Bloggers love to complain about their lack of comments. “No body leaves one!” or “It’s all just spam!” Never mind that many of them insist on moderating each and every one (something I’ve been ranting about quite a bit lately).
Now there’s something called an “iReply Revolution“. Simply put, it’s a pledge from a blogger to respond to comments left on their site. Which is all well and fine, I suppose. The intention’s a good one: to acknowledge readers’ involvement by interacting with them. But I have to wonder: why weren’t you doing that in the first place?
As it is, I don’t particularly want an email back from each and every blog on which I leave a comment. My Inbox is already overwhelming on most days; add in another hundred or so “Thanks for stopping by!” emails and, well, I’d quickly stop leaving comments.
See, it goes back to the model I mentioned earlier: that running a blog is a lot like throwing a huge party in your own living room. Some of the guests are invited, some just happen to drop by. Sure, as the host you want to mingle with as many of them as possible, but follow them back to their place — the online equivalent of sending an email in response to every comment you receive??? That runs too great a risk of being a pest and, well, seems a bit desperate.
Which just doesn’t sound so ‘revolutionary’ to me.
Monday, July 23rd, 2007, 3:01 pm | 
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July 23, 2007 at 3:36 pm
I love comments, and always try to reply to every one with a follow up because although 9 times out of 10 people don’t come back to see it… just seems rude not to. I want them to know I appreciate the input, even if they don’t agree with what they said.
Rarely do I email; only if my reply is very personal.
July 23, 2007 at 3:57 pm
I am very new to blogging am working hard every day to learn more about it. One thing I do try to do every day is click through the Alexa list posted by Robyn. My problem is that I tend to stop and read every blog on the list so it takes me forever, but, that’s just the way I am. I’m interested in what other people have to say and are talking about. Mind you, I don’t comment on each and every blog, but when I do I find it almost hurtful that the blog owner wouldn’t approve my comment. I never say anything offensive and I only post comments on topics where I actually have something legitimate to say. Just because a blog owner doesn’t know me or hasn’t seen my blog “signature” before doesn’t mean that I am spam. I don’t expect a response from anyone usually, it’s just a comment, so it seems the iReply Revolution is overdoing it a bit in my opinion.
July 23, 2007 at 4:06 pm
Even though I usually only get one or two, if I’m lucky, I don’t always reply to comments. Sorry, I’m a bad hostess. Or just a thoughtless bitch. Take your pick.
July 23, 2007 at 4:08 pm
M’kay. ;P
July 23, 2007 at 6:58 pm
I usually reply by email, just because I’m already there, in my email, reading the comment, and it’s very easy to hit “reply”, plus I like actually interacting with each reader. So far, I’ve had no complaints from people bothered that I replied to them, and in most cases, we end up emailing back and forth a lot. That said, I’m also trying to get better about replying in the comments section just so other people who haven’t been reading long don’t come in and think I ignore all the comments.
July 23, 2007 at 8:10 pm
Kate – Thanks for the response
Sorry about leaving that URL, I don’t normally do that when I’m commenting but did want to give credit where credit was due. Anyway, I do appreciate what you told me, thanks again!
July 23, 2007 at 8:17 pm
Well, you’re quite welcome, Lynne! And, as you’ve picked up, this is part of why I wonder “Is it so revolutionary to reply”? Like Pam said, I’ll go to email if it’s personal — as that was.
But then there are girls like my gal SarahK who’s got a personality as big as the State of Texas wherein she lives. She’s a people person. I am most definitely NOT, absent the occasional time when I like to check in with humanity just to make sure I remember how to mingle with humans and not bite their heads off.
Which might explain the difference between bloggers who respond in their own comment section, bloggers who respond via email, and bloggers who don’t respond at all.
July 23, 2007 at 10:26 pm
I try my damnest to reply to every comment I receive, which is not that hard, considering the frequency with which they appear. Just consider it polite, is all
.
July 23, 2007 at 11:38 pm
Aw, thanks. I don’t like people either, though. I like blog people. They’re better than “live” people, for the most part.
July 24, 2007 at 1:01 am
Hello everyone, I’m Mark, one of the three guys who came up with the iReply concept. It originated from our observations of some blogs that we’ve visited that chose to simply ignore their reader’s comments.
One of the examples I’ve used in writing about it is that by not responding to a reader’s comment on the blog is the equivalent of me turning away from someone when they ask me a question in person. Kind of rude, right?
If you’re already conversing with readers on your blog, then you’re already a member and didn’t even know it. We just thought it would be a good reminder to bloggers that if the point of having a blog is to share information and gain readers, then interacting with them — just like any place — is a very important strategy to achieve that goal.
Revolutionary? Nah. Good practice? You betchya!
July 24, 2007 at 7:25 am
When I had a blog, I never minded replying to comments if I felt there was something else I could say on the matter, and if the commenter wasn’t being incendiary for incendiary’s sake. However, replying to the comments of others can lead to artificial comment number inflation. That always worried me a tad.
July 24, 2007 at 8:25 am
“Artificial number inflation”? Isn’t that like saying you wouldn’t want to talk at your party because it might get noisier?
July 27, 2007 at 2:30 pm
Personally I find the need to place a badge on your blog to say you do anything usually means you really don’t do it.
After all, if you reply to people’s comments… then your commenters will already know you do. They don’t need a badge to know it.
If it’s obvious, you shouldn’t have to state it.
July 27, 2007 at 3:45 pm
I’d reply to this but I’ve got a migraine.
Oh, wait. I just replied. Ok, but I DO still have a migraine.