One thing that bugs me about blogging
I have a quite a few RSS feeds in my feed list and the majority of them are blogs I read on a daily basis. What I enjoy about most of these blogs is they are authored by people who are active in their own community. What I mean by that is if you write a comment-worthy post and receive a lot of comments, taking the time to reply to those comments goes a long way in making me feel like you appreciate your readers. What bothers me are blog authors who rarely ever take the time to reply to comments on articles they write, to help continue to foster discussion.
Honestly, how difficult is it to respond to your comments and let your readers know you actually read their replies? I know it’s never possible to reply to 100% of the comments you receive on a blog. I can’t even do that myself, but at least making an effort to reply when there’s a decent discussion going on isn’t so hard to do is it? Even if you just set aside time at the end of the day to catch up on replying to comments that’s better than not replying to them at all.
I’ve lost count of how many blogs I’ve lost interest in because the author can’t be bothered to take part in the discussion they initiated. There are however some reasons for not replying to comments that are excusable.
- You’re Dead – Let’s face it, a non-breathing blogger is most certainly not a productive blogger but it can’t be helped. You’re excused.
- Your work is Consuming You – This happens to everyone every now and then. You write a great post and then suddenly find yourself buried in work, unable to read your own blog and reply to your reader’s comments. You are also excused.
- You Won the Lottery and No Longer Depend on Blogging For Money – You lucky duck. You get a pass.
- Your Internet Died – Happens to all of us at one time or another. What good is a blogger with no internet access? Go get yourself a snack while you wait for the modem light to stop blinking. You’re excused.
- You’re Watching the Last Six Seasons of 24 Non-Stop – I have a soft spot for 24 even though the last season pretty much sucked royally, so you are excused as well.
- Someone Stole Your Computer – I’ll pray for your well being while you attempt to recover from such a terrible and unspeakable tragedy. You are indeed excused. Take all the time you need.
I’m sure there are more perfectly good reasons why you’re unable to be more active in your own community, but I think that’s a pretty decent list. Feel free to suggest some reasons of your own!
Couldn’t agree more Mike. (especially about 24’s last season suck suck sucking). My favorite blogs, or the ones that I’ll come back to are the ones where I’ve been able to connect to the author in one way or another. Even the blogs that I really enjoy reading (teresacentric comes to mind) I develop a bad taste in my mouth when the author can’t just take the time to just acknowledge the comments.
Ugh, wasn’t this past season just horrible?? I swear they hired a bunch of soap opera writers.
I don’t understand the concept of even writing in a blog format if you’re not interested in comments. You could just keep a diary if you’re just writing to “hear” yourself speak ;)
Great point about the diary. That’s exactly how I feel that blog is. And it just SUCKS because the posts ARE really thought provoking.
(On 24, … well … what can you say?)
I read you through rss feed daily ;)
i also try to respond to all comments :D
Internet died annoyes me.
@More Website Traffic Guy: Cool! :D I try to get to as many comments as humanly possible :)
@Andy: Happened to me the other night. Internet went down for a whole 10 minutes. I was biting my nails the whole time ;P
Great post Mike,
When I was a newbie I didn’t know I was supposed to answer comments, lol. I remember the first time someone left a comment and I didn’t know what to do! Ha ha…now I know better, I try my best to make everyone feel at home and welcomed. It doesn’t make sense for a blogger to ignore someone coming to visit.
You do a great job, Christy :D I try really hard to answer as many comments as I can because I reallllly want people to come back…hehe. It’s not much fun to run a blog with no readers :P
Participation is one if not the deciding factor to building a community. If they don’t want to respond to their own comments, they should turn off the comments option haha.
Haha…exactly! I like getting comments and replying to them. It makes me feel like the time I put into blogging has actually been worthwhile :)
Exactly!! I reply to my comments thru email as well as on my site. But I never get anything from the people I comment most of the time. It makes my wonder why I bother.
I reply to your comments :D
Yeah, comments to me are the reason I blog. I love communicating with lots of friends. I am a stay home, private kind of person who doesn’t find “clubbing” a very entertaining way to have fun. I’m a computer nerd who only has a few very close friends where I live. Blogging for me is like my secret life where I’m popular and get visited by tons of beautiful girls!LOL
And you get to write about and interview them :D
Oh man, I’ve been thinking about writing about this very topic for a while now. I have been known to unsubscribe from someone’s feed simply because they don’t respond to my comments. Where’s the love, I ask you?
I give them the benefit of a doubt, but seriously, it’s no different than two people speaking to each other face to face, and one of them just walks off without saying a word. As you said, I don’t have the expectation of getting responses 100% of the time, I don’t even expect I could live up to that goal. But in my mind, to be a successful blogger it’s imperative you acknowledge the existence of your readers.
Okay, I’m stepping down from my soap box now. :)
Oops, forgot to subscribe.
It’s pretty spooky how I read your mind, isn’t it? :D
I especially try to ALWAYS make an effort to reply to comments when they come from someone new to my site. It bugs me when I post for the first time on someone’s site and they don’t reply to my comments. That turns me off immediately.
Nice post Mike. I just found your blog through stumble upon and subscribed to stay up to date with you :)
I totally agree about authors not responding to comments, it’s the reason why I usually stop coming back or commenting on blogs.
Thank you Dee :) I know I got a little tongue in cheek at the end of the post, but it’s something I definitely feel strongly about!
Thanks also for the subscribe! I’ll be stopping by your place soon. That’s a promise :)
A very good post and most timely since I recently joined the iReply Movement that the 3-Wizards developed. Very kewl and great looking moniker!
Later…
Thanks! That would be the first time I’ve been described as a wizard :mrgreen:
Lol! Loved it… Had a good laugh reading it :)
I second to that emotions, Mike. I love this concept very much. At least from hereon, I wouldn’t worry about unheard comments that I consciously write on someone’s work online.