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Why I don’t comment on blogs

I have been thinking a lot about the commentosphere recently.  I’ve delved into the world a bit as well, leaving a handful of comments on my favorite blogs.  But I keep running into the same problems.  I would consider myself a fairly fanatical blog reader, twitter user, and a social media addict in general.  But I’m a user at heart.  A reader.  I have a lot of opinions and I love talking about them.  But I often feel left out of conversations on blogs - even when I know as much about what everyone is talking about as anyone else.  Why don’t I participate more?  Here are three reasons:

  1. Comment conversations are totally disorganized with no clear format or structure. There is no clear entry point for casual users like me.  What should my comment be about?  The post?  A related article I read?  A response to a previous comment?  Do I need to read all the previous comments before leaving mine?  Or can I just comment away despite the fact that someone else might have said/asked the same exact thing?
  2. Comment sections tend to be dominated either by trolls or power users who comment a LOT.  The presence of trolls tells me: “don’t bother.”  And the power user dominance says: “Do you really belong in this conversation?” Sometimes I don’t know.
  3. There is no mechanism to connect conversations across articles. As a result each article or blog post is an island unto itself with dialogues that have a short shelf life.  Which again makes the investment of time not worth it when I’m not sure if I really want to come back to that post to comment again.

To be clear, people that do leave comments often get an enormous amount of satisfaction out of it.  But it seems to me that you need to make a certain minimum level of commitment before you start seeing benefits like fulfilling conversations, new friends, etc.  And that minimum level of commitment is simply way too high for an enormous majority of web users.

That’s why we are building the qwidget: to unleash the vast human desire to communicate among casual users that has been stifled by the problems unique to commenting.

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Viewing 20 Comments

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    that is your view man but i honestly say that it makes connection among lots of people..
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    Awesome blog
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    We are very excited about this great new tool for our blog, http://blogforprofit.com Can't wait to get the chance to give it a try.

    I am amazed that people are still reluctant to leave comments on a blog. Especially if they are the first. Qwidget will certainly help to get the conversation started and get more and more of our readers involved. Thanks for all the hard work you are doing to get this online soon.
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    Thanks for the encouragement Grant!
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    I agree with you - commenting is a real waste of time. I think people use comment sections as a platform for their own personal rants. Nothing else. If they served a real purpose, then perhaps they would be viable. And unless you have 20 minutes to read comments on a popular blog, you miss out on the whole scheme of things. I have better things to do!
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    If a post makes you think, express those thoughts. If you feel compelled to comment, please do.

    Don't let your thoughts & feelings about commenting stand in your way of communicating with the author or other commenters.

    And I agree with Chuck...

    At the very least, you will be letting the blogger know he/she isn't just talking to themselves. This can be really important for small bloggers that don't have many readers and don't get very many comments.

    The encouragement that is received through a single comment is a very powerful thing and sometimes can mean the difference between the author continuing to write and giving up.
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    How ironic that I'm about to post a comment on a post about not posting comments.

    I don't believe that there's a dichotomy among comment posters: trolls or power users. There are many of us out there who just like to express our opinion.

    One aspect which I think you may not have considered is the perspective of the blog's author. As a blogger myself, I love it when people comment, good or bad. It lets me know that people are reading what I've written and it has stirred them to action, however small. Comments are appreciated.

