Faith is now quite uncertain. I'm no longer acting-as-if.
Sunday, November 1, 2009
Where Have All The Comments Gone?
Where have all the comments gone? Long time passing Where have all the comments gone? Long time ago Where have all the comments gone? Gone to Facebook every one When will they ever learn? When will they ever learn?
Elizabeth, don't fret, m'dear. No rules! The post is tongue-in-cheek. Come and read, and please, please don't feel compelled to leave a comment. I'm spread thin, too.
The odd thing is that my visitor numbers go up, even as the number of comments goes down.
Well, now I'm confused... should I comment here or on FB?
I read almost all blogs thru Google Reader (400-500 subscriptions), and I think I get more real solid things to read/learn from on that than I do on FB. Of course, I really don't read all the posts, just scan them for interesting things... some I do follow up, most just get a pass.
FB serves a different purpose. I suspect they have both peaked and what we're all doing is waiting for the next thing... and Twitter ain't it!... I dislike the "impermanence" of FB... go to church, come back to hundreds of posts. Is it worth going back to read? It's like a combination of bathroom graffiti and those stick up signs on laundromat bulletin boards than anything else...
Plus blogs allow more creativity, in my opinion. Heck, you can't even make text bold or italic in FB...
Clumber, I know. What's an old dog to do? I confess I like blogs better. I'm sometimes startled at the response at FB when I note a bit of trivia or minutia from my life.
But you see, I shed a few tears, and the nice folks come. I'll need to cry more. Tears do it every time.
I am not a facebook fan. I check in to IT's FB account only occassionally, usually to post a link. I hardly check into my "real" facebook at all; the only people who have found me are high school classmates most of whom I scarcely remember.
I also have a linked-in account, which I likewise seldom use. I prefer the more substantive essays and comments on blogs--FB seems full of things like "ate a chocolate donut today!" which seems kinda pointless.
Of course, I run a blog that no one visits (GMC), which i suppose is the height of narcissism.
I think blogging is dying, and I think the arc of FB and others has also done an up and over. I think the internet community is fragmenting right now waiting for the Next Thing. Personally, I feel increasingly isolated from what used to be quite vibrant online communities. I don't have much Real Life community outside of work (BP does better on that front, owing to church and kids) so it's a good thing I'm used to being a loner.
I gave up on FB, afraid I do not have time to read trivia from people on other side of world about weather or if they are going to bed. Like Margaret the games become a bit much. Always visit your blog, Mimi although do not comment if US politics (church or state)
I agree with Margaret. FB allows me to keep up with a handful of friends that I met first through blogging. Since they don't blog often but post at FB, it's the only way I can stay in touch, it seems. But there are reasons I don't stay in touch with high school classmates; I can't remember anything about them. I much prefer blogs even if I cannot visit as many as I used to.
Admittedly I can remember the heyday of usenet (and actually the days even before that became so popular) and that alas has mostly faded away. Blogs at least have something (sometimes) substantial to chew on. Would I have reread 1 Samuel 28 if Elizabeth hadn't blogged on it (which left me thinking the witch showed more compassion to Saul than God even though Saul had been persecuting witches). While I would have skipped a facebook reference.
IT, blogging as we know it is dying, but I think of all the great people I've met while it was going strong, and I'm grateful. I'm pretty much of a loner outside of my family, and blogging was a good ride while it was at its peak.
Think of your GMC blog as a journal.
Brian, I understand. I don't go to my page often. My family are mostly not very forthcoming on Facebook, mostly joking around, which is, after all, not a bad thing. My grandsons won't even friend me. My sweet granddaughter let me be her friend, but, I think that she communicates with her friends by messaging.
At last count, I had 140 friends on FB. I can't possibly keep up with that many people. FB is more guilt-inducing than anything else, because of all the folks I don't keep up with.
At one time the top tier political bloggers answered my emails promptly. Now I wouldn't even write to them, unless I had a huge scoop, and that's not very likely.
