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.

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.

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.

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.