Wednesday, November 14, 2007

Not All Blogs Are Created Equal

A chance meeting in town this morning with a sometime reader of this Blog got me to thinking ... always dangerous, I know.
Anyway, this nice lady and her equally nice friend popped into one of the 2 LYSs - actually they probably visited both but that's between them and their credit cards - and from something I was saying to the owner who is another goaty loving /owning person, asked me if I had a Blog and, basically, was I me... which from a casual comment about goats is pretty good extrapolation in my book.
Anyway she happened to mention that she'd left me a comment at some point and I hadn't replied, which she had thought was odd /a bit rude.
So here's where the thinking came in. This casual encounter made me realise that not everyone knows that there are vast, vast differences depending on who is hosting your little corner of the Blogiverse. The majority of 'beginner' blogs are with Blogger/ Blogspot because it's easy to start and to use and free ...BUT Blogger doesn't give us access to your email addy when you leave a comment. If you have a Blog yourself and IT has your email address featured prominently, then yes, I can reply to you direct ... but ... see where I'm heading with this? ... otherwise I can only reply via my own Blog and/or its Comments, which I had in this case. Still I was moderately perturbed that this nice woman's feelings had been slighted.

I love it when people take the time to email me back about my comments. I can't do that. Sorry.

Have you noticed the link to Soozii's Blog over on the sidebar? She is having a competition to encourage people to decorate their blogs for Christmas. If you don't have a blog to decorate, you can still visit Sooziii and follow the links to those of us who are. Obviously this is still in its infant stages. Expect more Christmas decorating once we actually hit December.




8 comments:

crazyhaberdasher said...

It is for that reason that I have a little note under my "Leave your comment" (you know, the square where you type in) to say thankyou for visiting. Another blogger had a poll on whether we thought that all comments should be answered...some require answering, some don't. I am not offended if I don't get a reply, my comments (though sometimes a bit lame!) don't always need one.
So many of us visit so many blogs that it is somewhat difficult to keep track.
You could perhaps make mention to them in your blog's post.
I am sure that many of us don't expect a reply.
You can also tick the box to have follow-ups where they (the blogger) has allowed it.

crazyhaberdasher said...

Your blog looks lovely by the way! Where is the "blogs you read" list?
I click on Nadie's blog from your list but I can't now :( !

picperfic said...

I don't reply to all comments and would be mortified if I was thought of as rude...neither would I expect people to reply to me if they didn't feel like it, I don't mind, whatever bloggers want to do is fine by me...I still love 'em! Anyway, I addressed this very issue on my blog a while back and I put a tutorial with pictures in this post to help my commenter’s get a reply (if necessary!)http://picperfics.blogspot.com/2007/09/tutorial.html

Nadie said...

She had to go over to the new version of blogger to do all her Christmas tinkering and it lost her blogs list. I tried to set up a new one for her to add to but its not showing at my end. Perhaps it can only cope with so many link lists in which case might have to combine blogs with general links

Anonymous said...

tough question the whole "replying to comments" thing. I guess eventually everyone will sort out what they're comfortable with and what the "done thing" is - but not having expectations about replies seems pretty crucial to the whole blogosphere in my book!

Rose Red said...

I love your Christmas decorations so far!!

I'd love to be able to reply to comments ocassionally, via email, but like you, blogger doesn't facilitate that (except in some cases, it's very odd really). But I don't take offence if people don't reply to my comments - I figure it takes enough time to blog and read other blogs and comment, let alone actually do the crafting/other things that drives the posts on the blog. If you add in an expectation that people will reply to all comments, it makes it very hard! Which is not to say replies aren't welcomed, they are just not expected!

Sheepish Annie said...

I don't think that all comments require a response. I got into blogging to meet new people, sure. But, I don't reply to each and every comment...that would be like going to visit everyone who says hello to me during the course of the day!

I also don't expect a reply to all the comments I make on others' sites. Sometimes I just like the hat they knit. I don't want to get married or anything. I just like the hat...

Anonymous said...

Love the new Xmas banner Susan - and please don't feel that you have to reply to any of the comments I leave here! ;)