I Almost Left a Blog Comment

by Aaron on January 28, 2010

I had an interesting experience last night where I almost left a blog comment (but didn’t). Here’s a short video I made to discuss what happened… I’d love to hear your reactions or thoughts if you’ve had a similar situation:

What do you think?

Tagged as: blogging, comments, Conversation, videos

http://blogan.net Brent Logan

It happened just this morning. I was going to leave a comment, even started leaving it, then realized the topic was more complex and I couldn't leave a sufficient comment. I always make mistakes in comments and I like the ability to edit. Disqus/Intense Debate make this easier.

I bookmarked the post (actually, I believe I shared it from Google Reader) and might write a post in response instead.
schnik

Interesting thought here. I try to leave a comment if I think the author might find value within it. I try not to leave comments on blogs that say. “Good job” or “I agree” I think they are too 'informal' for a blog. If I have a comment I usually want to offer something either supporting or contradicting a statement. Also, I've run across some blogs that it seems the author is -not- soliciting their readers' comments, but in fact, just publishing their thoughts, which is awkward.
ahockley

I've had that happen a lot… I think I am going to leave a quick comment, then I realize that it'll take me several paragraphs to explain myself. Like you, I sometimes turn that into a blog post in response.
http://www.facebook.com/john.nastos John Nastos

I like how you avoid the specific language of asking people to “leave a comment” to discuss this, both in the video and the post. Nice touch
schnik

Something else I just thought of. It's easier to send a message on twitter/facebook… especially when they feed to either site. (How many people actually *go* to a blog to read it?)
Taco Girl

Happens to me a lot. I think the primary reason for me is that I have experienced far too many blogs where the audience is much more interested in self congratulating each other on their thoughts and turn differences in opinions into confrontational scenerios in stead of productive conversations. A blog full of 'I agree' and 'me too' comments turn sites into little clicks, and turn off those that want to have engaging conversations.
http://www.korwelphotography.com Iza

I guess I am a very spontaneous person, so when I think of something to tell to the author of the post, it doesn't bother me too much that you need to click several times to leave the comment. I just do that. It was not always like that, I actually started commenting just several moths ago, when I realized that I would want people to comment on my blog, so figured I better do the same for them! Since then- I do it if only I have something to say.
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ralphcarlson

Recently I have committed to visiting more blogs and leaving more comments. I try to add something in a comment not just approval or a pat on the back. I do get annoyed with commenting on the blogs in my Google Reader because I have to open the blog in a tab to comment but I generally make the effort.
http://www.shadesofadream.com/blog/ Heather

It happens pretty regularly for me I have to admit; getting better about it of late, but I'm terrible for just sitting in my RSS reader (also google), thinking of something to say or having a vague idea that I want to say something, then I just don't.

This is either because I get to the blog and forget what I wanted to say (I run through each new post and open the ones I want to comment on in a new tab as I go through), suddenly what I wanted to say doesn't seem important ('Well done!' gets a little old ), or I don't think I could contribute meaningfully to the conversation.

When this happens on a really good post that I like I've started to ReTweet them instead – sometimes I'll do both.
http://twitter.com/SteveYoungs Steve Youngs

I try to stay organised (I'm mostly crap at that, but I still try) and one of the things I do is to read the stuff in my RSS feeds once per day. That mean that very often the article I'm reading is up to 24 hours old. By that time there's usually stacks of comments already. I'll leave a comment if a) I can add some value, and b) there isn't already a dozen comments saying the same thing I was going to.

I also have a problem with tact and subtlety (in that I don't possess them). I'm very conscious of that so I tend not to comment on articles where I think the author has been a complete twat about the subject.

Kind regards,
Steve.