Does a blog need comments?

I've always been of the firm belief that a blog just isn't a blog unless you've got comments enabled. Without comments, it's just a website that sort of vaguely, structurally resembles a blog.

But isn't the whole point of a blog to stimulate conversation and feedback?

But how many of us really make it a practice to comment on other people's blogs? How many of us think about how important it might be to supporting the general ecosystem of the social web -- never mind what it might do for our businesses?

Not too many of us, I am guessing.

And yet, as bloggers ourselves, we probably spend a fair bit of time fretting over how few people comment on our own blogs.

I wrote a post on the HubSpot inbound marketing blog about how to comment on other people's blogs like you mean it. I'd love to hear what you think.

Do you comment on other people's blogs? Do you think it's important to the success of a blog? Do you wish more people would comment on your own blog?

Is a blog a blog, if it doesn't have comments?