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Wednesday, March 7, 2012

Commenting on Blogs

Everyone and their cat has a blog nowadays. You write your blog, you read others' blogs, you comment on others' blogs.

But how do you comment on your own?

This is something I've been considering as of late. When a person leaves a comment on your blog, how do you respond to it? Now that Blogger finally has threaded comments, you can just hit "reply" to the particular comment and write one of your own, right?

That's what I thought until a couple of months ago, when I read a blog post (and I wish I remembered where I found it so I could link, but you'll just have to take my word on it) that stated the best way the respond to comments is to do so on the other's person's blog, especially in the case of Blogger.

You see, Blogger won't notify you when someone replies to your comment. You can sign up for all comment updates, but (especially with more popular blogs), who wants flood of emails relaying every comment someone else received on their blog?

I thought, "This [replying on the commenter's blog] is ingenius. Who would ever come back to my blog just to see if I replied to them?"

So I've been trying to answer comments (namely those with questions) by seeking out the commenter's blog and commenting there. I've noticed, however, that this is not the norm.

What do you do? Do you reply to comments on your blog, on the commenter's blog, or not at all? How often do you check a blog you commented on to see if someone replied? How do you prefer people reply to your comments, or do you not give a hoot n' holler to begin with?


10 comments:

  1. I never leave a comment on my blog because I know people wont come back to read them. I'll email them a reply if thier email is linked, and I always visit thier blog, if they have one.

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  2. Honestly, I prefer bloggers' replies to be next to the comment I made. I don't comment all that often, and if I asked a question I expect to come back.

    However, if I commented more frequently, I could see it getting problematic to retrace my steps all the time.

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  3. On blogger, I just comment on my own blog, or I email them directly.

    However, most of the people I know who comment on my blog (when I post, which is rarely lately) comment on LiveJournal, which DOES notify you when a person replies directly to your comment.

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    1. Perhaps one of the only pros to LiveJournal. I abandoned mine a while back...

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  4. I remember I had my blog for a year before anyone left a proper comment related to the post I had written. It was way exciting.

    Nowadays I will only respond if someone expects a response, and even then I will go to their blog and reply rather than do it on my own.

    Dunno about you but the internet is often like graffiti with punctuation. One has to be selective about whom they reply to as most of the time I feel there are too many spammers out there.

    BTW: your cat is cool for having its own blog.

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  5. I actually comment with a reply to the comment they left. If it's something more that I want to go into, I'll shoot them an e-mail offline. But, I may be a weirdo here, but if it is a blog post where I asked a question, I usually go back to it to read the reply if I forgot to click the box for comment updates.

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  6. I comment on my own blog, almost always making sure that I respond to the writer's comments AND to a recent post on their blog.

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  7. Interesting question and interesting answers. Thus far, I've always responded to comments as threaded replies. Although I try to respond to most comments left on my blog, I try not to comment on other people's blogs just for the sake of commenting. And I do tend to return to blog posts where I commented.

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  8. I actually do come back to people's blogs to see if they've replied or not. More often than not, they haven't, which makes me sometimes wonder why I left a comment in the first place. Just to hear myself talk? Um, awkward?

    But blogs these days tend to be less about discussion (such as the days of LJ and threaded-forums' popularity) and more about announcements, declarations, or opinions posted bulletin-style.

    So these days when I write a comment, I type it more towards the idea at hand and less towards the person.

    As for commenting to people on my own blog, I try to reply unless I can't think of anything to reply with. Occasionally, if there are new visitors, I'll reply with a thank-you...But that can also be awkward.

    Lol, oh dear.

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  9. I had noticed I'm never notified of replies but could never honk of a way to handle that. This was a great idea, thank you!

    Do you just reply on eir latest blog post?

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