The following is my personal experience (so I can't comment on the general nature of blog comments).
I have a "strictly technical" SWE blog with approximately 4k to 8k users per month, which I have been maintaining it for 3/4 years.
I use Disqus for comments. I virtually have no spam (if I had some, it's been so little that I don't remember it). The comments are generally good quality (some even improved the articles), possibly due to the nature of the blog, but they're few.
If spamming and low quality comments are due to open comment systems, I'd still stick with a closed system like Disqus, as I prefer fewer but more motivated comments.
On a funny note, it took me a while to find out that Disqus introduced taboola ads at some point, because I use ad blockers. The moment I found out, I was so horrified that I thought somebody hacked the blog and panicked; it took me a bit to figure out what actually happened :)
Sure! I've actually though that it was a relatively small number :) I've reached 8k users around 1/1.5 years ago, so the times are even shorter.
I did not plan for exposure (audience size); however, looking at the stats, I think that there is a clear indication.
My articles are often more or less deep dives into mainstream topics; I believe that the consequences of this approach are two:
1. the articles get exposure because the topics are common, and frequently searched by developers;
2. by being deep dives, I think they slowsly get used as references and linked by other sites.
I think this is a specific approach with pros and cons.
The pros are that it slowly grows a good audience over the time, and that it tends to have a stable minimum (since the references are there). Also, repeated deep dives in a given field will get attention from known people working in it, which is very significant.
The downside is that this type of articles is a pain to write (and I'm not sure I'll continue).
I had at least one article that exploded in popularity, however, while that's nice to see, it's a type of article that doesn't provide any value in the long term (on the other hand, short term is also important; I got interviewed because of it).
I think the numbers are generally normal to reach if one focuses on at least one subject, and dives in it. My blog is intentionally very scattered - if I focused, say, on databases, I would have certainly multiplied the users, but that's not my end goal.
I have a "strictly technical" SWE blog with approximately 4k to 8k users per month, which I have been maintaining it for 3/4 years.
I use Disqus for comments. I virtually have no spam (if I had some, it's been so little that I don't remember it). The comments are generally good quality (some even improved the articles), possibly due to the nature of the blog, but they're few.
If spamming and low quality comments are due to open comment systems, I'd still stick with a closed system like Disqus, as I prefer fewer but more motivated comments.
On a funny note, it took me a while to find out that Disqus introduced taboola ads at some point, because I use ad blockers. The moment I found out, I was so horrified that I thought somebody hacked the blog and panicked; it took me a bit to figure out what actually happened :)