Many people (including myself) now have circles of 'friends' far too large to manage, thanks to Facebook and other social networking sites. Seth Godin's reflections here are relevant, I think.
Grandmere--you make me glad I've never wandered anywhere NEAR Facebook.
Which, yes, makes me an old crank before my time, as well as a Luddite.
Then again, I barely get comments on my blog, and I barely keep up with that. FB would be one more unmet obligation in a life that's starting to feel full of those.
I think the problem is that while we comment on blog posts and fb posts, these spirited conversations between groups of people don't develop any longer. It's very rare that commenters refer to anything another commenter has said, and so there's rarely a spark to create the kind of long chatty and deep comments that used to be there. I miss them!
I've been following blogs for about 3 years now, and I've had my own for a little over a year. Indeed, I've seen some lively conversations in comments sections, and I agree that they've not been as frequent lately, though I don't think they are gone entirely. I still see some spirited back and forth over on Thinking Anglicans. Fr. Jake's current reincarnation is a lot more sedate than his original blog, but there is still a lot of conversation in the comment threads. Fr. Harris' Preludium still has some intense arguments in the comments sections with some very strong opinions strongly expressed. I can only imagine the comments that don't make it past his comment moderation.
The political blogs are just too big. I love reading Duncan Black's short pithy postings on Eschaton, but the comment threads are regularly in the multiple hundreds.
I think with Episcopal/ Anglican blogs this relative quiet is a consequence of the schism. The split has already happened and everyone is moving on.
I also think this is a consequence of growing comment moderation. I have mixed feelings about this. So many of those long comment threads on Fr. Jake's old blog and on Madpriest were troll-a-thons. Some lonely pathetnoid would drop a big smelly turd into the punchbowl, abusing the guests and the host, and turn the whole thread into his own party all about him (it's usually men in my experience). A lot of bloggers, including me, moderate comments to keep this from happening. The problem with moderating comments is that it sometimes has a chilling effect on conversation (though it doesn't seem to have chilled anything on Thinking Anglicans or Preludium).
I think, far from an end, we are still at a beginning, trying to figure things out in a new public forum created by technology that has no historical precedents.
Counterlight, I didn't like the conversations that revolved around trolls at all. I think that there's not much choice but to use moderation when the pesky trolls persist. Perhaps it's just that blogging is changing direction, and we'll have to wait to see in which direction they'll go.
I've been reading blogs for about 10 years, and it was the political bloggers like Duncan Black, Juan Cole, and Josh Marshall, mostly going it alone at the time, who alerted me that the Bush administration was not telling the truth in the run-up to the Iraq war. Most folks around here thought I was crazy when I told them that we were being deceived, but now they know that the bloggers (and I) were right. But now their websites are too big (except for Juan Cole) and too busy, meaning too much there to take in.
I wonder, too, what Mark Harris doesn't moderate through to his comments.
Counterlight I agree about the spirited comments on sites like Thinking Anglicans. But unlike some other blogs they remain largely focused on the factual.
I have made a number of friends on TA who have all contacted me privately and are now email friends or FB friends, but TA itself does not have that lovely mix of the personal, the funny and the serious.
Trolls, yes, they have a lot to answer for. As does our combined inability to simply ignore them.
I have a whopping 26 "friends" on FB, and half of them are family. None of them blog, and if I didn't have FB contact I would not know that: my friend KA has a tumor behind her heart; RB has a new job which allows him to be home with his family six nights a week; K & E enjoyed seeing trick-or-treaters in their new home in the 'burbs; etc., etc. The occasional "I'm going to bed now" posts don't bother me. The sense of connectedness to my far-flung friends and family has been a significant factor in my slow recovery from depression.
Blog reading keeps me informed on goings on in TEC, the Anglican Communion, and the world at large. It has introduced me to a wonderfully diverse set of passionate, articulate, rowdy, funny, prayerful and holy people. The preaching at my little parish is folksy and brief, so the sermons posted by it's margaret, MP, Elizabeth and others fill a void.
