Yes, they really are. When was the last time you left a comment on a blog of somebody you know? Most of the time you just @USER on twitter or just Like something on Facebook/FriendFeed. Maybe it is now time to start tighten these things together. How about a “Like” button below each blog post? Something like those rating stars we had a few years ago.
Popularity: 1% [?]
Geek. Projects. Software. 
So do like Sam Ruby does, grab them on the fly. Check the refer(r)er, visit it and create a comment. People comments where they find things, so don’t redirect them from your blog to another service but gather the data they spread around at one place, yours.
Regards,
Sure, but that does sound way to geeky for a normal person to do. Maybe CoComment was a right step, but was integrated and adapted to slow or to early in time.
I’ll give a few more thoughts I guess.