Dec 12
Thought for today: On Comments and Commenting
My post from a couple of day ago about Seth Godin is - by a country mile - the most read thing I have written here on Posterous. In fact it has 400% more views than anything else I've done......and it has 1 comment.
I wrote something on the Musings Cafe idly positing that Twitter and Friendfeed are similar to the Mac and the PC in that there is a bit of a rivalry and each has it's own following and zealots.It hit Friendfeed, got picked up by Louis Gray (who is mentioned in there) with a comment to 'Read and add to the conversation' and passed on. Up to press it has had.. 3 comments, but on less than 10% of the page views of the Seth Godin post.So what does that tell me?Basically that Seth Godin is a great topic to write about because people know him and like to read about him, but if your not saying anything negative you won't get too many comments. On the other hand with a topic as controversial as 'Friendfeed vs Twitter' it doesn't need a lot of viewers (just the right ones) and you can start to have a proper conversation.Or, alternatively, statistics are meaningless unless put into some sort of context. The whole subject of commenting is interesting. Many people will just read blog entries and not comment. I'll admit that there are whole sets of blogs on my feed reader where I read and ignore. These are not, generally, the sorts of topics I want to comment on though, I'm reading them for information about the world generally. There are also blogs I will comment on. Given that people have had to come from somewhere else to read the Godin post (my Posterous is not in a feed reader and therefore is generally accessed only through Twitter or Friendfeed), wouldn't you think that they were coming to read something they were interested in, and therefore felt they wished to comment upon it?I know the buzzword with Social Media is 'having the conversation', so it does surprise me that there are, generally, so few people willing to 'have the conversation'What makes you comment on posts you read? Just a thought....
I wrote something on the Musings Cafe idly positing that Twitter and Friendfeed are similar to the Mac and the PC in that there is a bit of a rivalry and each has it's own following and zealots.It hit Friendfeed, got picked up by Louis Gray (who is mentioned in there) with a comment to 'Read and add to the conversation' and passed on. Up to press it has had.. 3 comments, but on less than 10% of the page views of the Seth Godin post.So what does that tell me?Basically that Seth Godin is a great topic to write about because people know him and like to read about him, but if your not saying anything negative you won't get too many comments. On the other hand with a topic as controversial as 'Friendfeed vs Twitter' it doesn't need a lot of viewers (just the right ones) and you can start to have a proper conversation.Or, alternatively, statistics are meaningless unless put into some sort of context. The whole subject of commenting is interesting. Many people will just read blog entries and not comment. I'll admit that there are whole sets of blogs on my feed reader where I read and ignore. These are not, generally, the sorts of topics I want to comment on though, I'm reading them for information about the world generally. There are also blogs I will comment on. Given that people have had to come from somewhere else to read the Godin post (my Posterous is not in a feed reader and therefore is generally accessed only through Twitter or Friendfeed), wouldn't you think that they were coming to read something they were interested in, and therefore felt they wished to comment upon it?I know the buzzword with Social Media is 'having the conversation', so it does surprise me that there are, generally, so few people willing to 'have the conversation'What makes you comment on posts you read? Just a thought....
Comments (2)
Dec 12, 2008
Gary said...
I have a strict policy on comments: No abuse, foul language or blatant spam/promotion. Other than that I welcome all input. Comments like "Thanks!" or "Great" are better than nothing, and at least they prove that someone has actually read your piece. But, like all writers, I like to think that my words have stirred something in people enough to drive them to reply and, maybe, start a dialogue or conversation.Thanks for your thoughts.
My question to you is, how do you feel about the comments you receive? Is it more in the quality of the comments so that a dialogue can occur? Or are one-word comments (Thanks! Great!) okay as well?
I thank you for posting on this topic because it has made me rethink the way that I communicate in people's blogs.