DawgNotes

Your comments about email and blog comments make me think it has to do with differences in communication styles combined with the electronic medium.

Sometimes I read and think, oh that was interesting, yes, that's true, but I don't always respond in writing.

I've commented on some sites and never got a response -- it made me wonder if they were just busy, thought my comment inappropriate or ignorant, or just screening comments like they screen telephone calls and they'll answer when/if they have time or feel like it. Then, I think a few people are just oblivious (myself included sometimes). :)

Then, there are a couple times where I've commented and gotten a response that made me feel like I was intruding. If they haven't disabled comments on the post and still respond with disdain, it feels like they're saying, "who do you think you are to comment on my posts." It's like getting snubbed on the playground. Maybe they were just having a bad day, but I still try to avoid those folks in the future.

Then, one can ask, how does one write posts or comments that inspire a response? In part, it may have to do with flat out asking a question, or it may have to do with hesitancy and probing an issue. It may also have to do with traditional conversational nicetes being exchanged (e.g. good point, thank you; thanks for the comment; good to see you, etc.) Plus, I think the quality of the writing helps.

With electronic communication we don't get the non-verbal clues that anyone is listening so it feels funny at times.

I wonder if people who respond tersely don't realize how they are coming across - although it seems that disdain is either deliberate or just a characteristic of a generally ill-mannered person.

But you know, the flip side of it is that when you have been nice enough to comment on my post, if I want to comment back to you, how do you know that I've done that? At least in MT, there's no provision to ping someone when I comment. I wrote this long response comment to something Mike had asked me about my "Late Night Blogging" post, and I wonder if he ever knew if was there.

Anyway, I wonder about the prompting factor too, but then I wonder if the goal of the blog entry is really to get a comment, or just to say something to the world at large. But more on that in another post. :)

I guess I have to remember that I commented and come back and check. If I read and comment on multiple posts, it makes it harder to remember. I wonder how other people remember and manage this process. Do they make a paper list? Maybe they write a post in their own blogs on the order of..."I left a comment at Xperson's blog today where there's talk of...this..." and then they can make use of the trackback function too.

I think blog posts can have multiple intentions, but if one of those intentions is to generate responses, then I think one has to write with a greater awareness of readers, or simply beg for comments at the end. I'll look for your next post:)

You two are raising what are for me some important issues. I'm afraid, Marcia, that lots of times I write extremely terse emails, blog comments, IM entries, just because quick will do the job, so why slather on a bunch of words? But I've also read somewhere that terseness is an exercise of power. Hmm. I don't like to think about that. But what was for me the most profound entry on my own blog (it was something from Amy, about authorship) so blew me away that all I could say was "yes." And then after a few days, I called Amy and began what became an extensive conversation about the idea she'd raised.
As for responding to people who respond to my blog, I have another possibility: when a blogger habitually responds to all responses, is she just totally, too much controlling her blog, not allowing space for others on it? Is she just sucking all the air out of her blog? I've wondered about that sometimes. So sometimes I respond to responders, and sometimes I don't.