Anil Dash, having blogged for years and having received thousands of comments has decided men comment under posts this way:
Based on extensive observation in the nearly 7 years that I’ve been blogging, here is how men actually submit comments to a site:
- Skim just enough of the first few sentences so you can get a fair idea what the topic of a post or news item is.
- Scroll quickly, as fast as you can! Be careful not to accidentally read any of the other comments on the page on the way down. (Some of them may contain the information you’re about to post.)
- Type out whatever opinion you’ve had on this topic your entire life. Don’t waste time with spelling or punctuation, and be careful not to let any new information on the page influence your thoughts.
- Now that you’ve completed your task, submit your comment and then, at your leisure, review the other content on the page. If you find that the original post or any of the comments that preceded yours were written by people who share your opinion, bask in the confirmation that you were right.
Having blogged for a few years and seen thousands of comments at BDBO, Anil Dash is correct. Again, there are exceptions to every trend, but not as many as their could be. How can we bloggers help our male readers to to learn to read and listen to others before jumping in? Some guys just have a knack at shutting down dialogue with this behaviour or chasing off people who would like to feel safe to comment.
Looking at the Blog Ads 2006 political blog survey, I think the demographics bear out some of Dash’s observations. Do female bloggers essentially keep comments to blogs by women? (with exceptions to every trend of course)
Tech futurist Micheal Rogers has said that one of his concerns is that kids that have grown up with the internet don’t have preconceived ideas of ‘how’ it should work so they just adapt. He has noticed that kids and teens are not reading longer text, they tend to not be able to concentrate on text more than a couple of words and that is impeding their reading and concentration skills.
Much like what Anil Dash notices with adult males commenters online.:^)
Published 2 years, 2 months ago
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Anil Dash - what a joke - nothing he says would be true!
Great post with some great points. Just what I always argue!
I’ve only read Anil Dash maybe twice Darren, I don’t know ‘what a joke’ means to you.
I think he made some salient points in his post.
The 2006 Blog Ad survey had a wider sampling than previous ones - and it isn’t telling us what we don’t already know. I think Dash just articulated something that correlates with online realities. His conclusion may well be too simple for some, but it doesn’t mean he may not have nailed it, and that is what I’m asking.
My questions in the post above this one are valid for those of us who are more centrist by nature, and who want to provide readers with opportunities to speak without feeling or thinking comments are a fight/win scenario.
sorry Bene - those posts were an attempt at humor:
comment 1 - making a sweeping statement not having read it
comment 2 - after reading it making out like your post confirmed what I was saying….
sorry - it was late and I didn’t do it very well.
It was late and I missed your subtlety. Kind of an inside blog joke that sailed over my head. Nothing to apologize for.:^)