I’m afraid I’m about to rant here. And I’m not going to apologize for it either.
I just came from a blog that had an excellent, thought provoking post on it. I read it with interest and learned a lot in the process.
As I began reading over the comments, I realized something rather strange – to me at least. Not one of the over 40 comments posted had a reply from the author of the post. Not. One.
I don’t get it. I would be over the moon, jumping up and down in excitement if I had 10 responses to a non meme post… but 40? And not one answered. Really?
Yes, I’m certain I’ve missed comments. I might have clicked on the notification and didn’t get to the post right away so it slipped through the open weave net that is often my mind. And if I’ve done that to you, I sincerely, honestly apologize for it. It wasn’t personal, I just messed up.
Yet, I cannot imagine missing 40 comments on a post. That’s a popular post in my mind and I’d be jumping into the discussion in order to encourage even more talk. So I don’t understand why.
I can certainly cut this blog owner a break and assume that something happened that prevented them from commenting – power outage – emergency – work or school schedules – any number of possibilities. And I will check back to see if those comments were ever replied to…just to satisfy my own curiosity. I’m honestly not trying to be a bitch here. I really don’t understand how those comments could be ignored unless something major prevented the author from replying.
Maybe it’s me. Perhaps this isn’t as, well, rude as I see it to be. I would be kissing the keyboards of so many commenters – so I just don’t get it.
Okay, this is the point where you can tell me to shut up and stop obsessing about this. And any opinion you’d like to share is fine with me. Maybe I am crazy that this bothered me. I have made the decision to simply not comment there – ‘cos why bother if no one is going to talk back to my one-sided conversation.
End Rant.
Thoughts? Opinions? Feel free to tell me what you think.
I have been guilty of not responding to comments lately. I do feel bad about it. If I know that I’m going to be busy, I write blog posts weeks in advance and then schedule them to post themselves. Sometimes, I’m very slow about getting to the comments on those scheduled posts because I’m overwhelmed with work/school when the post goes up. I don’t always reply to the comments, but I do visit the blogs of the people who leave them. I hope that makes up for it a little.
Aj @ Read All The Things!
Aj @ Read All The Things! recently posted…Review: The Gunslinger – Stephen King
That is completely understandable. Life gets in the way of the other stuff. I totally understand that because I’ve been there too.
Visiting blogs certainly is a great thing. I don’t think anyone should worry about “making up for anything”. As you said, life happens.
This is my own opinion – I just like to see some acknowledgement. Even if it’s only a quick “Thanks!” – just something that says the time I took to comment meant something.
I honestly wanted to understand the “Why” – and your comment is one reason why sometimes comments don’t get a reply.
Thank you so much for your response. I knew this would be a post that might get people a bit upset, and I took the chance with it. But also I really do want to understand – and you helped me do that.
There are a lot of bloggers that just do not reply to comments…ever. Those also tend to be the blogs I stop following pretty quickly since I don’t like feeling like I’m talking to a brick wall.
I try to reply back to all comments but some do get missed. Some because I’ve not realized a new one came in, sometimes because of life delaying me or whatnot. But I try overall to comment on them.
For that blog. Maybe they have it set up to reply by email instead of the blog post? How long had the post been up? Sometimes it’ll be a day or two before I can get to everyone especially on an extremely popular post.
anna@herding cats & burning soup recently posted…Quote-tastic/Review– Rat Bastard Orgasm Deniers–All Fired Up by Vivian Arend & Elle Kennedy
Anna, I miss stuff too. I try to go through the site once a day to see if there are any comments that I had missed replying to. I’m human, I screw up. But I try to answer as quickly as I can. This particular post was 5 days old at the time.
Maybe they do their replies through email — that’s interesting because I did not know that was possible.
Like I said in the post, I’m not out to be a bitch – it just boggles my mind to not acknowledge commenters. They are in many ways our lifeblood. I’ve probably upset a few folks with this post – but I really wanted to know why it might happen, aside from the obvious overworked or emergency reasons.
And I stop dropping by blogs that the owners don’t answer comments too. I feel there are 10 more blogs out there that would love to even say a thanks – compared to the few that keep silent. In my opinion, again.
Yup that’s how I felt too. I’ve got a lot of great blogs I follow now that are repliers and it’s so nice to get to know them a little bit at a time that way.
I’ve had a couple reply via email. Not sure what commenting system they used to be able to do that but I know some of them must have that option from getting replies that way.
And no don’t think you’re being bitchy at all about it. It’s something I’ve wondered about too.
Ya know, I thought for a nano-second “Hmmm… maybe I should look for that plug-n…” then immediately said nope. I enjoy talking books with folks – I’d never want to give up that connection by using an email response system. That’s just me.
🙂