The Importance of Comments
There are all sorts of bloggers out there. People blog for a variety of reasons. For fun, for information sharing, for venting out thoughts, for meeting new people, blah blah.
People read your blogs. It is true but you cannot believe it. Days go by and you have no response. Then to track people down, you install counters, stat trackers and other available freeware out there. Now you know, people ARE ACTUALLY reading your blog. But still, no response. Then finally, one day, you receive the email saying someone left a comment on your blog. You hurriedly go over and open to see who the other soul is. And???? Darn Spambots!
THE most exciting part of any blogger’s life is – when someone leaves them a comment. Correct me if I am wrong.
Now, there are boring blogs that dont encourage comments. I am not talking about those blogs. The blog that I am talking about is our very own NYC METBLOG! We all post stuff (try to) regularly. I have seen many good posts but what I have not seen is a ready participation via comments. I am not shouting out for comments here, but, maybe, an increased percentage in posting comments not only increases interest but also will encourage all of us to blog more. Increasing the number of posts thusly. Increasing the effectiveness of the bloggers thusly.
Someone should make a positive move on this issue. My idea to initiate some responses from our readers (and I had been intending to this for a while) is to collect POLLS. These are really interesting, offer a good way to collect people’s thoughts and it is just a click away.
My Dear Fellow Bloggers, Readers of Metblogs and the rest of the world!
If you happen to chance upon our blog, happen to like a post, would you happen to leave a comment to the respective blogger?
To answer this question, please select from the POLL options.
GO TO THE POLL
Let us see how much participation we get out of this one!
It’s a problem I know exists at other Metblogs, too, and polls could be fun because Internet people are SOOOO lazy. Really. Is there some way to embed that poll in the Metblogs page? Didn’t like having to travel away from this page to submit.
Take heart, from your stats you can probably see that lots of people are watching NYC Metblogs coming from the Metblogging universe and beyond.
I’ve often thought of leaving comments but didn’t want to intrude on a person’s thoughts so I chose not to…you may wish you hadn’t got me started!
Agreed with Gwen, most Metblogs just don’t get that many comments. There definitely are people out there reading this though.
Just remember when you were a reader of nyc metblogs and how often you commented. Or think about other sites you read, perhaps Digg, Fark, Gridskipper etc. How many times have you commented on there? For me very little, so I can’t expect people to comment on posts unless there is a specific question that I know the answer to.
Keep up the good work!
Edi, POST AWAY! I know that for myself, I would much rather someone comment with a disagreement or negativity than with no comment at all!
This is a problem at all kinds of blogs. The only exception–I think–is the political blogs (because people like to argue there.) I run a blog that gets 500-700 visitors a day, but around 10 comments…
Maybe polls are the way to go.
I’ve noticed on my own blog that it appears to be a reciprocal, community kind of thing. The commenters on my blog now form a sort of circle of bloggers whose respective blogs are all linked to and read by the other commenters. regular commenters/non-bloggers join in with increasing frequency when they see that.
But I have often wondered why this here blog doesn’t elicit much comment. Maybe my posts are just boring. :-)
I would have to agree to actually everyone here!
It is true, I might not have left comments myself on many occasions (though i try to) – Yes it is true we as readers are so lazy to type something. And it is also true we are hesitant to express a disagreement.People leave anonymous comments most of the time. Even that is fine, as long as there is some sort of constructive participation. As a blogger, I am open to constructive criticism and I can take a blow or two with a pinch of salt :-)
Polls definitely offer the most safe, quick and anonymous way to voice an opinion. I would love to have an embedded way to Poll in NYC Metblogs. ANy ideas captains????
too shy to make many comments… but i like checking in with the locals in NYC,,VERY progressive city.. a little spice to my mundane life in PHOENIX, AZ
Keep it up Julie! Believe me, you would add more spice to your life, my letting us know what you think and maybe asking us a few questions abt nyc will open new trains of thought.
Sandhya, you can do it with Vizu.com. They make it really simple and give you the code that you paste into the MoveableType module… Very easy.
See how I used it in a post a while back HERE.
thanks Noah! that helps.