Comment Challenge: Learning from Your Comments
Posted by blk1 on May 24, 2008
As I moved around on the new Edublogs upgrade this morning, I enjoyed viewing all the comments left for me and this challenge gave me time to reread them and consider what I find interesting about comments.
It was hard to select just one, but Ken Allan’s popped right off the page
I selected Ken’s comment because it points up the connections we are all making from the challenges being offered: Kevin’s Boil Down Your Week, Stacey’s Slice of Life, etc. Initially you might leave your response and that’s that, then you can start checking out new blogs and finally you leave a comment. And with this challenge I clicked to Ken, left a comment Ken found his way here and left something for me. (I would be using links and color, but I don’t see them yet on my toolbar.)
I’m excited about connections building from these great networks.
Tena koe Bonnie!
You seem to be having a lot of fun here too!
Well I finally made it to your blog-site. I was working on Kevin’s Day in a Sentence (with colour) tonight travelling home on the bus from work – I’m still working on it! But y’know I had deja vu! I must have come across your blog some time before, perhaps a week or so ago. I was very new to all this – still am.
Anyway, before your page scrolled down I suddenly knew who I was going to see. Now that I’ve thought about it, I think I must have looked at your site while inspecting Kevin’s – dunno.
Whatever! Nice to be here a while Bonnie.
Ka kite
from Middle-earth
From Day 18: Analyze the Comments on Your Own Blog
Here’s some of my ingredients for creating a great comment:
1. The Comment should be positive and thoughtful.
2. The Commenter should feel comfortable sharing on your blog
3. The Commenter should leave something behind that might surprise the blog host.
4. And for the next layer of commenting, the commenter should move the conversation along with a question to the host and visitors.
What am I missing?? Hope this moves to a conversation…
Bonnie
May 24th, 2008 at 11:11 pm
Kia Ora Bonnie!
I’d just been reading and commenting on Kevin’s latest post on More Comment Challenges.
Yours was the only comment there at the time – I recognised blk1 for some reason as I’d recalled bk, but your name clinched it and I knew I had Alzheimer’s (I can never remember how to spell that word
It must be deja vu after all, for it’s certainly not normal recall.
I liked your concise thoughts on what makes a good comment – I’m now beginning to think I made a meal of mine, whatever. But like Kevin, you have a holistic view of the issues. I admire that. I’m stoked that my previous comment meant so much to where you are with all this right now.
So nice to be back for a visit, Bonnie!
Spot ya
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May 25th, 2008 at 6:46 am
Great to have you return Ken, and I’m glad that you found your comment here.
I’ve been avoiding this prompt and then I read Kevin’s and returned again to my set and yours seemed perfect to kick off my thoughts about comment and the thrill of building community here.
So I hope we continue to share ideas.
Bonnie
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May 25th, 2008 at 9:40 pm
Hello, BK, mystery-blogger~ thanks for stopping back by and leaving a clue to lead me to your blog.
I have lost track of the comment challenge due to sickness, work, general to-much-else-to-do-itis, but find that I am still getting some people stopping by my blog (and commenting) who found me through my participation in comment08, so that is cool.
I still rarely receive many comments, although I think I am receiving more than before the challenge. I know I am definitely leaving more comments. I guess once you jump in, it gets easier and you see that whole part of blogging more clearly.
as for your ingredients:
*positive and thoughtful. Yes, I think that is true. Who doesn’t appreciate positive feedback?
*the commenter should feel comfortable sharing on your blog…it is nice to feel comfortable, and I know that I am more likely to comment where I feel the interaction is appreciated. That is just me though (and apparently, you, too). I have been to blogs where the tone is pretty snarky, and the comments are plentiful. There is a lot of wit and sarcasm. It makes for a good read, but I have never left comments on those types of blogs/posts. I just feel out of my element. I don’t want my comment to be judged or picked apart. I guess I would need to grow a thicker skin to jump into the mix there. I also have seen the phenomenon of posts that people really disagree with garnering more than average comments. I don’t know if it is a comfort level of just a need to voice disagreement that brings so many comments to those posts. One specific example that I am thinking of really interested me because a lot of commenters were making similar points, trying to deepen the conversation, but the original poster just got ugly with it, reiterating his point. I thought it was a somewhat sad example of someone not that interested in the dialogue.
