National Blog Posting Month

Do you think it's rude not to leave comments behind?

I need to get perspective on this one. Now that I'm checking my site meter every hour (ok, more like every ten minutes) I see people coming for a visit and traipsing around, but on some days, the ratio of comments is less than 1 in 50! Is it me or should people take the time to at least post a short note when they've seen or read something they enjoyed? If you're in the "yes, should comment" category, of course you can say so here, but feel free to go over here http://fromsmilerwithlove.blogspot.com/ to let me know as well. If you're in the "no, why should we leave comments?" category, I just want to know: but why?

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Nona Morris on November 20, 2007 at 3:17pm: I moved from Xanga to blogspot (before I moved to a wordpress blog and my own domain) because you HAD to have a xanga to comment. I never did have word verification on my blogger becaues I never needed it.

Then, once I got a wordpress blog I started getting umpteen million spam comments (somewhere around 3thousand a day), everything from casino poker to weight loss pills to pecker picker uppers.

I finally gave in and got a captcha, and now I don't have that much of a problem, though some spam still gets through regardless.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by monkey on November 21, 2007 at 10:23am: unless someone has comment to express their opinion or contribute information, it is unrealistic for people to just leave a comment for no reason. as a person who answers each piece of mail i get and reads every comment on my blogs and replies when required, i appreciate all the thoughtful comments people make. but, a comment like "great" or "cool" tells me nothing. either don't post or say something substantial.

it's also considered impolite in many forums to waste space and readers time by posting things like "i agree", "me too" or "how cute." since it is a lot of fluff for readers to dig through and is not on topic.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by CombatGal on November 21, 2007 at 10:27am: I don't think it's rude to not leave comments. Comments are great, but if someone reads my blog and has nothing to say, I think it's ok. What really burns my onion is when I leave two or more nice comments on someone's blog and they do not acknowledge it either by stopping by my blog or posting another comment in reply.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by kperfetto on November 25, 2007 at 9:35am: What I've learned in the year or two since I've been blogging is that there are no rules. I don't always leave reciprocal comments, or answer the ones left on my blog because I simply don't have the time to be tethered to my site 24-7 checking them. Nor do I really expect someone to comment or even visit my site because I did theirs. I guess you get what you give.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Jientje/heaveninbelgium on November 21, 2007 at 10:50am: I don't think it's rude not to leave a comment, but I agree with Combatgal, that it's not very nice not to reply if someone has left you nice comments. It makes you wonder whether you're welcome on that persons blog or not.
You go back twice, maybe three times, but if they don't bother to answer, eventually you 'll loose interest, I think? And that is a pity.
But what I really really hate are "copy and paste" comments. You know, when you find the very same comment on the rest of the blogroll.
Usually they mean nothing and proove beyound a doubt that he or she hasn't even read the post!
That I find VERY RUDE, and disrespectful of the work put in that entry!

BUT I LOVE ALL OTHER COMMENTS, I DO!!; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Shelby on November 21, 2007 at 11:12am: I have a question about comments that I hope someone here can answer. Whenever someone comments on my blog (which I'm grateful for by the way, thank you), I get notified twice in my e-mail. So basically every comment notification is doubled. Does this happen to anyone else?; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Caroline Moore on November 21, 2007 at 11:15am: Hi Shelby,

I use WordPress, and I've noticed that if someone new to my blog leaves a comment, I first get an e-mail asking me to approve their comment, and a second e-mail with a comment notification once I've approved it.

It doesn't happen if it's a repeat commenter, though. If they've commented before, their name is already in the system, so I don't have to approve their comment. I only get the comment notification.

Is that similar to what you're talking about?; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Smiler on November 21, 2007 at 2:41pm: I'm on Blogger and I had a similar thing happen. If you have comment moderation (which I don't recall if you do right now, sorry) then you have an option of having comments waiting for moderation emailed to you. Either way, there's another section that can send you a notification every time a comment is sent to you. Just make sure you only have on of the two filled out or will will get them sent twice. Hard to explain but it's actually really simple. Hope that's helpful.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Smiler on November 21, 2007 at 2:44pm: I'm sorry, I don't understand what you're talking about. Are you sure you're in the right discussion?; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by s.e. smith on November 21, 2007 at 7:51pm: You know your thread is successful when you get spam.

Speaking of spam, I think that cleverly worded spam comments are my pet peeve. I glance at them in my moderation queue, I think they're real, and then I realize the awful truth. Really, the level of commitment demonstrated by spammers is just amazing.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Jennifer on November 21, 2007 at 9:59pm: oh god no I don't think people are being rude when they don't leave comments. Most of my friends don't leave comments because they aren't bloggers. they don't know anything about the whole blog culture. they just read blogs like they would the NYTimes online. And quite frankly, most of the time I don't leave comments and I have a blog. Often I am too tired or don't have a response. That doesn't mean that I don't appreciate that someone took the time to write about something that I enjoyed reading for 5 minutes. I am happy knowing that someone somewhere may have learned something or enjoyed themselves on my site. the point is not that i rack up the comments.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Smiler on November 23, 2007 at 5:01pm: I like receiving comments precisely because that lets me know that someone enjoyed themselves on my side. It's not about racking them up. It's just nice to have some kind of exchange with the reader, which is part of the fun of blogging and which other media can't provide in a practical way.; ▶ Reply to This