Amidst the general nonsense posted on this blog about things like politics, cooking, cats, hamsters, football, etc., I'm doing a much less accessible series on bringing blogs and wikis into your workplace. As those are aimed at a very narrow readership, those receive very few comments. Contrast that with the other posts where the usual crew of beloved commenters pile in and leave their 2, 4 or even 6 cents with the occasional extra visitor adding their views. The difference is quite striking.
Without comments, blogging can be a pretty lonely sport. I would bet that once a blogger finds a theme which causes their readers to leave comments, there's a significant motivation to continue that topic almost to the exclusion of others. I know that happens with me.
There was a story (it may have been an urban legend) about a university professor whose students played a trick on him over the course of a semester. Every time he moved to his right during his lectures, the students sat up straight and paid attention. Every time he moved to his left, the students slumped down, looked bored and let their eyes wander. By the end of the semester, the professor was giving his lectures leaning against the right hand wall.
I wonder if you could do that with a blog and conspiring as a group to leave comments on one kind of post or another.
6 comments:
:) - It's funny, because I notice that people do READ, but very few comment, except when they DISAGREE, then you can get hundreds of comments. :) Does that mean people want to be negative and don't have much to say when it is positive?
Rose, I disagree. Woof, woof, drool, does KT feed me now?
Oops, Late. Nite!
Wollf
For Heaven's sake, Wollf I just filled your food bowl and now it's empty again. What do you think this is, a short-order kitchen? Now I'll give you a snack, but you've just got to cut down on all this eating between meals. You're going to swell up like a blimp!
Rose, you've hit the nail on the head. It's when there is disagreement in the comment thread that there is the best chance for it to grow. I was courteous to aon because I wanted to keep the conversation pleasant (and because it's the polite thing to do), but I reaped an ancillary benefit when aon and the rest of you got into a prolonged discussion.
If everyone agrees, the comment threads are really short. The other place the comment threads grow is when people are curious and one of you (like Wollf and Kelly with the border parks story) have more information that we're all curious about.
In the interests of giving you an incentive to keep blogging, I'm afraid I'll have to disagree with you on those points, KT.
Cheers.
Augh! Leave it to Aon to be disagreeable!
:-)
Hehehe
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