Comments on: Commandeering the Conversation

By: Come On, Let’s Make Up A Dance « libby started a blog

Come On, Let’s Make Up A Dance « libby started a blog — Mon, 11 May 2009 15:53:32 +0000

[...] well, I’ll bring it here and hope for some awesome responses. I’ve definitely gotten some good ones in the [...]

By: Rasmussen

Rasmussen — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 19:52:13 +0000

An off-topic thread carves its own path to relevance.

A great example – Liz Strauss’ Open-Mic night’s – http://www.successful-blog.com/1/the-mic-is-on-happy-3rd-birthday-to-sobs-everywhere/

Drop by any Tuesday night to join in. The 99%, the lurkers, the silent audience, they all strap on newly active voices. That shared experience, that only occurs in the comments, is deeply meaningful.

After all, are our blogs really about us?

By: PRJack

PRJack — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 21:57:23 +0000

@dmullen made me do it!

Rarely do discussions stay on focus for too long. However, during a spoken conversation where we need to focus we have the checks and balances in place to keep info going where we want it to. When given the opportunity to interact freely part of natural discourse is to add and detract from a conversation. Which is why we have those conversations where someone says, “how did we end up talking about this”. Part of that stems from the good ol’ idea of word association – yup, there’s more to that then many think!

However it’s that very tendancy to latch on to a non-primary topic and go with it that’s exacerbated in both the ‘online forum’ and ‘blog/comment’ worlds. Why? Because the checks and balances simply don’t exist in these communication realms the way they do in conversation. (Think about face to face conversations vs instant messaging vs any form of delayed response communication.)

Is this a bad thing? Well it can be. It all really depends on the authors desire. Is the discussion to be one about a specific topic with no digression? Or is the desire to let thought flow freely paramount?

Let me ask a question back (after that diatribe)… what’s worse: to state something like ‘please keep to the topic folks or comments will be deleted’ or enduring a good blog turned sour by comments taking it into undesired territory? Chances are, reality is somewhere inbetween.

Which reminds me, who’s dressing up for Hallowe’en? (kidding!!)

By: Susan

Susan — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 21:08:28 +0000

I think the point of a blog is to engage the reader. If your post inspires them to write about any topic (in a tasteful way), then I think it should be embraced. What frustrates me to no end is when bloggers write very opinionated content and then do not enable comments.

By: Scott

Scott — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 14:49:50 +0000

As few commenters as I get on a regular basis it doesn’t bother me. It happens in “real life” convos so why not on a blog? I also don’t mind really long comments. People have apologized for leaving comments longer than the blog post and I always tell them that I don’t mind and it’s the truth. If I’ve struck a nerve or stimulated thought with my readers then I’ve done my job.

By: davidmullen

davidmullen — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 20:31:25 +0000

Thanks for linking to my “gem” post and extending the conversation on your space.

I don’t mind when people do that, unless it was outrageously in another direction that brought no value whatsoever to the comment conversation. Otherwise, blog comments really mimic in-person conversations. Someone says something that sparks another thought for us and we veer a bit off course. No problem in my book.