If you are contemplating this question - Yes, you should.I know that you are out there, lurking.
Turnipblog is just too good for the word not to have spread by now.
Why doesn't anyone leave any comments?
Leave a comment telling me why you haven't been leaving any comments.
I know that JJ Redick reads Turnipblog - Just comment dude. Lay some of that poetry on us or something.
(alternate caption for above photo - "Why do I suck so bad?")
3 comments:
Hi Jeff, if I may delurk to speculate, it seems to me that the central problem with comment forums is that what you've written is buried almost immediately as the post it is attached to scrolls out of sight under the weight of new ones.
It's a matter of diminishing returns. Turnipblog may have, say, 20 different readers, and 10 of them may read any given post, but probably only 3 or 4 will take the time to click to read a comment, and only 1 (or more likely zero) will have anything to say in response (including you). Worse still, once they have commented, it is pretty much an unrewarding chore to check back to see if anyone ever responds to it.
Basically, commenters are after the same quid pro quo you are, to be heard and have a chance to engage in some dialog. Both blogger and commenter, if they don't get a minimum level of feedback, begin to feel the exercise is not worth it.
This is an advantage traditional forum/thread spaces have over weblogs. All posts are on equal footing, and many forums bump old threads with new responses up to the top of the pile, providing positive feedback for responding to a post.
I think you're an engaging writer, and if the word is getting around, you're probably going to have no problem attracting readers. If you buy my logic, if you want to encourage more comments, you might simply try responding to comments personally more often.
If you can accumulate a large enough audience such that your commenters maintain a self-sustaining sustaining readership for one another, you can go back to fire-and-forget, but I think this takes at least a few hundred readers. Difficult, maybe, but not impossible.
Thanks Krebby,
You are one of the good guys who comments.
Now if only JJ would pipe up.
You are obnoxious, I love it.
We do not throw things in my household, we yell at each-other and shoot each-other birds behind the other's back.
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