Tuesday, November 12, 2013

A Blog Comment Discussion

So let's talk about commenting on blogs, shall we?

Or more specifically, commenting on THIS blog, because let's be honest, it's the one I care about most.

I have had some complaints that my blog is not comment friendly.  This is depressing, because nothing makes me feel as good about my blogging as a little positive reinforcement through the comment section.  And yet I have posted everyday for the last 16 days, and in that time I have had seven comments.  And five of them were on this one post... and WAIT, on of those is my own comment replying to a comment, so we are going to have to knock that number down to six.

Six comments on the last sixteen posts. 

Now, we can add in comments from facebook, where I share pretty much all of my posts (is that annoying?  I can't ever tell) which will add 16 additional comments, and bring the total up to 22.  MUCH BETTER.

Then if we add in facebook likes (I know I am stretching, but they make me happy, so they get counted)  we add an additional 62 "Hey, I read this and enjoyed it" thumbs up.

Wow, so the point of this post is changing as I write it because, WOW, that's EIGHTY FOUR positive reinforcements on my writing over the last 16 days.  That's actually excellent.  Thanks for all the support!

But I guess I still want to ask, do you all find it hard to comment on this blog? I recently added comment word verification because the spam comments have been through the roof, but I don't want to make it impossible to comment because I LOVE THEM!  I am also curious if anybody knows a way to combine all comments from different locations so they show up on my blog.  I love that I have the facebook comments, but they are sort of lost over time if they aren't documented on the actual posts.  Not that I want you to stop commenting on Facebook... I WILL TAKE WHATEVER I CAN GET!  It would just make me happy if those comments showed up here as well as there. 

Sometimes I worry that blogging is dying.  And sometimes the lack of comments on this actual site supports that fear.  But when I think of myself reading blogs, the fact is I rarely comment, but I still read.  And I can tell from my traffic that you all still read here too.  I installed the facebook like button on my posts to give you the option to just like it without having to comment, but now I am acting as if that is not good enough.  It IS good enough.  And it makes me happy.  But if the reason you don't comment here is because you CAN'T, just let me know.  I will try to fix it.

(And by fix it I mean I will ask you all how in the heck I fix it, because I have no idea. Please leave your suggestions in the comment section... IF YOU CAN)
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9 comments:

  1. Sarah, I switched over my blog to Wordpress partly because of the commenting issue that continues to plague Blogger. Not to mention, I just can't read the verification characters either. That being said, I read blogs 95% of the time from my iPad and I can NEVER post a comment to a blogger blog- like, ever. I read all of your posts, but cannot ever comment, it drives me batty.

    And how am I commenting today? Via a Windows PC that I fire up once a month for good measure, soon to be replaced by a laptop Apple product. Lord knows if that will work with Blogger. lol

    p.s. I edited this comment... took me three times to submit, so I guess the PC route isn't any better. :-)

    Still enjoying your posts! ~Shelli

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    1. I have thought about switching to wordpress in the past, but have always liked the security of google running blogger... of course that was shaken a little when they dropped google reader! I should look into it again. I worry about switching everything over and losing some of my old content... this blog is ancient in blog years!

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  2. No issues for me, but I've also noticed a HUGE drop in my blog comments. (Interestingly enough, I've been working on my blogoversary post today and I wrote the exact same thing about my blog possibly dying...)

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    1. I worry about it from time to time, because obviously they are not as popular as they used to be, and it makes me sad. And really, I don't have time to read a ton of blogs like I used to either, so I don't blame people for giving them up for quicker versions of social media.... I just love this space so much, it's hard to imagine giving it up entirely.

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  3. I struggle writing comments due to my own anxiety (does it sound ok? does the blogger even really care what I have to say? etc, etc). But I want to tell you that even if I don't comment, I am definitely still reading.

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    1. Thanks for reading! Never worry about comment anxiety. ALL comments give me joy :)

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  4. I thought I needed an account to comment. Turns out I can do it this way and it's easy! I'm a long time follower and infrequent commenter. Love your blog!
    Lindsay

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  5. I haven't commented much at all, but I do love reading your blog. I have a daughter the same age as your son and I was a bio major for a few years in college (the name of your blog originally sucked me in).

    Nurse Bee

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