I read recently that 200 million blogs had been abandoned. It’s a crowded field, and bloggers have to think about readers - who are they trying to attract?

I like to think about the person that writes the blog, that interest has been on of the constant pleasures for me since I started this hobby. The ability to move around the world at a click of the mouse still amazes me, and the people I meet infinitely fascinating.

Tall Skinny Kiwi has a post for the new year and for experienced and none experienced bloggers - 15 Blogging Tips for 2007. Fun read.

Cerulean Sanctum is a blogger that has  good ‘dessert’ posts to Tall Skinny Kiwi’s main course tips; focusing more on behavior, particularly in the US religious blogging (read evangelical) sector.

It’s one thing to run a blog platform, get posts up, handle technical issues, it is quite another to be civil.

While examples of bad behavior, lack of listening skills, insults, bible thumping, political rangs and the usual wide open cyberspace chatter abound, one of the blogs I’ve visited often just to watch poor behavior has been WorldMagBlog out of Texas. It has been a wide open free for all since day one. With a new moderator now in place, there are attempts to teach basic communication skills to commenters who appear to be mostly high school students learning to express themselves in a wider world.  While there is a long way to go to clean up that verbal sewer, I commend Lynn Vincent for taking on the daunting task of building a civil online community. I remain convinced setting the tone of conversation is the responsibility of the person who owns the blog. Reading WorldMagBlog comment section is a living lesson on how not to talk to others that no amount of blog tips, preaching or pleading posts will ever convey.

Ales Rarus finds trying to please everyone at St. Blog’s Parish Aggregator can be tricky.

What constitutes civil discussion to you? What blog comment sections get you cringing and why?