Commenting on Blogs

DOF points to a post by Alex Fayle on different types of comment response by blog owners. Fayle concludes with:

Do you have a comment response policy? If so, which one do you use?

When you visit other blogs, do you see how the handling of comments creates a different type of community?

As a blogger, which comment response policy do you prefer?

I’m a big believer in responding to as many commenters as I have time or something coherent (even if it’s just a nod of agreement) to say. I sort of see my blog as a party I’ve invited folks to — plain courtesy says that I should mingle and chat with anyone who chose to show up.

Of course, that’s easy when you only have small parties.

When I visit other blogs, I look for something the same.  I’m usually there for the original poster, not for the commenters, so most often a “healthy community” of commenters without the poster being involved in the conversation is usually a turn-off. Comment communities that seem to cliquish and “in crowd” are also ones I tend to shy away from. And if it takes too long to read through several dozen comments (to make sure my excellent point hasn’t already been articulated), I’ll tend to skip it.

Thoughts?