I’ve been using Cocomment to track my comments since May 2006. I don’t always remember to track every comment but it’s the best way I’ve seen so far. So I went back and tallied the number of comments I wrote divided by the number of posts I’ve written.
99/140= .71
So the point is that I write more posts than I write comments. I don’t know what an optimum number would be but it seems to me that if blogging is really about reading, reflecting and writing, then I should be commenting at least as much as I post. I know some prefer simply to link to posts and comment on their own blogs but their is something generous about commenting right on the blog you’re reading. It’s not only generous but I think enables conversations to flow better. Especially for newer bloggers, it’s important to encouarge them as many may not even have trackbacks enabled or subscribe to technorati searches of themselves. Taking every conversation back to your own blog is a bit arrogant in my opinion. Sometimes it does make sense when you are planning to take a post in a different direction or want to expound further but you should still leave a comment.
Here are some champion commenters:
- Ewan McIntosh 633 comments since March 20
- D’Arcy Norman 441 comments since February 7
- Vicki Davis 236 comments since June 26
- Karl Fisch 229 comments since August 10
These are some number and habits we should be considering. By the way, you can subscribe to other people’s comments as well. So if you have the means, calculate your comments to post rating or as I call it “commpost” rating. I’d like to get close to 1.0[tags]commpost rating comments[/tags]
I’d guess that only between 25-50% of my comments wind up on CoComment. It’s intermittent enough to make it only partially usable for tracking conversations. It’s still interesting though, but hardly canonical.
WoW, that would put you at around 1,000 or around 3 per day. When you think of it, 3 per day isn’t really that much. It’s certainly doable. I’m not worthy…
actually, I’d bet 3 per day is still way on the low side, especially if you include Flickr comments. Some days are more like 10-20 or more… and lately i’ve been down to only a couple/few blog posts per week (say 3 – 5 ish) so my compost ration would be what, around 18 or so? that’s probably not far off the mark…
I’ve written something like 600 posts since March so the rating of 1.0 is about right. Commenting for me is as important and often more important than blogging since many folk don’t use Technorati to trace discussions back across the web: me leaving comments is the only way to sustain the conversation.
On my own blog the conversations are healthy thanks to this: currently 841 posts and 1687 comments. In between giving info only posts and updates that’s some very vocal readers!
Just thought I’d post to say thanks for the great blog and THANKS for cocomment!! It’s EXACTLY what I’ve been looking for!!!!
Wow. ALl of a sudden I feel really guilty about how little I’ve commented on people’s blogs lately! I used to do it a ton, but have really started slacking. Thanks for the wakeup call!
I fell down at the first hurdle trying to calculate this! Finding the number of comments I’ve made is easy… or so I thought, until I remembered that I always immediately unsubscribe to my own posts on CoComment, because these conversations are tracked elsewhere. And, of course, I do comment on my own blog in repsonse to those who take the time to stop by. I find it rude when I submit a question and the blogowner doesn’t so much as acknowledge it, so I try always to respond.
Secondly, I have several blogs, and trying to figure out how many posts I have written across them all is a bit of a nightmare. In the end, a very rough estimate has me on the plus side of 1.0, possibly even as high as 2.0. Like Ewan, I consider commenting as important as, if not more important than posting.
To me, commenting is like joining in a conversation that someone else started, while posting is like starting your own conversation. If you think of it like that, it seems a little, well self-important to post more and comment less. A bit too much like being in love with the sound of your own voice to the exclusion of what others might have to say. Maybe I’m reading too much into it!
I agree Karen, and that’s why I posted it, more of an admonition of my own failings.
I also have several blogs and haven’t been able to fully track all my comments but for me it’s a wakeup call to get out there and contribute to the work of others more.
I look forward to seeing your name crop up more often in my CoComments, then! 😉
Pingback: Ideas and Thoughts from an EdTech » Blog Archive » Still talking about Commposting…(no it’s not misspelled)
Pingback: The Honeymoon’s over | Ideas and Thoughts
Pingback: Comment Save | Ideas and Thoughts