Comment-crazy.
Folks, my apologies that posting has been a little thin here this week. Partly this is because I’m writing a series of very different posts that I hope will rock your world, change the way you look at absolutely everything, achieve lasting world peace, and find the cure for the common pop song.
But mostly, as my pal James Governor explains, it’s because I’ve been commenting up a storm on other blogs — more than 50 comments between Monday morning and now (Friday, just after lunch). Probably I won’t achieve my goal of 100 comments by the end of the week, but the process of making this many comments has been illuminating.
Why did I do this?
I’ll be honest with you and say that I started from selfish motives: I want more people — many more — to comment here. What I love most about blogging (even more than the unbridled self-expression!) is the opportunity to start conversations about topics that interest me. I’m endlessly fascinated to see where other people take the ideas presented here; it’s a wonderful way for me to think through issues from many angles and to learn things that I could not have learned any other way.
Along the way, though, I realized that the process of leaving comments makes me think better and writer better. It’s a challenge to contribute to a discussion in just a few sentences — but a challenge well worth taking up.
What have I learned?
- It takes time to make a good comment, even for a fluent (read: hopelessly glib) writer like me. I respect the effort it takes.
- Notwithstanding #1, I comment better when I worry about my comments less — or, in other words, when I just let ‘er rip. Yeah, I try to make sure that I’ve actually understood what the blogger is saying, and I try to say something that moves the conversation in an interesting direction. But it’s okay to move the conversation one millimeter in an interesting direction, or even just to tell the blogger that you understand or agree with what they’re saying.
Your take-home lesson:
Please never feel any pressure to comment here, because I know that it takes effort. But please also feel free to tell me what you’re thinking, even if it’s as simple as saying, “In my experience, it doesn’t work this way when you work in sales” or “I like this idea. I’m going to see if I can use it at work.” Anything like this is encouragement to a blogger like me who (a) wants to help but (b) sometimes wonders how much impact his words have.
It’s also an important corrective when I get too full of myself on a given topic. Or, you know, when I’m just plain wrong. So feel free to educate me.
Stay tuned . . .
Coming up later: some of the highlights — both blog posts and my reactions — from my week of heavy-duty commenting.
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(Picture of House of Commons debate courtesy of the UK Parliament.)
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7 Comments so far
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Hi Tim -
First, thanks for the comment on my blog – thought I would return the favor. Interestingly, seems to fit your initiative for this particular post. Agreed that to leave insightful comments can be just as difficult as creating the post itself. Also agree on the value of commenting – it’s meant to be a conversation, not just one person’s ranting.
Think that’s the beauty of all the social media,web 2.0, etc., It is without doubt that we’ve reached a notable evolution in the art of conversation. Still waiting to see if the sheer number of these conversastions will dilute quality and leave us wishing we hadn’t engaged in the first place.
Thanks for the comment, gloriakt.
I’m not worried about the sheer number of the conversations online. Yes, the boring comments and tedious back-and-forths are a drag – but that’s no different from overhearing boring chat between two guys at a bar as they sink further into their cups.
But the *good* conversations . . . I say we can never have enough.
Cheers — and thanks again for stopping by.
Interesting view on commenting. Maybe a new art form with images etc. Will come back .
I’m the same way, my comments tend to be better when I just go ahead and have at it. Even on my own blog, I’d love to have more comments. Even if it’s just to say they liked my post, it’s nice to have feedback of any kind. Great post today!
Well in my experience that’s a romantic ideal for commenting. What are the actual experiences and data – speaking as one of your few regular commentors :)?
I’ve trialed your notion of some key blogs that were valuable early learning experiences for me before and continuing my own blog. For one thing it’s sheer numbers. One needs to have a fairly large readership built up because commenters are from way over on the tail. Of commenters there’s another distribution with very few taking the time to make constructive comments that are short, OT and reasoned. On some popular blogs I’ve also noticed a tendency for a whole other community of regulars to build up who are comfortable with themselves and their exchanges but aren’t necessarily advancing the topic per se. So be it…it’s a free world that way.
With limited time and energy first you have to attract a readership who gets value from your posts, at least IMHO. Then that readership needs to build up to critical mass to spawn commenters who evolve into a regular community. And then, willy-nilly, that community proceeds to evolve its’ own internal dynamic. Which you can only influence a bit though not much.
And oh yeah,there’s a time factor of perseverance in this as well. It takes years to build up a blog until it establishes itself…think of it as an ecological problem.
But keep on keepin on.
Dave — Thanks for the kind words AND the frequent comments. : )
I’m not planning on going anywhere, & I expect to be blogging here for a long time. So what you say about building up a community of commenters over time — I’m all for it.
[...] while back, I went on a binge of commenting on other blogs. This week I did it again. It’s a good exercise for at least three [...]