Feedbacky love
My good friend, Maria Zannini, this week blogged about a topic I’ve been mulling over for months. Namely, the lack of feedback at her blog. I’m with her on that one. No matter how many times you can get told that it’s not the size of the comments queue that matters, but what you do with your blog (be interesting, post regularly), Blog Envy sets in. So-and-so’s blog generates dozens of comments with each post and all she talks about are her spotted hamsters!! I mean, how difficult can that be??!!
The thing that’s saved me from throwing in the towel on a number of occasions is one thing: my ego. I’ll be honest with you, it’s huge. And, because I have a giant ego, I also suffer from the belief that people out there are actually reading my posts. Of course, this is helped along by all those cute little dots on ClusterMaps. But I can get how someone a lot more normal than myself can look at her categories of posts and say to herself, Okay, why am I doing this again?
M, as you know, I comment occasionally but I always read every single one of your posts. And I have the feeling that a lot of people are the same, so please don’t change (she says, even as she’s aware of how much discomfort her friend goes through every time she sits down in front of a computer). Selfish, much?
On the one hand, it would be nice if more people commented. On the other — think about it — it would mean spending much more time on my blog, replying to everyone and * shock * horror * having to defend my point of view. In trying to be sanguine about everything the Universe throws at me, it occurs to me that sometimes, silence really is golden.
*waves* It seems churlish to read this and not comment
But I know the feeling. Every now and then I get a random comment and blink and think “whoa, when did you start reading?” so i comfort myself that I have a legion of fans who lurk
(And anyone who says “my blog is for me, I don’t care if no-one reads it” is probably lying – even me and I’ve said it before. If we didn’t care it woiuldn’t have a comment section and it’d be in our hard drives, not in the net)
Hey Sparky, thanks for dropping by! Yep, absolutely, to everything you wrote. :: Warning, Will Robinson! Mutual Admiration Stroking! ::
With me, it’s usually, “Someone commented???!!! Crap, wonder if I said anything really controversial?” Then, I go on to comfort myself by thinking, “Well, as Oscar Wilde said, the only thing worse than being talked about, is not being talked about”. And then I go read the comment and find it’s spam for some online casino site! LOL and sighs, in equal measure. But appreciate you putting fingers to keyboard and have a great weekend!
Well, your blog deserves to be read, comments or no.
I’m sometimes guilty of reading and not commenting on blogs, either because I’m rushed or I don’t want to comment for commenting’s sake. At other times I comment just to let a blog pal know that I’m around, and reading.
Ref: So-and-so’s blog generates dozens of comments with each post and all she talks about are her spotted hamsters!!
LOL! I do wonder why so many people care about spotted hamsters.
This week’s sabbatical has taught me a lot. Not only did unique visits double, on one day it almost tripled. Methinks, everyone else was curious to see what other people were saying.
The comments were still few and far between, but the majority were made by people who normally DON’T comment on my blog, so obviously I said something that moved them to speak up.
Finding out why people comment (or don’t) may be as elusive as picking the winner of a horse race–or the next best seller.
@ Liane: Aw thanks, Liane. Actually, that brings up another thought that I may pursue in a future post. Thanks for being thought-provoking.
@ Maria: Now, isn’t that interesting, re: the visitor numbers and people who commented? On this blog, my stalwart regulars made themselves heard, which is always lovely. I’d hate to do prediction science on this topic, that’s for sure.