I have a question for you. Over the past several years, I've noticed comments drop off considerably. Part of that is probably the security measures that have to be taken in order to prevent spammers from completely taking over. Other things might be Facebook, etc. It just seems a lot harder to have a conversation on a blog.
What would help? I know that in order to get you to answer that question, I am asking you to possibly deal with whatever is causing you to refrain from commenting in the first place. Would an easier comment moderation/security help (and this might mean moving to a Wordpress site for that to be possible). Do you hate my wallpaper or choice of font and so can't stand to hang around? Would posting from a Facebook page devoted to the blog help facilitate conversation by moving it there? I so want to hear from you, and I know that there are people out there...I see it in the stats.
Please let me know what would help. I want to write more, but I want to also hear from you. Thanks in advance.
5 comments:
I actually sort of forgot that blogs were a thing. Crazy. I used to have my favorites, and check many of them daily, but over time Fb took over. This morning both your blog and Jane's turned up in my newsfeed, and reminded me of this meatier mode of conversation.
I don't think there's anything that prevents me from commenting on your blog. Sometimes I don't comment because it seems like everything you said was spot-on. But I should anyhow. I have noticed for myself that it's hard to write when I feel like I'm writing into an vacuous hole where there's either nobody listening or nobody cares. It buoys me when a certain Oklahoman takes the little bit of time to say "thanks" or "I agree" or "good to hear from you" when I put up a blog post. Similarly it is encouraging to keep writing when people (the type who absolutely refuse to EVER comment online) send an email or make a comment when they see you InRealLife about how they appreciate the blogging.
I had to take down my blog counter because google informed me about something regarding privacy laws in Europe and how counters "track" people, and how I could get sued if I didn't have some sort of opt-out option for Europeans. (How come none of my friends got the same notice?? Weird.) But anyway, with no tracker and nobody commenting, that makes it hard to keep posting or to have a conversation. For me, my mom was incentive to blog; it was a tool of daily communication that she enjoyed, so that on the phone we could do more of the talking that comes after the basic catch-up. When her health was failing and after her death, that took away a huge part of my incentive to blog. I do love having Feedly to tell me when somebody else posts, so that I don't miss anything. :-)
One of my friends (who just moved to my state last month) has her blog on typepad, and for some reason I cannot comment on her blog anymore. As for your moving to a different platform, I find that several blogs are difficult to post comments on, OR it's easy to post but the comments line up weird and are hard to read the responses. I think Blogger is the easiest for readers to use, but maybe that's just me.
I have noticed that some people put up a FB link when they post to their blogs, and the comments are usually on FB instead of on the blog. That makes me think that there's just been a change in where the conversation is taking place.
The death of Google Reader really put a dent in my regular blog perusal. And a lot of my regular blogger-reads dropped off their posting (myself included!) when a lot of us moved onto Facebook, so I got out of the habit of reading and commenting regularly.
I'd rather not join another FB page to follow you online. I think what's most helpful is simply posting links to your new posts (or having Blogger do that automatically, if it can) in your FB feed, and then, I suspect, a lot of people would comment there in a FB thread.
I do miss blogging. I started migrating to a WordPress site, and then the move happened, and now it's all a mess and I don't have my office set up yet for long-form writing work and and and and...
Well, I just tried to post a comment via "OpenID" and I don't think it went through (so, sorry if I post twice). I guess my commenting confusion answers your question: I use Wordpress and find it difficult to directly comment on blogs that are on other sources. :p
I will be moving this to a Wordpress account eventually. I have the domain name. :) Then I can just use a ReCaptcha
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