First of all, this is not a complaint, but simply my musings about commenting here and my own beahavior as a commenter. I love and appreciate everyone who reads and who comments here. Thank you for visiting and reading my words, whether you ever add a comment or not!
--
Most of us who've blogged for a while have observed a gradual decline in the number of comments. Many of us have also noted that we, too, don't comment on the blogs we read as often.
Social networking is often blamed for siphoning off a lot of the interactive energy that used to happen on blogs, and that's probably true to a large extent. We chat and interact elsewhere, and long-form exchanges, whether on blogs or by e-mail, are a lot less common than they used to be.
I think there's a definite "taken-for-granted" factor: certain blogs, like mine probably, have been around for a long time and readers assume they'll continue to be, with or without the encouragement and conversation that comments add. That may or may not be true: it depends on the blogger. Perhaps it's even assumed that the writing is more important to the author than the conversation. In my case, yes, I'll probably continue the blog, but no, what I write is not at all more important to me than your own thoughts. I write and post images in order to share things I'm interested in, but primarily because I hope others will have a reaction or be moved somehow or think more deeply about that subject. It's a happy bonus when I hear back: when a reader has a thought or story or experience of their own to share with me and with the other readers. So for me the posting will always be about sharing. While there's a certain amount of esoteric stuff here, I try to write about subjects that concern all of us, not just me. It's great when that leads to a conversation.
My husband was saying the other day that as we've become more and more used to the internet being a big part of our lives, we've gotten used to the idea that content is free, and that it's simply going to be there for us to find, and to consume. Society pays for objects, but expects and consumes a great deal of free content, especialy artistic content. I'm reminded of public radio on-air marathons, which usually convinced me to contribute a little bit so that the shows I loved would keep happening. Blogs are free, so readers don't even have to contribute except by indicating once in a while that they're present! I'm amazed and deeply appreciative of the generosity of near-daily blogs like Language Hat, Via Negativa, or Marja-Leena Rathje -- longtime friends who just keep going, giving away intelligent writing and beautiful images, without the expectation of any particular return.
As a commenter myself, I know that I don't leave comments as often as I used to. When I ask myself why, the above justifications come up -- along with the fact that my online life is spread out over many more sites and many different types of interactions now. But there's also another factor that prevents me from commenting as often. It drives me nuts to have to jump through a routine of captcha-entries or elaborate sign-ins designed to prevent or reduce spam and potential hacking. So many times I've written a comment only to have it disappear after some sort of failure in the authentication routine. I tried to sign into a blog I love today, in order to leave a comment, and finally I just gave up! Have we perhaps gotten a bit too paranoid about this? At Cassandra I require only an email address and don't moderate comments; I have advanced virus software on my computer. Spam is extremely annoying, but I don't get excessive amount at all; I delete it and add spammers and their subjects to my "block" list. My site has never been hacked; perhaps I've just been lucky, perhaps that's a function of TypePad -- I'd like to know. I've always felt that I wanted to keep my site as friendly as possible, and have probably erred on the side of less caution, and convenience for the readers rather than for myself.
Is that naive? What's your experience been, and how do you feel about this whole subject?
Note: There are so many comments on this post that they are split into two screens. At the bottom center of the first set of comments, look for a teensy-tiny double arrow. If you click it, lo and behold, there are the rest of the comments.
I have also noted that I get fewer comments than I used to -- and I suspect I leave fewer, too. It may have something to do with feeling spread-thin, attention-wise -- blogs and twitter and FB and G+ and so forth -- and it may also have something to do with the reality that many of the blogs I read today feel anonymous to me; I don't have a relationship with their authors, nor they with me. Hard to say whether this is the result of commenting less, or the cause, though.
Posted by: Rachel Barenblat | July 09, 2012 at 01:29 PM
Beth, I read everything you write, but very rarely leave comments. I land on your site and read other blogs, there is precious stuff that I read from blogs like Blaugustine, Clive Hicks Jenkins Artlog, Velveteen Rabbi; I read everything written in Via Negativa, Mole. I don't leave comments there either. Social networking/FB-ing, in a way that personal interaction will not allow, helps me remain silent even as I connect. Is this a personal trait, a sort of shyness? How do I feel when I see no comments in my blog? Of course frustrated :)
Posted by: Uma Gowrishankar | July 09, 2012 at 01:36 PM
I definitely leave fewer comments now than when I used to, and I probably get fewer comments, too. In the "old days" when I commented a lot, I read far fewer blogs, and those were mainly the sites of friends with whom I had a reciprocal relationship: I read and commented on their stuff, and they read and commented on mine.