    However imperfect the commenting mechanism, it is one method of debate. Any blogger with an open mind will appreciate those comments for the different perspectives they bring. I actually don't like reading blogs that don't allow comments. I don't feel compelled to comment on every blog post I read (that would be a career) but I like to have that option.
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    Hey Alain,
    I totally agree that comments are necessary on blogs. I wouldn't do away with them for the world....I just think that the immediate emotional reaction that most people have when they look at a comment section turns them off from the prospect of participating. I'm not saying that there isn't value there.
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    You hit the nail on the head - I often write the comments, but don't publish because I wonder about the things you mentioned above. Comment-anxiety I call it.
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    comment anxiety...i love it. and i may use it too. :)
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    Very interested to see what you're working on...the commentosphere can definitely feel like a daunting place. Reason 1 and 3 resonate with me. If a blog has a fairly active audience, participation just requires way too much effort (i.e., reading through all the comments) and the "pay-off" is fleeting. IMO, this also leads to much less interesting conversations in the comments. Lots of people who are really analytical and who have lots of expertise on a topic stay out b/c of the time sink, and comments get clogged with people who enjoy participation just for the sake of it (i.e., the "great post" type of comments that don't really advance the conversation).
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    Interesting that reason number 2 does not resonate. I wonder if others agree. Obviously, those were just my thoughts on why I don't participate. I think that that reason came from my reading of Scoble's blog and TC. I see the same names again and again and when I see Robert or Michael Arrington respond to certain commenters, I think to myself, "how much work do I need to do to merit a response from those guys?" And I know that this is probably flawed thinking - that they would respond to any insightful comment - but the emotional gut reaction is still there and I bet that others feel it too.
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    Even if I agree with you, and I do, I will still comment if I feel I can contribute because people will possible check me out. It's a form of branding.
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    I totally agree. And I think like that too when I read a particularly fantastic blog post...or at least one that is provocative enough to get a response out of me. But I think that you and I are definitely in the minority. More than 97% of the people that read this post did not leave a comment. But I bet that they had opinions about what I wrote. And there has to be a better way to get them to express those opinions.
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    When I comment on a blog I do not subscribe to, I usually have future comments emailed to me so I can continue to follow the thread of the conversation.
    If I am taking the time to comment, I obviously feel strongly about what the author is saying, and I also want to see if he/she will comment back on my opinion.

    I have struggled with the "is my comment relevant?" issue as well, but I have confidence that if I make an informed and insightful comment it will be! Don't ever assume that people don't want to hear what you have to say or you are defeating the whole purpose of making comments available.
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    Ironically, this post will now surely receive dozens of comments...

    I think you've hit on some great points. For me, I leave comments for one of two reasons. I either do it because a well-reasoned comment is often a blogger's only validation and reward for their hard work, and I do it when I really want to share something on my mind that the post inspired.

    In this case, I think you've written a thoughtful post, so I wanted to give my thoughts in return to let you know that I appreciate what you've done. I'll try to keep track of where I've commented and come back to see if the author responded.

    Overall, you bring up the main areas where the comments/commenting system could be improved, and I'm going to try to keep them in mind for my own site and see if there's anything I can do about them.
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    Agreed that smart comments reward a blogger's thinking. All of the comments that this post has received made my day. I'm really excited about getting this dialogue going.
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    Thanks for writing this.

    To comment, and I am not one to comment much on blogs myself.

    I've been on brainstorm kick lately (expressed on Twitter this week - http://twitter.com/ScottSays) about the inefficiency of excessive comments ( I am not anti-comment by any means) in blogging and microblogging. Just feel too much commenting and responding to comments uses up valuable energy and resource from busy people. This logically will impact long term productivity.

    Also, and I am not looking to stir the fire here, (just calling it like I see it), but so many of the blogging comments and responding to blog comments are done in the "elite" circles of social media. Not everyone has the time, or is part of a work environment where social media is encouraged, or even the daily freedom to be a part of a free flowing blog experience.

    While comments are completely relevant in 2008, my instinct says in the professional world, corporate blogging will evolve into a limited commenting forum. Further, as the current economic crisis shakes out, and if this is a prolonged event, I think the time some people have to excessively comment and respond to comments will fade, yielding to the reality of economics and practicality.

    This will give way to the best business and marketing writers rising above and becoming larger voices who convey their wisdom through their writing.

    One more thing. I feel the spirit "Blogging" is here to stay, but I also feel the word "blog" may change or morph into a new word that defines the spirit of the coming times.

    My two cents.

    Thanks again for this.

    Sincerely,

    Scott
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    Hi Scott,
    Thanks for your thoughts. I agree with much of what you say. And I agree that you need to invest a lot of time in participating in the "commentosphere" if you want to get anything out of it. It's yet another reason why so few people bother. But there will emerge filters and processes that will make it easier for normal folks to sift through the sheer volume of info to find what is relevant to them. The internet seemed like a big scary place in the early days of search engines...but that began to change with altavista and full changed with google. I think there will be some analogous mechanism for the world of online participation. Right now, that world is dominated by commenting but that reign can't last much longer IMHO. I hope and believe that what we're about to launch with the Qwidget (T minus a few days!) will play a part in this new future. We'll see!
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    I agree. Blogs and web-based fora in general are inferior. E-mail lists can sometimes be good but, really, Usenet is "yer only man".
 
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