Why Commenting is Good and Lurking is Bad
This is not a rant and I'm not pointing fingers at anyone. I think lurking too much, without ever commenting is a bad thing. Even pinging another blog is better than lurking.
Why would I say such a thing? Well, I was reviewing my comments for the last batch of drive-bys and noticed that my first real response to a blog article was an individual who was having a problem with one of my scripts — he wasn't a blogger. His comment came at almost a month after my first post. I wasn't writing very often back then, due to issues here, but that single comment was not the impetus to get me to write more frequently.
Although I started posting more frequently six months later, I didn't get the urge to become more prolific until I started receiving a lot of comments the following month. I notice that a lot of bloggers give up at the 6-7 month mark and part of it may be that they're not getting the stimulation provided by commenters.
I find myself guilty of lurking too much sometimes and it's a habit that I'm trying to break. That's one of the objectives of my drive-bys — If I don't have anything to add to the conversation besides a "hello, I'm not lurking" type of comment, the least I can do is comment from here and ping them once in a while.
I would love to receive comments from people who've been reading and have never commented before. It would definitely make my day. In my case, I welcome the "hello, I'm not lurking" type of comment. Have at it!
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One of the blogs that I lurk too much for is Arnie's Critical Assumption. I enjoyed his recent post about making excuses and I have my fair share of them. I really need to put more effort into preventing myself from needing excuses.
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Did this post make you think? Do you want this kind of stimulus again and again? If you add my blog to your feed reader, I guarantee to make you think about things you never thought of before.
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I know how you feel, RT. It can be awfully quiet out there sometimes.
There are some folks that you can rely upon to give you regular feedback, but the road can be hard and unforgiving from time to time.
We haven't seen hundreds of comments by any means. We get a few, which keeps us going. You are probably right that a lot of people quit because they have no idea if anyone likes or cares even slightly about their stuff.
I'm trying to be more commentative myself. Its pretty easy to just 'Stumble' on past, but a comment can really make someone's day.
I'm honestly a little confused and not trying to be a smart ass. You say "even pinging another blog is better than lurking."
Is pinging a bad thing? I was under the impression pinging another blog actually helped that blog's ratings, or at least let them know I had mentioned them in a post. Am I wrong?
But the primary reasons I don't comment more often is because A. I can't find anything pertinent to say, and B. it seems that if you just leave a "Hey that's great," or a "Hi, how are you?" many people appear to consider this just spamming, or self promotion.
You're more experienced here than I am, what are your views on this?
Pinging is not a bad thing unless it's abused. I hope it didn't sound like it was.
As far as how you comment… each blog is different. I don't mind short and sweet from commenters that I know — that's not spamming.
Did you read my recent article on "impediments to blog commenting"?
I agree with you. Comments provide more motivation to blog than most people acknowledge openly.
I probably haven't read it yet… of course, I probably wouldn't remember if I did. That CRS stuff kicking in all the time. I'll be over at your blog in a while. I conked out for 6 hours (and much earlier than usual) this evening.
Tim: don't speak about ratings. He (like me) is not speaking about SEO or other stuff.
Some people (like me) do not mind (yet) about ranking or google stuff. The n.1. concern is readers. I would prefer to have 100 reader that comment than 1000 that just lurk.
I wasn't really worrying about ratings, other than that with a higher standing you get more readers due to higher search engine traffic. Without the traffic your stuff can be great and no one will ever know. That's why it is great to get comments, from a writer point of view. It lets you know that at least someone is reading! And that makes SEO pretty important because the two are ultimately tied together. A pagerank 3 gets more readers than a 1. My writing topics aren't self exploration, they are more for thought provoking entertainment ( I hope!) so I need readers to input at some point or, like everyone else, I have no idea if my stuff is crap.
A very honest and thought provoking post. While I appreciate everyone who visits my blog I can agree that it would be nice if more people commented as well.
This is my first time to your site by the way and I didn't want to add to the lurker tally.
I'll be over to lurk, ummm, read your blog in a little while. I always check out the blogs of my commenters to see what they're up to.
This is a good reminder. I have quite a list of sites in my feed reader – I also try to read/visit articles submitted to blog carnivals I have entered, but I don't always comment. I wonder whether I could try a little harder, but it's quite difficult walking that line between commenting meaningfully and just hoping someone will visit your site back. Perhaps it's all about maintaining balance rather than being balanced
I also try to include a weekly(ish) list of articles I have enjoyed – you can say a line or two which just wouldn't have fitted on the post itself.
Finally, thanks for the link to Critical Assumption – that was a thoughtful article.
Rory — I just wanted to say thanks for stopping my and leaving the comment — I guess you've decided to be a "non-lurker"
Hi RT,
Decided I would stop by and just put in a "I'm Here" comment. I might have just lurked, but that didn't seem appropriate for this post
I think this is a great article. Being active on a blog is better for the blog, and it is better for you, as it gets your attention. I often give out that advice, but am still working on following it
Scott
I do give out lots of pings though. And this one will get getting one shortly
FYI
+1 Stumble
Where's your digg button?
Scott
I took the post badges off a while back. The "Share It" links in the drop down box have Digg and StumbleUpon in it as well as others that people use a lot.
RT — I'm catching up on all my favorite blogs and holy cow – a link from your blog!! Thank you very much – I lurk here also, and more so since putting most of my favs on Google Reader.
So, you have my permission to lurk all you want, I just am honored that my blog is "lurk worthy"