Commenting on blogs
the blogger i linked above is making the case that blogs become much more relevant when the originating author takes the time to comment on his or her own blog. i never thought about this consciously, but i’ve always made it a point to interact with my visitors. then again, i don’t get the kind of traffic that makes it very difficult to interact with my visitors. in fact, the only “audience” i have for sure are my students when i require them to visit my site. heh heh.
but, there is a part of the blog entry that i take exception to as follows:
It matters because blogs are inherently interactive. It matters because its ‘new’. It matters because without interaction, there is no need to blog. Just go holler at the walls in your basement.
a good portion of my traffic (according to my logs) comes from folks who use a search engine search to find my blog. they aren’t looking for my blog, specifically; rather, they likely are using a tool that i’ve blogged about and come here to see what i’ve written about said tool. so, they might be considering using phpBB forums or they might be teaching online and looking for tips/tricks, etc. judging by the length of their stay, i think the blog site has value to them whether a conversation takes place or not. now granted, i do enjoy the conversations because i get a higher sense of worth knowing that a discussion and hopefully some learning took place. but, i also know that a reference book can be of great value to the user at the right moment (not to say that my blog is a reference book, mind you). further, i enjoy looking back at my old posts and learning from myself. i just enjoy blogging and i enjoy being able to incorporate my blog into my teaching. that’s enough for me. and sometimes the conversation takes place on my blog; sometimes the conversation takes place on my class discussion forums; and, sometimes there is no conversation, but that doesn’t mean there is no worth.
i have a family blog that i started in 2000, which makes it one of the oldest blogs around; though, i didn’t realize it was called a blog at the time. i have about 10 - 15 comments in the last 6 years. obviously, it’s more about telling a story than creating conversation. and, it gets 20 - 30 unique IP hits a day. i know that my family and my wife’s family are often calling us to talk about what they’ve read on our family blog, so i suppose it does generate conversation . . . just not e-communications. ;~) my point is that it’s too hard to lump all blogs into a neat little box and use that box to define how they are to be used. blogs are as varied as the people who write them.