Nowadays, that direct relationship/ratio seems more scattered and diffused. I subscribe to a LOT of blogs on my feed-reader that I scan and seldom comment on: feed-readers make it so much easier to do that, for better or worse. I don't necessarily "know" all those bloggers, nor do I necessarily "know" all my readers: sometimes it feels like everyone is trying to read everything, everywhere, and that makes it difficult to get to know anyone all that well.
So, I guess I'm echoing what Reb Rachel said: there is so much stuff to comment on, and so many places in which to comment. I'm commenting on this post here, on your blog, because I saw it on Google Reader...but I could just as well commented on Facebook, since I "see" you there, too...
Posted by: Lorianne | July 09, 2012 at 01:49 PM
Rachel, I think the personal-relationship thing is a key factor. Maybe some of us established relationships early and just haven't felt like we had time for many new ones -- I've been wondering about this.
Uma -- thanks for this. Yes, I meant to say that one change is FB friendship and blog cross-posting, where often a reader - like you - might click "like" or make a short comment on the FB listing for a blog post, or conversely, sends readers here who don't comment at all. And that's fine. I try to visit the sites of people who I know read my blog and occasionally leave a comment, and to respond to most, if not all comments, by email. But I don't manage to get around as often as I'd like! I think it's important for people to feel they can be silent. After all, silence, reflection, and anonymity have always been a big part of reading -- we don't comment on the books we read!
Posted by: Beth | July 09, 2012 at 01:50 PM
With you all the way, Beth. Both my blog posting and my commenting have dwindled to a trickle. In my case I have to admit that a sense of a significant falling away of those with whom I shared so much dialogue through the post-and-comment process is responsible. I feel now much as I did when I started blogging nearly 10 years ago and had difficulty breaking into the scene as it was then - that the game's barely worth the candle! I've tried regularly to revive interest by touring my blogroll and endeavouring to renew faded contacts and I've attempted to make new contacts, neither with any great success. Since contact with old friends is maintained largely via email and Facebook now, I can envisage my abandoning the blog when it comes to subscription renewal in February. Sad.
Posted by: Dick | July 09, 2012 at 01:51 PM
Thanks, Lorianne. You're basically describing my own pattern, and I think this is true for a lot of us. Feed readers do make a difference - i read more blogs that way, and comment on them less! Anyway -- thanks, and thanks for still being there with Hoarded Ordinaries.
Oh, Dick, I hope you won't do that, but I can see why you might. I wonder if some of us have become like old friends and lovers: affectionate, interested, but with less to say because we feel we've already said it to one another. Certainly there isn't the same excitement of new connections and finding kindred spirits that there used to be, but I feel impoverished when any of my favorite bloggers - like you - decides to close up shop.
Posted by: Beth | July 09, 2012 at 01:55 PM
Beth, I second every word you write here! (and thanks for the mention). I do read every one of your posts though I don't always comment - maybe because all I can say is 'yes' to what you write. Sometimes I wonder if another reason for fewer comments occur when long time readers become bored with reading the same blogs year after year, and I for one am repeating myself at least some of the time. Then again, commenting is something of a two way street - I tend to comment more on those blogs whose writers comment on mine. And I try to visit a new blog now and then and perhaps comment - should do so more. Social media has certainly had a great impact though I don't take part myself. I still keep blogging though less often at times for it is something of a creative outlet for me, and I still find a few new friends along the way to make it extra rewarding.
I noticed, Beth, that you tried to comment this morning and had no luck, for which I'm very sorry! I don't know why it is or has to be so difficult to register and log in. I don't like it and am still on the fence about staying or giving it up. It's wonderful to not have spam (and I was getting a lot). My son-in-law manages the family blogs and liases with the host. This spring my daughter's blog suddenly had so much spam that it almost shut down the server that hosts all our blogs - hence the recommendation from him for the registration. Sigh.
Posted by: Marja-Leena | July 09, 2012 at 02:01 PM
Hi Marja-Leena -- I'm amused that this post is eliciting a lot of comments from old and faithful friends! I guess we're all in the same boat. Yes, I keep going partly for the creative-outlet part too. Something about the blogging form and regularity just suit me! And it's a challenge not to be too repetitive. Thanks for your comments here about spam and sign-ins. It's certainly an issue for all of us. I'll try again to sign in at yours - for some reason it doesn't "stick" when I do it.
Posted by: Beth | July 09, 2012 at 02:06 PM
"Affectionate, interested, but with less to say because we feel we've already said it to one another": that certainly resonates with me.
And the technical stuff! Commenting on Wordpress blogs with certain settings is now very difficult and unpredictable, and the same with those that have the Echo comment system. I often can't decipher 'captchas'. Ugh to all of this. So I've just taken word verification off my blogs to see if it has any effect.