I gain so much from both venues and value them for different reasons.
Counterlight said: I think with Episcopal/ Anglican blogs this relative quiet is a consequence of the schism. The split has already happened and everyone is moving on.
I think it's also because some of us feel that everything that could possibly be said on the issues in question has already been said, thousands of times. These days when I see a statement that I don't agree with, I'm inclined to leave it, because I know exactly what the arguments and counter-arguments are going to be, and really, life's too short to be going round the same roundabout over and over again. I'd rather focus on the things we have in common.
Just a late note to let you know I have not perished forever in FB land. The fact that I have only 14 friends there is reflective of my decision to keep my "page" as sequestered as possible. (Or, am I just deluded and have so few friends? Undoubtedly a combo of those.)
I've picked up my genealogy project in the last month after a virtual hiatus of some 5-6 years. My ability to revel in getting lost in that musty frontier is likely a major reflection of my avoidance of social networking, and to some extent, blogging in the present. I seem to more often these days prefer the existential catharsis I find in the navigating controversies of the past than arguing with trolls in the oh-so difficult present.
For some reason it seems easier to comment on FB than on a blog. I like both. I am able to keep up with my many "worlds" on FB which I could never do otherwise - high school (none of them seem to have blogs), college, church, choral, organ and others. I have a couple dozen blogs I try to keep up with and many more bookmarked to read when I can. Even tho some interesting discussions occur on FB, they are few and far between. For many of us FB is relatively new. I suspect it will eventually settle into its own communications niche and people will return to blogs for thoughtful posts and discussions.
I have a generally mindless blog which gets few commenters - I appreciate the few who do regularly. It gives me a way to keep in touch with a few folks, including family, who care about cats and what is happening in my life. I intend to keep it up and to keep reading Wounded Bird.
Alison, I should have limited "friending" at FB a bit more, but then I thought there would be hurt feelings if I didn't confirm folks as friends. In the end, what good does it do to have 140 friends, if I can't keep up with them?
Tim, I agree. At some point, I think, "What's the use of making that argument again?"
Crapaud, my brother-in-law is deep into genealogy, too. He's found some fascinating stuff about my family history. He says that it's possible to get completely lost in the family tree forest, so have a care.
Piskie, if a person takes the trouble to leave a word here, I like to respond, thus I don't have as much time to visit around as I once had before I started my own blog.
Some days, my blog is pretty mindless, and other days blogging is a bitch mistress - too much to write about and too little time.
Elizabeth, I kinda sorta amended dying to changing. I don't know what's going on, but blogging is different from three years ago. Then again, what isn't different from three years ago?
Social networking has started to implode on itself. Everyone is spread very thin....
ReplyDeleteI'm actually starting to like FB - especially b/c it helps me keep up with my children and keeps me in touch with old friends.
ReplyDeleteBlogging can be very time consuming. I can barely keep up with my own much less read and comment on other people's blogs.
I always enjoy coming over here, Mimi, even if I don't leave a comment. Is that rude? Am I breaking some rule of Internet Etiquette?
Facebook would be fine --except for all those stupid games people play and post.
ReplyDeleteI much prefer the slower pace and depth of blogging. But I really am just an ol' fashioned girl....
Everyone is spread very thin....
ReplyDeleteTrue that, Georgianne.
Elizabeth, don't fret, m'dear. No rules! The post is tongue-in-cheek. Come and read, and please, please don't feel compelled to leave a comment. I'm spread thin, too.
The odd thing is that my visitor numbers go up, even as the number of comments goes down.
Well, now I'm confused... should I comment here or on FB?
ReplyDeleteI read almost all blogs thru Google Reader (400-500 subscriptions), and I think I get more real solid things to read/learn from on that than I do on FB. Of course, I really don't read all the posts, just scan them for interesting things... some I do follow up, most just get a pass.
