9 comments

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  Phil Glockner

  1 year ago

  You bring up a good point. Sort of like attending a public lecture at a local university.. if you hang around to talk to the lecturer and the gaggle of people, or get a phone number and call the lecturer up later, that would be equivalent to commenting on the blog.
  
  However, people are going to go their own ways and talk to their friends about what they saw and learned during the lecture. They might write about it in the local paper. More discussions happen, and sometimes, the lecturer is invited back in to the conversation somewhere else, or *because* of the external buzz. I would see this more as commenting for an audience.
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  Louis Gray

  1 year ago

  I would argue that I'm overweighted on FriendFeed as far as visibility, and as a result, the ratio of comments on FriendFeed vs. those on my site is actually much higher than the norm. That I'm "well known" as you put it isn't really true outside of the social media bubble. I strongly believe that external conversations will, in time, benefit the source blog, and comments can drive great conversations as well as simple replies.
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  jeffisageek

  1 year ago

  I think with services like disqus now comments creating conversations of their own within a blog post. which is great! I am finding myself following more comment strings these days then i have in the past.
  
  I love the way comments are spawning discussions and can go either way toward the author or the audience.
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  Terry Shay

  1 year ago

  I started a blog a few weeks ago...I had NO idea how important commenting was. I now live for comments-- I want to know that if I am taking the time to post, that it isn't going unnoticed.
  
  I had only commented once or twice and only when I thought I really had something to contribute to the conversation... Now I see that might be a flawed way of thinking. I need to comment when I have things to contribute, but I also need to be clear as to who the audience I am speaking to might be. Most of the time I find myself writing to the blogger and not the intended audience. Sometimes the person has sad something SO infuriating that I MUST respond. I guess in those times I am speaking to both the author and the followers.
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  Corvida

  1 year ago

  Terry there's nothing wrong with that. And I'd definitely agree with commenting even if it's not a huge contribution to the conversation. You never know what your thoughts might do unless you post them, regardless of if they're big or small.
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  leigh

  1 year ago

  All i can say is that I am definitely going over to Friendfeed to put a "I like this post" smily on your post :)
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  robdiana

  1 year ago

  I think there is a fundamental difference in thinking. On the blog, you are "replying" to the author. On friendfeed you are participating in a conversation with several other people. Granted Disqus changes the game a bit with the comment threading, but it is still a comment on a blog.
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  Riayn

  1 year ago

  I think the issue of comments affects different bloggers in different ways. If you are writing a tech blog, then you might see your readers go away and have conversations about your post on sites like FriendFeed. However, if you are a personal blogger, then your comments are going to stay on your blog because your readers want to talk to you rather than discuss the topic of your blog with others in a different forum. It will be interesting to watch what happens in this area and if one day there will exist an application that can take all comments posted on other sites and link them back to the original post.
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  Evelien Snel

  1 year ago

  The public lecture is a good example to compare with a blog posting. And commenting in the blog is the equivalent of raising your finger to ask the teacher a question there and then. All the other students get to hear your question and the teacher's answer. You are talking to the teacher directly, but all students benefit. It may even be the intention of the teacher to get some interaction with the students.
  
  Commenting on another site is more like talking with the other students after the class in the corridor. Nothing wrong with that of course, but the interaction with the teacher is lost. You don't have to do that because you feel sorry for the students who were not in the classroom during the lecture: they could have taken that class themselves if they wanted to.
  
  And what is so good about the web: They can still take that class. All that takes is for them to follow a link to the original blog posting.
  
  My conclusion is: The preferred location for comments is on the blog they reply to.
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