*leaving behind a little surprise – I like this! don’t consider it a requirement, but surprises are fun (sometimes).
*leave a question and move the conversation along – this is probably the best, if you can do it. Sometimes, I just don’t have it in me.
So, here’s my question — if you feel like you just don’t have it in you at the moment, do you comment anyway just to say hey, I agree/disagree, what about this…or do you skip it and wait until you have time to really compose your comment? I know that, for me, the posts I mean to comment on later, almost never get the comment, as with so many great blogs to read, I’ve moved on. So, I think for me, it is better to dive in and comment at the moment, even if the comment might be a bit lacking in brilliance at least it will exist.
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May 25th, 2008 at 9:55 pm
AGREE Andrea!
I don’t know about you, but I don’t return too often. While I want to offer everything I can, sometimes I just can’t but I know how I feel about getting a comment(you too) so something is better than nothing…What I try to do is leave something specific from a post: ie. a key line I liked, and I have been writing longer comments lately, during this challenge and trying to leave some kind of questition…etc.
Good having your long response. Let’s keep the comments coming and going…
Bonnie
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May 25th, 2008 at 10:11 pm
Me again, I actually came back because I had another thought to add about commenting.
I just read a post in my google reader that had me thinking, “oh yes, I have something to add to this.” so I clicked on the link to the blog, but when I got there, the post already had 11 comments. And many of them said the same type of thing that I might have said. So that can be another reason people don’t comment- a feeling that you are just repeating earlier comments. However, in the spirit of the comment challenge, I went ahead and left my comment on that blog anyway AND returned here to add another point about commenting.
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May 25th, 2008 at 10:18 pm
Hi again Andrea,
I think that’s why it’s good to read the comments that come before you and try and find something new by looking back at the post for a great line that moves you.
What do you think?
Bonnie
[Reply]
May 26th, 2008 at 11:30 pm
@Andrea, I totally know where you are coming from when you say“So, here’s my question — if you feel like you just don’t have it in you at the moment, do you comment anyway just to say hey, I agree/disagree, what about this…or do you skip it and wait until you have time to really compose your comment?” That has been how I’ve felt many a day. At the same time, I know how much I really like getting comments. Sometimes I’ll go into Google Reader and mark a post I want to go back to as unread (just type “m” when your cursor is in the post in GReader)and then it is there staring at me in bold letters reminding me to go back and comment.
@Bonnie, you said “I think that’s why it’s good to read the comments that come before you and try and find something new by looking back at the post for a great line that moves you.” Great advice! It is a relatively quick way to let the blogger know that something they said really resonated with you.
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May 27th, 2008 at 3:48 am
Tena korua Hello (to two people)
@Andrea – So you thought that Bonnie was a “mystery-blogger” too! It took me a few days to work out who she was the first time I saw one of her comments on my blog. For the life of me I could not track her down – don’t ask me why.
@Bonnie @Andrea – Yes I think homing in on some point or something the poster (or commenter) said is a good way to focus your comment and an excellent place to start your part of the discussion.
I use this same technique when writing student reports. It’s specially good to highlight a neat point or something you liked that the writer had said. It also has a good feel to it, for it tends to make the reader feel that they are being spoken to directly by the commenter – always a good ploy I reckon.
Ka kite
Spot ya
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May 27th, 2008 at 5:42 am
thanks. super
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May 27th, 2008 at 7:02 am
Mystery blogger, I LOVE that! Actually it points up what you get stuck with when begin blogging and it travels with you BK/BLk1, a variety of my initials. I like blkdrama actually. That’s for my new blog.
As for the conversation, fantastic! All this talk here is exciting. The web’s social network. It’s so great!
Thanks for continuing the conversation here.
Bonnie
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