FB serves a different purpose. I suspect they have both peaked and what we're all doing is waiting for the next thing... and Twitter ain't it!... I dislike the "impermanence" of FB... go to church, come back to hundreds of posts. Is it worth going back to read? It's like a combination of bathroom graffiti and those stick up signs on laundromat bulletin boards than anything else...
Plus blogs allow more creativity, in my opinion. Heck, you can't even make text bold or italic in FB...
Clumber, I know. What's an old dog to do? I confess I like blogs better. I'm sometimes startled at the response at FB when I note a bit of trivia or minutia from my life.
ReplyDeleteBut you see, I shed a few tears, and the nice folks come. I'll need to cry more. Tears do it every time.
I am not a facebook fan. I check in to IT's FB account only occassionally, usually to post a link. I hardly check into my "real" facebook at all; the only people who have found me are high school classmates most of whom I scarcely remember.
ReplyDeleteI also have a linked-in account, which I likewise seldom use. I prefer the more substantive essays and comments on blogs--FB seems full of things like "ate a chocolate donut today!" which seems kinda pointless.
Of course, I run a blog that no one visits (GMC), which i suppose is the height of narcissism.
I think blogging is dying, and I think the arc of FB and others has also done an up and over. I think the internet community is fragmenting right now waiting for the Next Thing. Personally, I feel increasingly isolated from what used to be quite vibrant online communities. I don't have much Real Life community outside of work (BP does better on that front, owing to church and kids) so it's a good thing I'm used to being a loner.
I gave up on FB, afraid I do not have time to read trivia from people on other side of world about weather or if they are going to bed. Like Margaret the games become a bit much. Always visit your blog, Mimi although do not comment if US politics (church or state)
ReplyDeleteI agree with Margaret. FB allows me to keep up with a handful of friends that I met first through blogging. Since they don't blog often but post at FB, it's the only way I can stay in touch, it seems. But there are reasons I don't stay in touch with high school classmates; I can't remember anything about them. I much prefer blogs even if I cannot visit as many as I used to.
ReplyDeleteI'm not a great facebook fan though for causes it has its uses. One I'm looking at right now is a protest against Uganda's Anti-Homosexuality Bill; it has an odd collection of supporters.
ReplyDeleteAdmittedly I can remember the heyday of usenet (and actually the days even before that became so popular) and that alas has mostly faded away. Blogs at least have something (sometimes) substantial to chew on. Would I have reread 1 Samuel 28 if Elizabeth hadn't blogged on it (which left me thinking the witch showed more compassion to Saul than God even though Saul had been persecuting witches). While I would have skipped a facebook reference.
IT, blogging as we know it is dying, but I think of all the great people I've met while it was going strong, and I'm grateful. I'm pretty much of a loner outside of my family, and blogging was a good ride while it was at its peak.
ReplyDeleteThink of your GMC blog as a journal.
Brian, I understand. I don't go to my page often. My family are mostly not very forthcoming on Facebook, mostly joking around, which is, after all, not a bad thing. My grandsons won't even friend me. My sweet granddaughter let me be her friend, but, I think that she communicates with her friends by messaging.
I like blogging. I get to hold forth in a way that I don't always get to do at work or in conversation.
ReplyDeleteI'm also not terribly interested in sharing my bedtime with the world, or reading about other people's lunches.
At last count, I had 140 friends on FB. I can't possibly keep up with that many people. FB is more guilt-inducing than anything else, because of all the folks I don't keep up with.
ReplyDeleteAt one time the top tier political bloggers answered my emails promptly. Now I wouldn't even write to them, unless I had a huge scoop, and that's not very likely.
Counterlight, I want to hear about your lunch.
Many people (including myself) now have circles of 'friends' far too large to manage, thanks to Facebook and other social networking sites. Seth Godin's reflections here are relevant, I think.
