Comments on: Blogmenting

By: CogDogBlog » Blog Archive » 2 Miles Per Podcast

CogDogBlog » Blog Archive » 2 Miles Per Podcast — Mon, 31 Oct 2005 16:36:04 +0000

[...] A Conversation with Brian Lamb, mainly because Brian is a colleague, friend, and always phrases things in a low-key but practical, slightly sarcastic manner. His interview even foreshadowed what I wrote about blog commenting, when he refered to the “intoxicating high” of a blogger’s change in getting their first comment or a link mention on someone else’s blog. [...]

By: Teaching Generation Z » Finding Time To Blog

Teaching Generation Z » Finding Time To Blog — Sat, 29 Oct 2005 12:41:32 +0000

[...] ” I’d even recommend setting up a group of great blogs, both educational and non-educational (I love getting Dilbert in Bloglines), and importing them into Bloglines for their teachers. Make it so all they have to do is go there, get their information and leave. Make it as simple as possible for them until they have their feet wet, see the value in it and have a desire to learn more.” Maybe I’m just not ready to be dispensing advice on how to create the time to get involved in blogging. I just know I am embarking on the greatest professional development of 18 years teaching and sometimes feel like I’m arriving well after the party has started. But for the sake of our students, teachers have to get involved in the regular use of new technologies and connect to others to experience the wealth of collective learning opportunities. I know that one can blog on any topic but for educators, this is the ultimate way to get a world perspective. I think I will have to try and lead by example, maintain this blog to the highest standard I am capable of, comment regularly on other blogs’ posts of relevance (see Blogmenting - a great post from Alan Levine), continue to service my little Interactive Whiteboard community on their blog (surely someone else will post other than me!) and talk up blogging in the staffroom, at district meetings and everywhere else that I can. As Jo McLeay recently commented: “I would love to get more Aussie teachers using blogs just so I have more people to learn from and with, and because I think it is an interesting thing to do. It is true that we are on a journey and there are things we need to figure out, but we can figure them out together.” [...]

By: Gardner

Gardner — Sat, 29 Oct 2005 12:06:59 +0000

Alan, I agree completely. Wonderful blog post. (And thanks for the comment on my site!) The other trick that’s sometimes (though perhaps less frequently) missed is to have ample links to other sites within one’s blog post. Generating trackbacks/pingbacks also keeps the blogosphere rolling. I wish I understood that mechanism more fully on a technical level, especially why sometimes the trackbacks/pingbacks work immediately and sometimes don’t work for some time. Maybe I need some technorati/feedster remediation.

And like Brian, I sometimes feel a bit reticent about jumping in to the comment zone, mostly because part of me feels I’ve already had my say on the blog and to participate in the comments is to hog the microphone. Also it makes my “Recent Comments” sidebar look pretty solipsistic. But I recognize intellectually that at the same time it’s important that I not send the message that I’ve moved on from that post and want nothing to do with it anymore. I continue to be fascinated by how vividly these rhetorical situations appear in this world of online communication….

In any event, thanks for this post. And for the pointer to Spam Karma 2, which has made my life MUCH better.

By: Graham Wegner

Graham Wegner — Sat, 29 Oct 2005 03:58:49 +0000

Alan, another important reason to leave comments is the encouragement it gives to bloggers starting out. I’m a good example posting away without much repsonse thinking that this blogging caper is a bit of a solo journey until I took a risk and posted about a line in Weblogg-ed that I disagreed with. It really gave me a buzz when Will himself commented back on my blog overnight. The connection to another person, especially if you already read their stuff, is not to be underestimated - I think it was great that the rss radar can capture other people’s attention and prompt them to respond. Maybe this is something that non-bloggers just don’t get.

By: Alan

Alan — Fri, 28 Oct 2005 20:13:42 +0000

Thanks “zeno”… I was eating a burrito and now it is all over my lap

By: zeno izen

zeno izen — Fri, 28 Oct 2005 19:49:25 +0000

I just wanted to make you drop what you were doing.

By: D'Arcy Norman

D'Arcy Norman — Fri, 28 Oct 2005 17:40:32 +0000

Alan, I totally agree - when I get a comment notification I check it out ASAP, and almost always respond to it (and if I don’t, I feel guilty about it). A blog without comments is just a newsletter (which is a valid pursuit, but isn’t a blog IMHO).

I would love to have some magic tool that pulled together all of the various blog threads I have commented on. Right now, I try to throw a link into my del.icio.us bin tagged with “blogcomment” so I will eventually check back, but I find I _really_ like blogs with a “subscribe to comments via email” feature because it turns the blog and the comments area into a discussion rather than a simple response.

By: Brian

Brian — Fri, 28 Oct 2005 17:08:27 +0000

I’m glad you choose to highlight the importance of commenting from time to time. My biggest area for personal improvement as a blogger is commenting more on others’ blogs (and not just those of friends) — and also to engage thoughtful comments left on my own blog. There’s a weird reticence for me that sometimes kicks in — I wonder if that exists for others. Whether it’s a common tendency, or if it’s just my own perversity, I’m working on it.

But there’s no question that leaving and responding to comments is a critical and under-acknowledged element of the form. One development that helps in this respect is the notification via email for follow-up comments — it’s easier to click a box than to subscribe to an RSS feed, and it promotes the kind of back and forth that is one of the strengths of the traditional discussion board.