Leaving a comment is surely easier than wood etching
Did you know that this blog has 948 entries? How about that this blog has 757 “legitmate” comments? That means we average a little under 1 comment per entry. Also worth noting is that there have been 92,121 “spam comments” caught that never have been published.
On a daily basis, this space has a fair number of people roll in, look around, and leave. Over time, a core readership has seemed to form (and a dedicated set of commenters as well.) For those of you who do comment, thank you. However, the overall comment to visitor ratio is low. What I’m interested in understanding from you, dear reader, is why don’t you comment?
Is it that the content is not comment worthy? Not worth the time? Don’t want to expose yourself on the internet? Is it too difficult to comment? Is comment moderation for spam off-putting? Do you not like that you have to provide an email address – I don’t collect them btw, it’s another spam deterrent. Is it that I don’t ask for comments? Is the material not inviting for comments? Nothing to say?
I’m interested in knowing what would make this place more attractive for participation. If you don’t feel comfortable leaving a comment to even share why you don’t comment, feel free to drop me a line: mike (at) montaraventures (dot) com.
Well, since you asked. Your content on anything but tOSU football is stupid. You are a privileged, liberal know-it-all and it’s not worth my time to comment. If you want more comments, get off your high horse and write more about college football. Keep your political, religious, and other views to your self.
Ouch! That’s going to leave a mark. I guess I should file this under “be careful what you ask for…”
George, I’ll take the positive from your comment that you like the Ohio State football content. Stay tuned, there is some coming up with the recent completion of the 2008 recruiting class, spring practice, and the spring game. I’m also planning a sub-site with just the sports content, you may be happier there in the long run.
As for the other aspects of your comments, it’s good to know there is a negative reaction. However, I doubt that I’ll confine my comments to just college football.
I think I’ve contributed four of the 757 “legitimate” comments, or maybe they were in the 95,121 batch :). Anyway, if I see something where a comment jumps in my head that I think is worth sharing, I do. What I find with most of your entries is that I learn something new, either about an issue, a topic, or about you. Just putting in “that’s interesting” seems to add no value, or at least less value than I might otherwise add. What I do see is that when a comment is posted on your blog, it’s generally worth reading because your crowd does put some thought into what they respond with. There are many blogs where I won’t even bother looking at the comments, knowing I’ll need to slog through dozens of “wow!”, “great story!!”, and “very interesting!!!” comments to get to anything that’s worthwhile reading.
That is a very insightful observation, quality not quantity is what is important. I’m with you Connie, “that’s interesting” comments don’t add much to the overall richness of the site. Perhaps I should be happy with the quality of comments offered vs. the quantity?
Thank you for the kind words on content, I make every effort to share content that has, in some way, taught me something or made me think or perhaps most importantly, made me laugh.
Just to let you know – Love your site – read it every day. The short and sweet of it is I’m with Connie. :)~
btw – I’m creating my own site – then you can come read me – more later.
Thanks for the comment Shar-Ma. Please make sure to put the URL of your new site in the field for that on comments, in that way, people can click your name when you contribute an interesting comment to come visit your site.
Appreciate the kind words. When I wrote this entry this morning, my initial worry was “no one would comment” on the story asking why readers don’t comment. Then after reading George’s contribution, I was worried this would devolve into a “this site sucks” thread. Now, I’m not worried, this is really good information on the positive and negative side that will help refine what happens here over time.
Ever since I started reading your blog in Google reader it had become less natural to leave comment because I have to leave Google reader to do so.
Also, you are a relatively prolific blogger so I’m usually more interested in reading on than leaving a comment.
Also an excellent point. I haven’t spent too much time thinking about RSS, but the disintermediation of advertising and comment deterrent actually are opportunities.
As for being a relatively prolific blogger, I guess that’s true. I blog more than some, and much less than others…;-)
Thanks for the comment Kevin.
Pretty much the same comment as Kevin. I read through a feed reader and there needs to be something that I really want to switch over to the site to leave a comment for. Most of the time I’m just a passive reader skimming titles for interesting things to read. I rarely leave comments on any of the blogs I read and I don’t typically find comments interesting enough to read on most blogs (there are a couple exceptions), so I don’t feel that there is much value in my leaving a comment most of the time.
Thanks for the comment Mike, hope that over time this will be one of the sites where you read the comments!
great article. thank you for sharing