ReplyDeleteI only use FaceBook to keep up with family and friends. I come here for keeping up with thought, good writing and pictures!
ReplyDeleteGrandmere--you make me glad I've never wandered anywhere NEAR Facebook.
ReplyDeleteWhich, yes, makes me an old crank before my time, as well as a Luddite.
Then again, I barely get comments on my blog, and I barely keep up with that. FB would be one more unmet obligation in a life that's starting to feel full of those.
Ah, well....
Tim, the piece is relevant, but 150 friends is too many for me. The point is that we have limits, which is quite true.
ReplyDeleteCiss, thanks. And a few laughs, too, I hope.
Rmj, you're on the right track. Facebook is not for you.
Today, I had received only one comment all day, but look what happened when I posted the link to this post on Facebook. I have comments! Strange.
Mimi,
ReplyDelete"But we hall always have blogging".
I think the problem is that while we comment on blog posts and fb posts, these spirited conversations between groups of people don't develop any longer. It's very rare that commenters refer to anything another commenter has said, and so there's rarely a spark to create the kind of long chatty and deep comments that used to be there.
ReplyDeleteI miss them!
Fred, will we?
ReplyDeleteErika, you're right. I miss the lively conversations, too.
I've been following blogs for about 3 years now, and I've had my own for a little over a year.
ReplyDeleteIndeed, I've seen some lively conversations in comments sections, and I agree that they've not been as frequent lately, though I don't think they are gone entirely. I still see some spirited back and forth over on Thinking Anglicans. Fr. Jake's current reincarnation is a lot more sedate than his original blog, but there is still a lot of conversation in the comment threads.
Fr. Harris' Preludium still has some intense arguments in the comments sections with some very strong opinions strongly expressed. I can only imagine the comments that don't make it past his comment moderation.
The political blogs are just too big. I love reading Duncan Black's short pithy postings on Eschaton, but the comment threads are regularly in the multiple hundreds.
I think with Episcopal/ Anglican blogs this relative quiet is a consequence of the schism. The split has already happened and everyone is moving on.
I also think this is a consequence of growing comment moderation. I have mixed feelings about this. So many of those long comment threads on Fr. Jake's old blog and on Madpriest were troll-a-thons. Some lonely pathetnoid would drop a big smelly turd into the punchbowl, abusing the guests and the host, and turn the whole thread into his own party all about him (it's usually men in my experience). A lot of bloggers, including me, moderate comments to keep this from happening. The problem with moderating comments is that it sometimes has a chilling effect on conversation (though it doesn't seem to have chilled anything on Thinking Anglicans or Preludium).
I think, far from an end, we are still at a beginning, trying to figure things out in a new public forum created by technology that has no historical precedents.
Counterlight, I didn't like the conversations that revolved around trolls at all. I think that there's not much choice but to use moderation when the pesky trolls persist. Perhaps it's just that blogging is changing direction, and we'll have to wait to see in which direction they'll go.
ReplyDeleteI've been reading blogs for about 10 years, and it was the political bloggers like Duncan Black, Juan Cole, and Josh Marshall, mostly going it alone at the time, who alerted me that the Bush administration was not telling the truth in the run-up to the Iraq war. Most folks around here thought I was crazy when I told them that we were being deceived, but now they know that the bloggers (and I) were right. But now their websites are too big (except for Juan Cole) and too busy, meaning too much there to take in.
I wonder, too, what Mark Harris doesn't moderate through to his comments.
Counterlight
ReplyDeleteI agree about the spirited comments on sites like Thinking Anglicans. But unlike some other blogs they remain largely focused on the factual.
I have made a number of friends on TA who have all contacted me privately and are now email friends or FB friends, but TA itself does not have that lovely mix of the personal, the funny and the serious.
Trolls, yes, they have a lot to answer for. As does our combined inability to simply ignore them.