Posted by: Jean | July 09, 2012 at 02:35 PM
Hi Jean -- yours is one blog where I'm willing to go through the process! The WP blogs are the most problematic for me these days, and I often simply don't comment, or can't. Sometimes it takes three "captchas" before the comment is accepted. I'm sure this is frustrating for everyone...and makes the (lazy and simple) FB interface that much more appealing. Thus comments become shorter, or reduced to a "LIKE," and the sense of connection-without-real-communication is reinforced.
Posted by: Beth | July 09, 2012 at 03:57 PM
I really miss the extended dialogs among bloggers that took place frequently across comments and posts. The web has moved back toward the cultural model's mean of consumption rather than participation and creation. Facebook and Twitter have become huge (and gated) gravity wells of time and attention.
I'm not pointing fingers; like you, I too comment less.
Posted by: NT | July 09, 2012 at 03:59 PM
I read your blog regularly Beth, as I do the others in my "original" list, but don't leave comments these days on many blogs. I feel bad about that, but I am spread thin myself, not just by social media, projects, but also my life these days. I appreciate the long connection we all had, and should speak up more often, but I am, as a rule, so exhausted by the time I get around to carving time for more leisurely blog conversations that I feel I have little to contribute to the conversation.
Besides, like Jean, I am noticing lately that technology is getting int he way. I, too, have difficulty deciphering those 'captchas.'
Posted by: maria | July 09, 2012 at 04:03 PM
Beth, amen to all that! I too have dwindled, in blogging, in commenting and in getting comments, for all the same reasons that everyone above mentions. I don't Tweet and I very rarely look in at FaceBook so blogging is still my main connection to the cyber world but, as you said, a lot of the excitment that it had in the early days has now become more routine. This is perhaps inevitable but it's a shame and there should be some way to revive the excitment. A big problem is simply time: if I'm really absorbed in my work or just in 'real' life, sitting down at the computer to visit all my favourite bloggers, read them attentively and comment relevantly takes a big chunk out of the day. So what I tend to do is to leave it until very late in the night and then I hop too quickly from one to the other on my blogroll and don't often leave comments, even when I should. The 'captcha' thing is indeed a deterrent but there's also the problem of commenting relevantly: it may be enough to just say: I like this, or I agree, or bravo, or yes! But that seems ungenerous or banal and sometimes I just don't have anything meaningful to say though I've enjoyed reading a post.
The truth is that commenting is never going to be the same as having a face-to-face conversation with someone - for one thing, typing one's thoughts is too slow and the other person can't respond fast enough either. It certainly is discouraging if there are very few or no comments to something I've posted, images or words that mean a lot to me but I think I've become more or less immune to that silence. After all, c'est la vie!
Posted by: Natalie | July 09, 2012 at 05:00 PM
I do think having to fill in info and then try to decipher hard-to-read captchas is a deterrent for many of us. It certainly is for me and I have d plenty of comments disappear during the process of filling in requested info. That tends to discourage me from bothering in future. I think feeds are another reason many do not leave comments. The other reason may be that many people are doing all their reading on smart phones and tablets and tapping out a comment feels like a hassle. BTW, I am tapping this out on the ipad which is my only net connection in summer. On my own blog, I do still get quite a few comments in response to most of the posts. I currently write a post about twice a month. Most commenters have been visiting the blog since I started it after ending my previous blog and starting the new one after Don's death. When I post more than a couple of times a month, I notice that there are fewer comments. I am thinking that there is some reader fatigue these days. I think I experience it too and am not trying to read as many blogs as before and when someone is oarticularly prolific, I tend to only visit the blog occasionally and scan through to read the posts that most interest me. I am not a heavy Facebook user, so that isn't really my excuse for not reading as much. Maybe just feeling the pressure of ldealing with life alone for four years has done this to me. I don't really know. I do know that when the weather is bad and I'm stuck indoors, I spend time catching up on friends' blogs, but there are getting to be fewer and fewer. Good discussion!
Posted by: bev | July 09, 2012 at 05:19 PM
Hello, I've been reading your blog for a while, but this is the first time I've actually been on your site. I use an aggregator, which means I don't see the comments. I'd never thought about what I might be missing!
Posted by: Dax | July 09, 2012 at 05:43 PM
hi. i don't remember if i've ever commented here. i started reading you a few months ago. i found you by accident and liked what i saw and kept on reading.
i read a lot of blogs, a few hundred a day most days. a lot of the time the writer seems to be writing to a group of people he or she knows, or has a large following of frequent commenters, and i often just don't feel i have anything to add to the conversation besides "hi. i am out here, and i am reading what you write."
sometimes i do say that, but it's not very substantial as a comment.
i mourn a little, though, every time a blogger i read stops blogging and switches to status updates.
Posted by: flask | July 09, 2012 at 05:50 PM
Captchas have never turned me away, being made to create an username/password will almost everytime though. I really started consuming content in the early days of youtube and content agitators (reddit, digg..) so I never read or commented on many blogs. Even when I read a great blog post, i almost always was directed there from reddit and I go back to the reddit comment section for that post because their system of replying to comments and up voting comments helps generate better conversations.
