seeing his posts generate activity and community for somebody else. Another FriendFeed user called it “content theft” and said “if they ever pull my feed and use it there, they can expect to get hit with a DMCA take-down notice”.

There’s at least one wise comment about being more concerned with mass behavior than with the rarefied few doing the intermediating and comment-posting. However, that’s what drives the blogging community. And maybe it’s not such rarefied behavior anyway.

Jupiter consumer surveys show that between 4% and 7% of US online adults regularly use RSS readers, while just under a quarter read blogs, and 20% to 35% read comments on a variety of different kinds of site. Twenty percent told us they regularly post comments somewhere, and 10% say they post on mainstream media sites.

Jupiter report: Best Practices in Networked Media