{"id":6572,"date":"2004-08-17T09:43:27","date_gmt":"2004-08-17T16:43:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/2004\/08\/17\/commentary-4.html"},"modified":"2014-06-13T17:30:44","modified_gmt":"2014-06-13T23:30:44","slug":"commentary_4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2004\/08\/17\/commentary_4.html","title":{"rendered":"Commentary"},"content":{"rendered":"

Les<\/a> links to today’s Dork Tower on a topic important to most bloggers<\/a>. Go ahead and read it …<\/p>\n

… okay, and we’re back. <\/p>\n

Comment counts, as much as page hits, are sort of a currency amongst many bloggers. They validate the value of the blog (and thus the blogger), it’s felt. <\/p>\n

A lot of it boils down to why one is blogging. Is this a personal expression and sharing sort of thing, or is it, bluntly, show business. If it’s the latter, then you’re pushing for lots of comments, and probably lots of hits. And it means you’d better be ready to do whatever is necessary — like someone in show business — to bring yourself to others’ attention.<\/p>\n

I’m definitely more in the former category. I blog, not to be mentioned on InstaPundit or MeFi or BoingBoing every day. I blog because it’s a way to express. If I have an audience of 10 or 10,000 doesn’t make that much difference to me.<\/p>\n

Okay, that’s a lie. Getting 10,000 visitors a day (as opposed to a month, which is about where I’m at) would be a bit daunting, but an incredible ego-boost. But I’m honestly not willing to do what’s necessary to get there (which is why I’m not in show business). And I’m honest enough to know that a lot of what I post about is simply not all that interesting for a lot of people.<\/p>\n

But what does that have to do with comments? Well, there is certainly a correlation between overall readers and overall commenting. But even in a smaller forum like this, how does one engender comments?<\/p>\n

Damned if I know.<\/p>\n

Like Les, there have been times I have put blood, sweat, and tears into a given post, sure it’s going to inspire lots of commentary and discussion. Cue the crickets chirping in the background.<\/p>\n

And there have been times when I’ve made a wry, offhand comment, or posted on something trivial, and had it just explode.<\/p>\n

Looking at the most commented-upon posts, it’s a wide array of topics:<\/p>\n

115 comments: Why U.S. Bank sucks, and Margie is marvelous<\/a> (05-Jun-02)
\n36 comments: Car talk<\/a> (09-Jun-03)
\n31 comments: Distractions<\/a> (26-Mar-03)
\n31 comments: Suing our own fat asses off<\/a> (25-May-02)
\n30 comments: Liar, liar, Iraq’s on fire?<\/a> (10-Jul-03)
\n29 comments: This is wrong<\/a> (22-Oct-03)
\n28 comments: When is an ID not an ID?<\/a> (31-Jan-02)
\n27 comments: Return of the King<\/i><\/a> (22-Dec-03)
\n23 comments: Evil! Evil! Evil!<\/a> (29-May-03)
\n23 comments: Splitting hairs<\/a> (26-Feb-04)<\/p>\n

(The above are from this script<\/a>; I don’t generate this all the time because of the processing delay. For my own notes, to update I have to rebuild the Most Comments template, then run this PHP file<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

Most of the topics above are serious ones — except, maybe, for the cars and RotK <\/em>ones. Few of them are personal (i.e., about me; all of them, clearly, have a personal passion of some degree behind them). The most-commented ones are where the commenting community has taken off with the discussion, as opposed to it simply being ones where it’s been back-and-forth with me.<\/p>\n

I note that only a couple of the above are about Iraq or the Presidential Campaign. That’s good, since I’m more or less skirting those topics for the time being.<\/p>\n

As general rules, comments are engendered by readers with a level of comfort in the setting. That is, the posts have to be interesting enough (and have something interesting to comment about), but the environment has to be safe enough for people to feel they can say something. That means no flaming, certainly not from the blogger him\/herself, unless what’s desired is comment-count-through-flame-wars. That also means responding to comments (as proper) and keeping conversations alive.<\/p>\n

I know I wish I had more folks commenting on my posts, just because I like the conversation. If there’s something you, as readers, would find more conducive to commentary, let me know. But, even if the commentary is minimal, I’ll keep on blogging about this sort of stuff. Because, ultimately, it really is<\/em> about me (so to speak), not about fortune and glory.<\/p>\n

Thanks heavens.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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