Speak Stiltedly and Wear a Yellow Shirt

I’ve been inspired by some comments on comments in
Naomi Chana’s blog to restore
comments to the blog. I’m not retracting my previous anti-comment statements
(Just
Say No to Blogback and
All
Jemima, All the Time).

I rarely take the time to read through comments in other people’s blogs,
mainly because
of the click-tax annoyance factor and the general diminishing rate of return.
With Moveable Type I don’t have to bother with clicking around my own blog -
it will automatically email me copies of all comments, which is lovely when
they’re nice comments, and highly annoying when they’re flames.
There are certainly enough fora available for flaming me without coming to
my blog to do it.

I don’t have much faith in blogging as a social activity, just as I
don’t have much faith in fandom as a social activity. I’d rather just read the fic
than go around in circles on mailing lists discussing ephemera, and I’d
rather see a single, pithy blog entry than bits and pieces of an argument
spread through the comments. Don’t even get me started on dual-blogging -
why make your readers click back and forth between your blog, your
livejournal, your blogbacks, your livejournal comments, and your secret
diaryland account? Is this the web or your personal production of Dante’s
Inferno?

But other people seem to like it in dribs and drabs. Asking people to
send email is about as effective as asking them to send feedback, so I was
rather surprised to get the email mentioned a few entries back. That someone
actually did make the effort to email has, paradoxically, made me want to
lower the bar on responses. Far be it from me to go against the blogging tide.

To rephrase my disclaimer, this doesn’t mean that I suddenly care about
my status in fandom or the number of people commenting here or linking me or
any such thing. I have not come into the ESFJ fold; I’m just providing a
usual and customary service.

Condescending and illogical comments may be deleted without warning.
Don’t make me say I told you so.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 19th, 2002 at 5:22 pm and is filed under Jemima. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.