BTW Hi Beth! Hope visit you guys soon :)
-Chris H
Posted by: Chris H | July 09, 2012 at 05:58 PM
Beth, this month I completely caved in and gave my blog's comments over to Facebook. (A summary of my vacillation and sorry reasoning appears here: http://slowreads.com/2012/07/01/zuzus-photos-my-jump-from-facebook/ .)
Posted by: Peter | July 09, 2012 at 05:59 PM
Oh dear, so many comments I don't know if I'll be able to answer them all personally, as I like to do! Here's a stab at it:
NT: thanks. You and I have been reading each other for a long time, and I know I haven't been good about commenting, but I really appreciate the fact that you're there and say so every now and then.
Maria: we, too, go way back. And maybe that's partly why neither one of us feels the need to comment frequently.
Natalie and Bev, you and Marie bring up the fact the fatigue is a real reason why we often don't comment! It's true. reading blogs is part of relaxation for me, but I'm often tired when I do it too, and that plays a part in how much I respond, or don't. And I'm glad to know that I'm not the only one who finds deciphering "captchas" both difficult and annoying.
Hi Dax -- yes, the comment threads are sometimes the best part! Thanks for reading and for commenting today. I'm glad to hear from you.
Hi Flask -- yes, you've commented before, thank you, and I'm astounded to hear you read so many blogs per day! Thanks for visiting and for taking the time to comment today, I appreciate it a lot.
Posted by: Beth | July 09, 2012 at 07:59 PM
I found you a few months ago, have read some of your older posts and am daily looking forward to read a new one. I follow 20 blogs. The majority of them are blogs that teach me something or inspire me to do something. They feel like gifts to me and since I have nothing to give in return, I very seldom make a comment. I feel like a thief. I take and take but have nothing to offer.
And, if my own blog were someone elses blog, I would not read it nor make a comment.
Don't ask how long it took me write this comment. It's so frustrating to be overflowing with thoughts and not be able to express them.
Thanks for sharing, Beth.
Posted by: Ellena | July 09, 2012 at 09:42 PM
How funny/fitting that you will get many comments on this....:)
I, too, find I comment less on blogs (though I visit more and more of them). That's the thing that goes away when I'm busiest (the commenting).
Should we all disable our comments at once? :) I'm not completely serious, but I'm not completely joking, either....I'd still read blogs without comment sections (I do now!)...I could always email the author to share my feelings, maybe?
Posted by: Hannah Stephenson | July 09, 2012 at 09:56 PM
Hmm, my comments disappeared! Perhaps that is the problem?
Whatever was I saying?
Many things, none profound. I think the one thing that I said that was newish was that many of us who have been blogging for a long time are now a great deal busier with writing-related projects and books than when we first started (although no doubt we thought ourselves busy then.) But I would not have imagined myself having quite so much to do as in this year, say, when I first started. And that means I fly through posts a bit faster and don't always leave a note.
Posted by: marly youmans | July 09, 2012 at 10:23 PM
Thanks for the mention. On the technical side, I wanted to mention one thing I wasn't aware of until a few months ago: getting a flood of spam comments can spell trouble for one's blog even if they are all caught by a spam catcher if the blog uses (for example) PHP to dynamically generate pages when someone visits them (as opposed to static HTML sites such as Blogger). Every time a comment is left, even if that comment is blocked from appearing on the site, it forces a reload. I didn't understand this and got kicked off my old webhost last November for using too much CPU. Hence the appeal of CAPTCHAS for more heavily trafficked sites. I refuse to deploy CAPTCHAS for all the reasons people have mentioned, and am trying another, more experimental plugin to block spam bots from leaving comments. But I fear it may be blocking some legitimate commenters as well.
A minor point perhaps, but shows the complexity of the problem.
Posted by: Dave Bonta | July 09, 2012 at 11:01 PM
Hello, Beth. I'm a regular and appreciative reader of your blog. Because the comments tend to come from a small number of your fellow-bloggers, and also, perhaps, because the world is awash with information, I tend to remain a quiet observer. But I do read you several times a week, and would miss the Cassandra Pages were they to disappear. So please keep up the good work!
Posted by: Robert | July 10, 2012 at 12:47 AM
I've been a regular reader on here for a few years now. I suspect that in addition to the dissipation of our energies via social media, the fact that one is able to read via an RSS reader rather than being required to read a post on the blog itself also contributes. I find I am more likely to retweet a link to an article I particularly liked (from within Google Reader) than actually leave a comment - which I guess is a shame in itself..
Posted by: TheRustGeek | July 10, 2012 at 01:45 AM