I'm gonna send you over to another fellow food blogger, Ilva at Lucullian to read her post on the very interesting subject of an overwhelming feeling when faced with the amount of blogs to be read. You know how you feel like your the only one that feels a certain way. Well it turns out I am not alone in this department.
Now my questions to those that visit is very pointed and meant to be constructive in terms of the blogging community on a whole, why do you NOT comment on blogs. I guess I am such a blabber mouth and I expect everyone to voice their opinion good, bad or indifferent.
In my humble opinion bloggers thrive on comments. It's an interesting world this blogging community and most of us feel that comments just makes it that much better. I hope the majority of you do not think it is clique-ish in anyway. Because it is not. Some of us know each other because we are related, maybe we live in the same town or maybe we have like interests or maybe even started emailing each other after a certain post and voila!!! a friendship blossomed.
Many of us have counters on our sites so that we know how many visitors we have and then to see that you have a ton of visitors and only one comment. I know it takes time and we all have busy lives and this blog is certainly not meant to put any guilt on our readers. I guess it is just more of a curiosity than anything else.
Care to comment?
20 comments:
Doodles, I SO agree with you (and Ilva) ... it's sometimes very dispiriting when you get no feedback ... my friends and family tell me that they read my blog, but I don't think any of them has ever left a comment, so I can't be completely sure ... but, on the other hand, I write my blog mainly to please myself, and to keep track of what I'm cooking, so it's not a completely serious complaint!
Joanna
joannasfood.blogspot.com
You know I agree!
I agree, but I don't leave nearly as many comments as some people do. I just don't have time to even keep up on the huge number of food blogs, so I mostly read them in a feed reader, where it takes a little longer to click through and leave a comment. I try to do it when I can or when something really catches my interest (like this post.)
i don't comment a lot because i'm afraid to say something stupid or lame or trite or boring. i'll chalk that up to my own insecurities, but that's why i don't comment too much. also, because i write for a living, i'm a little bit of a perfectionist when it comes to the written word and i find it takes a long time to write a comment, what with the revising and rewriting and everything. (like, i revised this comment several times before hitting publish.)
lil bird you do know you are my very most favorite anal niece .... ;
lil bird you do know you are my most very favorite anal niece ;)
Everyone seems to agree, there are a lot of blogs to keep current on but I do try to comment when I have something to say. There are times when I think I'm just talking to myself and that's not bad either but feedback is much appreciated.
The only time that I don't post comments is when I am pressed for time...which, unfortunately, is becoming more common at the moment as my uni semester winds up and I find that I'm farther behind than I'd like and everything is due right now and I'm gonna have a mental breakdown
*hyperventilates*
I think I feel the same as MP a lot of the time...I'm often reading food blogs during my relaxation time and my brain seems to disappear, so that when I think of what to write in a comment, I go blank. Not a good thing, as I'm in awe of nearly all the blogs that I read and I want to express my adoration, but also don't want to come across as a slobbering, brain-dead idiot :/
I am an avid blog reader but rarely, if ever, comment. I know, I'm lame. I think I rarely feel like I have anything of value to offer, and I feel silly just writing "Boy, this recipe really looks great!" or something else equally useless. I also read through Bloglines, so probably don't show up on counters, making me an even more useless blog reader!
liz, if you read on bloglines, you show up in the bloglines subscriber count which i think i love even more than the hit-counter! ;)
I like this lively conversation. Guilty here of a quick comment but they are always true, I'd never say, oh boy, I can't wait to make that sardine omelet with grape reduction coulis.
Ellie, we don't think of you as a slobbering, brain-dead idiot, ever.
I am so glad I brought this up because it is good to know.
Ellie not that you are BUT we are all slobbering-brain dead fools once in awhile.
All very interesting and thanks to all that have commented with explanations. Very much appreciated.
BTW I haven't a clue why that one comment of mine stuttered there and repeated...ahhh the gremlins!
This is a gnarly topic to bring up - very daring but bloggers do thrive on comments and I have seen many great blogs just fold because they don't get any feedback (amongst other reasons). It's really important to support new blogs that you find great but likewise it is a time thing as well. For example, I'm spending this afternoon just catching up on lots and lots of blogs!
The encouragement from other bloggers definitely keeps you going although it's a two way street, reciprocating feedback is good (if deserved) and taking part in blogging events also helps integrate you into the community (which is quite close knit).
I am also guilty of reading many blogs but not posting comments. I do thrive on comments at my site, so I should know better.
My own practice is to encourage a few newer bloggers whose blogs show promise and I'd like to see continue ...
I thought I posted a comment - but it's gone in the blog-hole! Anyway - I try to comment regularly on the blogs I link to on my home page. I will add and veer off every once in a while to check out others I am missing. Sometimes time gets in the way. But, I feel that my comments started people coming to see my blog, and their comments allowed others to link, and so on....(bad flash back to the OLD Breck shampoo commerical...and they told 2 friends...and they told 2 friends...)
Interesting subject:)
For me personally is very often the language barrier, I can´t really write what I would like to but I feel limited by my vocabulary...
An the other hand, it´s a bit like Liz said, when I see that ten people has already written "Oh, this looks fabulous" I DO feel stupid if I exclaim "Oh, this looks fabulous", even though I would really mean that.
This is an interesting subject and I'm glad I asked the question...thank you to all who have responded.
vonsachsen I would take 10 comments that said the very same thing over just one. And we all know we have visitors from other parts of the world perfect english is not required ;)
Chris I totally agree...I have created visitors to our site by visitn other sites and I'm sure MP and Moon have too.
But the bottom line is the feedback. In my personal blog I don't care if you comment because I use it more as a journal.
No one would ever think anyone is lame because you don't comment and quick comments are just as good as long involved comments.
I think this is what I thought in the very beginning of my blogging life, something our momma told us, If you can't say anything nice don't say anything at all! Now in the beginning I'm thinking all these folks are coming to our blog and not saying anything what the heck....I know that's not true at all now. Thanks again for all the comments and input they are appreciated.
I love to read and give comments, and I like it when my comments are acknowledged. To me blogging is a dialogue, and that means two-way communication. I know for those who get 50-60 comments that is a burden, but people like ruhlman even respond to comments and track dialogue and I'm sure he's way more busy than me! So I'll keep commenting and hope you do the same!
you can count on me to comment...thanks Deborah.
Okay, I've been away on vacation and now I'm cruising through my blog roll at lighting speed to catch up. I had to leave this completely vapid comment just because I couldn't close the window without more than a tinge of guilt. Cheers!
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