One of the things I like most about blogs is the conversation. Someone writes something interesting, funny or provocative, and other people’s thoughts spin off, sometimes in surprising directions. To me, a blog without comments is only half a blog. The biggest frustration of blogging is not being able to predict what is likely to get readers going. Pressing the “Publish” button on a piece that I know is great and having it met with stoney silence. And then seeing a piece of trivia that I almost didn’t use have people reaching for their keyboards. If anyone knows the formula, I wish they’d tell me what it is.
What’s vexing me today, though, is what I suppose is a fairly minor matter of blog etiquette when it comes to commenting. Let’s suppose you’re visiting a blog, call it blog A. Blog A reports that Blog B has said something about which you feel strongly. “Vegetarians make better lovers” will serve as an example. ;o)
Are you obliged to read Blog B before you comment, just to check that they really said what was reported? They might have said “Vegetarians make better lovers than vegans”, for example. Or “vegetarians make better lovers, but meat-eaters are cleverer and have better dress-sense”. If you do go and check out Blog B, should you leave your comment there, or do you return to Blog A and make it there? Does it make a difference if one blog is better known than the other?
Questions, questions…
Published 4 years, 3 months ago
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It is considered best to actually read before commenting - but sometimes the chain of references can take you way away. If I find myslef writing out a long comment on posts, I actually will put it up on my own site and just link to it in the relevant comment boxes. I am trying to use my own bandwidth rather than abuse my blog host’s. Comments can be left wherever it seems appropriate, but I think it only courtesy to say something at the site where you originally picked up the news or whatever item - just to let them know you read it and appreciated it.
Speaking of comments, is your blog getting so busy you need auto-generated responses or are you just practising your new coding skills?:^)
***If anyone knows the formula, I wish they’d tell me what it is.***
The formula is:
Post (X) = c^2 * 3X(1/2 – X^3) + cos(3.14)^3
I’m so bad at math, though, that I can never get it right. So knowing the formula really does me no good. ; )
***Are you obliged to read Blog B before you comment, just to check that they really said what was reported?***
No. In my opinion, Blog A should be presumed to be providing a realiable summation until proven otherwise. Besides, you’re not really commenting on Blog B’s statement but the interprestation and presentation of that statement by Blog A.
***If you do go and check out Blog B, should you leave your comment there, or do you return to Blog A and make it there? Does it make a difference if one blog is better known than the other?***
Personally, if a lesser known blogger says something interesting I feel that I owe him the courtesy of commenting on it at her blog. Too often, well-known bloggers often get that way by rehasing the original thoughts of others. So I think we owe these “little guys” the respect of giving them credit for the thought. (But then, as a “little guy” myself, I may be biased in their favor.)
Thanks for the formula Joe - I shall follow it religiously. Is it true for all X, or are there limits?
The auto-generated thingy is just to provide a bit of reassurance that the message has been sent, BD. It seemed like a good idea at the time…
***Is it true for all X, or are there limits?***
I find the formula is true for every X when c= “Topics which I know nothing about but feel compelled to give my opinion anyway.” Since that constant applies to me nearly all the time, the formula has been rather consistent.
Just wondered Richard, I thought maybe you were moving past being one of the “lesser known blogs” and autogeneration might be a necessity. Nicely done, I certainly thought it was real. Bit like talking back to voice mail.
Joe: You are a very good writer, and know a lot of the customary courtesies a professional might take for granted as part of the every day.
>In my opinion, Blog A should be presumed to be providing a realiable summation until proven otherwise. Besides, you’re not really commenting on Blog B’s statement but the interprestation and presentation of that statement by Blog A.<
I figure if Blog A was interested enough to post, then Blog B certainly deserves a read, kind of like sourcing. Besides Blog B may give me a better idea about what I think… and I may wind up posting on… “Topics which I know nothing about but feel compelled to give my opinion anyway.”:^)
We might be able to take the best of both in our own post. Blog on!
My question is the ettiquette of replying to comments. Do you do so by email, or continue in the comments, or acknowledge in a later post, or what?
Not that I get enough comments to stay up late at night fretting about this, but still…
bene - I’m lost! what does your comment just below mine (above) mean? And to whom was it directed?
With regard to the Blog A/Blog B thing, the answer is this:
Only reading Blog A is necessary. You are commenting on Blog A’s thoughts and use of information. Whether Blog A took Blog B’s information and accurately represented it is rarely important since you are commenting on Blog A’s presentation of an idea. You can read the source material (Blog B) if you want but if Blog A is a worthwhile blogger, consumption of Blog B is gratuitous and should be viewed as extracurricular. Blog A’s post, though sparked by outside data (as most posts are) should be self-contained enough to stand on its own. If reading Blog B is necessary, than Blog A is subpar and the reader would do better to skip Blog A entirely and read Blog B instead. Amen.
I suspect that most blog commenters agree with our Nordic friend, in practice if not in theory. I think it is a pity to dismiss reading our fictional Blog B as “gratuitous”, or to suggest that if you need to do that means that Blog A is underpar. If that were really the case, what’s the point of providing links?
When I used gratuitous, I simply meant “not called for by the circumstances.” I think links in blogdom are used to two primary ends: 1) for proper citation of a quote (this is good and right and proper), and 2) for that you scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours kind of link-whoring that really sucked the life out of blogdom a few years back. A tertiary end is in fact to send users to the complete article from which the blogger only posted an abstract. I think this third end is fine too - but is so rarely used that I didn’t bother to talk about it in my above comment. I also think that in this third case, following the link is so obviously necessary to understanding the post that readers almost can’t comment unless they reader the referred material - so I don’t think that this really fits into the situation presnted.
As for myself, this stuff is really why I so rarely use links in my blogging these days. When I began four years ago, a typical page of my posts would contain twenty or more outside links. These days, the same amount of post content will contatin maybe three outside links. And these links are only provided when I directly quote an outside source and are provided as standard web citation.
Sorry Alicia.
I addressed Richard on a completely different point (I’d emailed him and got an automated response)
I was attempting to address Joe Carter’s point, but I glazed over at his formula.:^)
I don’t know that this has to be rigid. I’m not sure there is a right/wrong here. And I don’t know that there is a common courtesy.
It would be nice if there were, but people are different and have varying standards of ettiquette. I know bloggers get hurt, and it goes beyond ‘getting’ information.
Well, “just to let you know I read it and appreciated it,” thanks for this post. As a newbie, I found it helpful.