It should take you less than two minutes to read the options and click 3 or 4 times. I'd be so grateful.Why do I want to know the answers to these questions? I guess I'm just interested in the habits of blog readers. We all leave comments on each others' blogs but, as readers of blogs, do we read the follow-up comments? Do we return or do we ask to have future comments sent to our email boxes? Knowing this will help me decide whether to spend time thoughtfully answering questions or responding to others' comments with further information (if I know someone will read them) or to just appreciate that someone came to my blog and made a comment and then continue with other posts (if I find that no one reads follow-up comments on blogs). I guess, when it comes right down to it, I don't know if people who ask questions in the comments section of posts come back to read the answers.
I think commenting, responding to comments, and reading follow-up comments are ways to foster interaction in the blogging community.
I know many of us spend a good deal of time thinking about what to post, writing the post, and sometimes working to get it to look just right when it finally does post. With that in mind and in gratitude for what I learn from other bloggers, I've decided that if I visit your blog, I'll leave a comment. (At least for January. Hopefully I'll be able to keep it up the rest of the year.) I'll probably read fewer posts than before but you'll know I've been there. So often in the past I've gone to a blog, read the post, then moved on. I think it would be more generous of me to let the blogger know I've been there and read the post and had a thought about it.
I will greatly appreciate it if you participate in my survey. You can also leave a comment at the end of this post (of course!). Thanks.
I love comments, as well as leave them, and I took your simple survey. People can opt not have comments if they don't want to deal with them, meaning they are too lazy to post a response to somebody who took the time and effort to comment.
ReplyDeleteI think it's a great idea to post a comment on every blog you read (if only for January)- it made me feel good to read your comment. It helps to know someone has read what I've written!
ReplyDeleteGreat survey. I read all comments that are posted with a blog. If I reply I hardly ever go back to see if the blogger commented to my reply mainly because it's very hard for me to remember whose blog I commented on.
ReplyDeleteI read all comments on my blog but unless there is a specific question asked in the comment I don't go back and reply to comments.
I spend A LOT of time reading and posting comments on others blogs.
Thank you for your feedback, Barbara, Julie, and Mary. I appreciate your comments. I guess I'm most interested in know about readers who come to blogs, whether they read follow up comments (which you've all commented on). I may do another survey later for blog writers and comments.
ReplyDeleteI have always commented in return on the comments made at my blog. I feel though that no one comes back to read them, so this year I am going to try to respond to those who comment by mail. We will see how that goes. I am interested in your survey results as I have been thinking along the same lines. I did vote, too.
ReplyDeleteCompleted as requested - I will be interested to see the results.
ReplyDeleteI completed your survey. I also would be interested in the results.
ReplyDeleteIf I click through to read a post I always read the comments. Since they don't come through in GoogleReader I may not know that comments were made. If I leave a comment I always have followups emailed to me if that is an option.
ReplyDeleteSurvey completed! I am interested in follow-up comments on something I have commented on too, but don't want to clog up my Inbox with tons of emails so am reluctant to sign up for the follow-ups. Perhaps there is a way to use a secondary email address and then go through the comments at leisure? I'm pretty new to blogging so don't have it sussed out yet. Will be interested to read your conlusions! Jo
ReplyDeletePart of the reason I read blogs is for the comments. If I didn't care what others thought, or if there was no way to leave a comment of my own, I wouldn't follow a blog.
ReplyDeleteBlogging is supposed to be interactive. Otherwise, we could just all have family history websites...
I answered the survey also. I usually always come back to a post where I have left a comment...
Dee
I always try to leave comments and also respond. I do love to get a response, but realize it is not always possible.
ReplyDeleteI agree with dee-burris (above). I love to read the comments and always leave a comment on blogs I've read. I'd like to have more followers/commentors on my own blog, because I think that's one od the reasons why most of us blog in the first place--to get reactions and responses.
ReplyDeleteBTW-thanks for stopping by my blog and commenting!
I'm usually very good about leaving comments and returning to see the responses. I do try to read some of the existing comments, but if pressed for time, I move on.
ReplyDeleteI've been very bad lately at getting to all the blogs I enjoy. It's taken me a while to reacclimatize after the holidays when my husband was home. Now that he's back at work, I'm getting into the swing again.
Lately, Sepia Saturday is a conundrum for me; I want to post a piece, but with personal things taking precedence on the weekends, it's taking me a while to get around to all the other participants.
Kat
I love to receive comments and love to leave them on other blogs. I try to respond to all comments on my blog but am sometimes a day or two late in doing that. If I read a post, I always read the comments as well. If I leave a comment, I may request that follow-up comments be sent to my e-mail (when I am very interested in seeing how people develop the subject), and perhaps half the time, when I read the next post on the blog, I go back to see whether my comment has been responded to or anyone else has commented. But I do not follow up all comments I make. However, I feel that the entire comment history becomes part of the context of the post, so I think comments and responses are important.
ReplyDeleteExcellent survey and ditto what Apple said. I'll be interested in the results.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Dee- I think blogging is an interactive process. I try to leave a comment as often as I can and I appreciate comments in return.
ReplyDeleteI do post "thanks for stopping by" comments a lot, but really prefer to visit that person's blog and leave comments on posts that I find interesting.
If someone asks me a direct question, I try to answer it at my site. Just in case another reader was also wondering the same thing.
If I see a closed comment section on a blog, I don't revisit.
Interesting that you have this survey as I am visiting your blog to reply to a query/thought that you left on mine. It is about the photo of Lewis Lewis - you asked if I have the original photo - sadly I don't. The original is owned and held by a person living in Scotland, she also inherited the family land (Gwynfe House has been demolished). She owns all the old photos for this family I understand.
ReplyDeleteI do own one very old original photo which was taken around 1857/58. It is of my 2x great grandmother holding my great grandmother when she was a few months old.
Without comments, I feel like a tree falling in the forest--does anyone hear? I'm a fairly new blogger and am trying to get to as many blogs as possible and comment. Now here's my conundrum on this whole issue: I would like to acknowledge the person who commented -- which I almost always do on my blog. But to see my "thank you," that person would have to come back to look for my response. I don't really expect someone to come back for that purpose if a question wasn't posed, but then my "thank you" is just hanging in space. I'm not sure about the email issue you are all writing about. I get an email telling me someone has commented on my blog, but how could I email the person who did the commenting -- so he/she would get a direct response? I've never seen email addresses included in the comments on my blog. That would be ideal for a thank you--or if the commenters could be notified automatically by email that I've responded to their note, as I am when someone comments on my blog. Am I making sense? There should be a way to do this efficiently so we can also have time to write. P.S. I answered the survey
ReplyDelete@Linda Gartz - Some blogs give you the option of signing up for e-mail updates delivered directly to your mailbox. You can then choose to return to a blog, or to respond directly.
ReplyDeleteHope that helps a bit.
Kat
@Linda Gartz - Linda, if I click on your name next to the blogger symbol, it takes me right to your blog. Then I can email you directly. If you click on a blogger's profile, you can usually get their email address. That's what I do. I hope you see this response.
ReplyDeleteI have fallen so behind during the holidays on both blogging ad following that I almost missed this survey! I love getting responses to my blog. Sometimes relatives email me instead and facebook friends comment on fb but I try to get them to leave the comment on the blog because I think it helps the conversation. I appreciate the comments you leave. I try and comment on blogs I read. sometimes I seem to just be repeating what was said earlier but I do the best I can. Sometimes I forget to return for a while but I do go back especially if I asked a question. I subscribe if I notice the link to do so.
ReplyDelete