Have you ever thought about your obligation to your blog audience?
Should you always respond to their comments?
And as a blog reader, what obligations are there? If you read the blog do you have to post a comment?
I was thinking about this because of a particular blog I frequent. I have no idea how large her audience is (I will say that I've seen her blog link on several author's blogs and she is published herself) but what I do know is that I'm typically the only person commenting on her blog. A lot of times I don't know what to say so I say nothing but when I can think of something, I post it because I know that seeing a lot of 0 comments can be discouraging and she has interesting, thought-provoking posts.
Well, she recently posted an entry asking all her readers to post a comment so she'd know they were out there. I immediately jumped up, raised my hand, said "I'm here" then posted a comment (because she couldn't "see" me jumping up, raising my hand, and oddly enough, she couldn't hear me either...weird how that works).
But here's the deal, every time I read her entries and post a comment, she responds....once. For example, I post a comment and she posts a reply. Her reply makes me think of something else, a comment, a question, whatever, and I post another comment. She never responds back to the second comment I make...NEVER - even when I am asking a follow up question - never. So if you see her blog she either has two comments or three comments...never four or more. Not that I'm complaining, I just find that a bit odd and that could just be me.
Anyway, not all that long ago a discussion was raised somewhere that bloggers should respond to their comments, otherwise the commentors will disappear, not feeling valued (which, for the record, I know I'm bad about NOT doing that but it has more to do with my own belief that I'm a topic killer than anything else - I really do appreciate the comments!). So my question is, when is it acceptable to cut off a dialogue with someone reading / commenting on your blog? Is there a magic number - if so, what is it? Do you feel you owe it to your "audience" to respond? Would you stop commenting if you didn't get a response from the blogger? Would you stop reading their blog altogether if they didn't respond?
I guess the real question (feel free to answer as few or as many as you like :-) ) is, do you have rules you follow when it comes to blogging? If so, what are those rules.
Inquiring minds want to know. :-)
2 comments:
I know--blog etiquette is a mystery. LOL.
Let's see...if they're asking a question, definitely reply to their comment. If not, reply if you have something to add. Otherwise, it's probably okay if you don't reply. Though it's nice to know that the blogger isn't thinking "Argh--why is THAT idiot visiting my blog?"--by replying to their comments, you let them know you appreciate their visit. :) Is that all clear as mud? LOL.
I try to reciprocate when other folks visit and comment on my blog. Sometimes, I just don't have anything brilliant to add in a comment though (well, most of the time, but I often put something out there anyway. LOL).
You hit the nail on the head Ellen with the feeling of "Argh--why is THAT idiot visiting my blog?" That's how I feel sometimes (okay a lot of times) when I post.
Other times I struggle with what I want to say and how I want to say it and then IF I go ahead and post a comment it's brief and usually doesn't really reflect what I want to say. Then, when I check back later, someone else (a lot of times YOU) have posted something so eloquently, with words that express what I'd wanted to say or convey and I have to fight the urge to post "Yeah, THAT's what I meant too." LOL
Thanks for commenting Ellen. :-)
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