I have been writing blogs in both Chinese and English and I wish here to make a comparison between the two.
Anonymous Comments: Chinese blogs allow anonymous comments and Chinese internet users strongly oppose the idea of banning anonymous comments. Chinese people wish to express their opinions on a lot of sensitive or non-sensitive issues and they do not want to bring trouble upon themselves because of exercising their free speech rights. It seems that no internet sites in the US allow anonymous comments.
Number of Visitors: In the Chinese blog, it is possible to find out roughly how many times an article has been read while in the American blog, unless readers make comments on or offer recommendation of an article, there is no way to know whether readers are interested in a particular piece.
Identity of Visitors: In the Chinese blog, typically, the visitors to a blog can be identified if they do not want to conceal their identity, but in the American blog, normally there is no way to know who the visitors are because most readers just do the reading without making comments.
Headlines: One good thing about the American blog is that every blog article, when it is published, will be at the top of the diary list, so that every diary has the opportunity of attracting attention from readers. In the Chinese blogsphere, it is the editors who will decide which article will be at the most salient position.
More to come.