As I’ve written before, I often surf the net with the specific aim of finding new blogs with something different to say. It’s surprising though, how often I see comments left by people I know – in the web sense of knowing folk. That is to say bloggers or regular commenters I’ve come across elsewhere. It's an odd feeling, like meeting someone you know without being able to give them at least a nod of acknowledgement.
Once or twice I’ve come across really well-written blogs which attract very few comments and I wonder why. Why don’t readers add a comment to well-written and lucid posts? Even without a visible stats counter it can be quite obvious that there must be plenty of readers, but for some reason they rarely leave comments.
Maybe some posts are a little inward-looking. Maybe they are too well written, almost daunting in their lucidity?
Maybe a post may be well-written, even beautifully written, but come across as private musings, almost like a diary entry. A comment would be an intrusion because the post leaves nothing unanswered, no loose threads to be followed. I'm not sure that's it, but it's something I've noticed quite often.
In such cases I look around the blog and wonder if I should leave a comment, like a note of appreciation. Usually I don’t because I don’t expect to make a second visit. I read so many blogs that one more would be too much, however well-written. It would tip the balance a little too far towards blogging and away from other matters. It’s a pity, but that’s life isn’t it?
So I take a look around the new blog and I leave, closing the door quietly behind me. Reluctantly of course, but there is only so much one can take in, however rewarding it may be.
3 comments:
Off topic but instructive - pinched from Charon QC's blog. I do like the civilised and rather languid style, one can almost smell the Earl Grey and hear the chink of bone china.
"
Lord Pembroke
The Foreign Office
London
6th April 1943
My Dear Reggie,
In these dark days man tends to look for little shafts of light that spill from Heaven. My days are probably darker than yours, and I need, my God I do, all the light I can get. But I am a decent fellow, and I do not want to be mean and selfish about what little brightness is shed upon me from time to time. So I propose to share with a tiny flash that has illuminated my sombre life and tell you that God has given me a new Turkish colleague whose card tells me that he is called Mustapha Kunt.
We all feel like that, Reggie, now and then, especially when spring is upon us, but few of us would dare to put it on our cards. It takes a Turk to do that.
Sir Archibald Clerk Kerr,
H.M. Ambassador.
"
Apropos comments, some are noisy places where a thought would be lost - others I just know there is no point.
It's an odd feeling, like meeting someone you know without being able to give them at least a nod of acknowledgement.
Ye sit is and yet in some ways, it's more real than small-talking acquaintances in RL.
Roger - I like a "civilised and rather languid style" myself. It's a splendid way of slipping the knife in gently.
James - yes, because in some ways you know web acquaintances better than real life acquaintances.
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