I agree that every comment has value...even the little ones where people stop by to say “hi” or “I just love you”.  I think for me, because I am so very personal with my stuff, it just touches me to know that people are there listening. 

I never really get flamey negative comments but I do get comments where people disagree with me almost all of the time.  It’s a good learning experience for me to deal with those in not such a negative manner and also to think about the other side of things.

Sometimes I publish posts knowing that they won’t get many comments because either there isn’t much you can say to the topic, or it really is of interest to me and me alone (like my post last night come to think of it).  Cooment count doesn’t matter then because I’m blogging for me and my own personal record at that point.

However when I’m trying to elicit a conversation on something a low comment count always disappoints me.

I have a close friend who blogs with closed comments.  I don’t think we would have become close friends if he’d done that when we first met however.  Closed comments is a barrier.  In my view it’s still a blog, but not a very warm one.  It all depends on how you define blog I suppose.

I’d also rather have three comments from people who I feel are friends (albeit net friends) than 50 from people who are commenting solely so you comment on theirs in return. 

It’s a funny old thing this blogging business.

I think it depends on the history.  A blog with 50 comments a day that suddenly gets zero - that might mean something.  A blog with 1-3 comments a day that suddenly gets 50 - that means something.  But otherwise, I don’t think there’s any real indicator of quality at all through comment count.

And I think negative and positive comments have their value.  I wish I had more negative commenters!  It helps keep you sharp.

I don’t expect comments on anything else that I write. But I do appreciate the interaction.

A blog is still a blog without comments.

And sometimes a “blog” with comments doesn’t feel like a blog to me…

I agree with Avitable on a sudden change in comments, both good and bad, means something.

You can’t expect to get a comment on every post. Sometimes people just don’t have anything to say or add ya know? If you only blog for comments, maybe you need to rethink the blogging thing.

I can understand the need for comments on a photoblog though. If you don’t know something is off or wrong with a picture, you can’t get better. If someone doesn’t point out the bad lighting and you don’t notice it, how can you better your photography?

Let’s pretend I represent any portion of the population than just my quirky self: I tend to only comment on Dawg’s photo blog with any sort of consistency because most of his photos are personal to me as well as him. I don’t tend to comment on others’ ecause my comment is always “beautiful” and that gets old eventually. I just figure if you have a photoblog it’s your art and you’re presenting it as is to the world. Who am I to change your artistic vision?

Comment count shouldn’t matter, except in cases like Avitable said. Blogs where I can’t comment ever, though, make me nuts.

Comments are nice but not necessary--I post what I want to post.

Or I used to.

I’ve had a person known to me harassing me through comments on my posts.  It’s not a blogger.  I moderate comments because it’s my blog and I love discourse but I won’t allow attacks on me, Brad or my friends. 

There’s been a quiet period so I hope to be able to get back to actual blogging. I refuse to shut it down and I’m sick to death of feeling censored.

Anyway thanks for letting me do this off topic comment

I started blogging because I was commenting on other blogs and I felt that turnabout was fair play. 

I dig comments and I hate blogs that don’t allow you to comment.  For me, it’s all about the interaction.

The comment count doesn’t matter though.  The only time I really notice it is when I bring up my post editor and it lists out all of my posts along with the number of comments each one received.  This one will have 35, that one will have 8.  No biggie.  None at all.

I love feedback on my writing and it bothers me when a post I’m particularly proud of gets few comments. But I’m learning that sometimes it’s the subject matter that really strikes a chord in people and makes them comment, while at other times they enjoy the writing and feel they have nothing to add.

The problem is that I like blogging because of the interaction. And as for the photoblogging, I would love constructive comments about what people like and don’t like because that’s how you learn. But I believe that most of use feel the way Poppy does about it—how many times can you say, “Great shot”?

I think another thing to take into consideration is what happens when you meet the people with whom you blog.  There are people that come up to me and actually know my whole life story and talk to me about things that have happened on my blog and yet they’ve never commented.  We tend to forget that people are reading even if they don’t know what to say.

Example:  Ever since I have become all down in the dumps about my divorce stuff, my comments have suffered greatly.  I don’t take it personally.  I mean, people have no clue what to say, I’m sure.

I think a lot of the points I wanted to make have already been said by others.  I *do* very much appreciate, if not CRAVE, comments from people who disagree with me.  Though I am so, so, so appreciative of the “You are so awesome” comments, the ones that call me out are the ones that push me to be better… to carefully analyze why I think the way I do, and perhaps even cause me to change my outlook.  As far as I’m concerned, the opportunity to either solidify what I believe or to reevaluate it in a new context is *my* reason for blogging… if not existing, in general.
Finally, I really don’t like blogs that don’t let you comment.  Because I, in case you haven’t noticed, have a lot to say about everything. 

It always amazes me which posts get comments and which ones don’t.  For the most part I don’t get a lot of comments, even though I know I have more readers than commenters.  While I like the comments, both good and bad, they’re not the driving force behind what I write.  Sometimes I write something that’s been on my mind for a long time and I think it’s a great discussion topic and get nothing.  Then I write drivel and people respond.  I have to admit I like it when people stop by, it makes me all happy inside, but I will write what I want whether they come or not.  Good topic!

no
no
yes
yes
hi

There have been posts that were so wrenching to write that drew very few comments and I felt like shit that no one cared.  Then I realized when I backed out of commenting on other people’s wrenching posts that there are times when you just don’t have the words.  Sometimes silence is better than trite phrases.

No it doesn’t matter (or it shouldn’t)
Tone?  Depends on the topic, but most of the time I’d rather people just said what they were thinking.
It’s still a post, but I like the blogs that allow comments.
yes

I don’t agree that a swing in comments or up or down from the average necessarily says anything about the quality of a post.

Some of my most commented on posts have been about my hair and how to properly load a dishwasher.

Those posts don’t get more comments because they are written better or more interesting or more “important” or better in any way.

They get more comments because it is easy for people to feel like they can contribute.  It takes very little thought and there’s no risk in being wrong.

Personally, I think a better measure of a blog’s “quality” is subscriber count.  That tells me who is interested in hearing what I have to say next.