I have a whopping 26 "friends" on FB, and half of them are family. None of them blog, and if I didn't have FB contact I would not know that: my friend KA has a tumor behind her heart; RB has a new job which allows him to be home with his family six nights a week; K & E enjoyed seeing trick-or-treaters in their new home in the 'burbs; etc., etc. The occasional "I'm going to bed now" posts don't bother me. The sense of connectedness to my far-flung friends and family has been a significant factor in my slow recovery from depression.
ReplyDeleteBlog reading keeps me informed on goings on in TEC, the Anglican Communion, and the world at large. It has introduced me to a wonderfully diverse set of passionate, articulate, rowdy, funny, prayerful and holy people. The preaching at my little parish is folksy and brief, so the sermons posted by it's margaret, MP, Elizabeth and others fill a void.
I gain so much from both venues and value them for different reasons.
Counterlight said: I think with Episcopal/ Anglican blogs this relative quiet is a consequence of the schism. The split has already happened and everyone is moving on.
ReplyDeleteI think it's also because some of us feel that everything that could possibly be said on the issues in question has already been said, thousands of times. These days when I see a statement that I don't agree with, I'm inclined to leave it, because I know exactly what the arguments and counter-arguments are going to be, and really, life's too short to be going round the same roundabout over and over again. I'd rather focus on the things we have in common.
What's Facebook?
ReplyDeleteJust a late note to let you know I have not perished forever in FB land. The fact that I have only 14 friends there is reflective of my decision to keep my "page" as sequestered as possible. (Or, am I just deluded and have so few friends? Undoubtedly a combo of those.)
ReplyDeleteI've picked up my genealogy project in the last month after a virtual hiatus of some 5-6 years. My ability to revel in getting lost in that musty frontier is likely a major reflection of my avoidance of social networking, and to some extent, blogging in the present. I seem to more often these days prefer the existential catharsis I find in the navigating controversies of the past than arguing with trolls in the oh-so difficult present.
Thanks,Mimi,for keeping the trolls away.
For some reason it seems easier to comment on FB than on a blog. I like both. I am able to keep up with my many "worlds" on FB which I could never do otherwise - high school (none of them seem to have blogs), college, church, choral, organ and others. I have a couple dozen blogs I try to keep up with and many more bookmarked to read when I can. Even tho some interesting discussions occur on FB, they are few and far between. For many of us FB is relatively new. I suspect it will eventually settle into its own communications niche and people will return to blogs for thoughtful posts and discussions.
ReplyDeleteI have a generally mindless blog which gets few commenters - I appreciate the few who do regularly. It gives me a way to keep in touch with a few folks, including family, who care about cats and what is happening in my life. I intend to keep it up and to keep reading Wounded Bird.
Alison, I should have limited "friending" at FB a bit more, but then I thought there would be hurt feelings if I didn't confirm folks as friends. In the end, what good does it do to have 140 friends, if I can't keep up with them?
ReplyDeleteTim, I agree. At some point, I think, "What's the use of making that argument again?"
Crapaud, my brother-in-law is deep into genealogy, too. He's found some fascinating stuff about my family history. He says that it's possible to get completely lost in the family tree forest, so have a care.
Piskie, if a person takes the trouble to leave a word here, I like to respond, thus I don't have as much time to visit around as I once had before I started my own blog.
ReplyDeleteSome days, my blog is pretty mindless, and other days blogging is a bitch mistress - too much to write about and too little time.
What's Facebook?
ReplyDeleteOrmonde, you have grandchildren. I'm sure they've dropped the the name.
Blogging is dying? Really?
ReplyDeleteHmmm . . . cudda fooled me.
Elizabeth, I kinda sorta amended dying to changing. I don't know what's going on, but blogging is different from three years ago. Then again, what isn't different from three years ago?
ReplyDeleteit's true, what you say. I hate facebook, but sadly, I'm on it.
ReplyDeleteSigh...
ReplyDelete