As a blogger, it can be frustrating when no one leaves comments on your posts. My stats indicate that people are reading, but is anyone really engaged with what I’m saying? To be fair, I don’t leave as many comments on other blogs as I probably should, but comments sure make a blogger feel appreciated.
So I was very happy to see that I’ve generated a bit of a discussion on my post about dressing professionally on the Re:Generations blog. It’s especially encouraging that the comments aren’t all from people I know personally (though many of them are).
In conclusion: go leave comments for your favourite bloggers today!
GrahamLavender.com 
I think the declining number of my own blog comments stems from me using a feed reader (in early blog times, I used to visit each site regularly). Commenting means another click, and sometimes this is just too much effort ;-)
I understand what you mean. One of the reasons I started my blog was to bounce my ideas regarding librarianship off other people in the biblioblogosphere in order to create a dialogue. I was certain that a blog would provide a larger platform for discussion than just my circle of library school friends. Sometimes, I find it helps to ask specific questions in my posts to entice people to share their opinions. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t.
Web 2.0 provides the tools for interactiveness but it doesn’t twist anyone’s arm to get too involved. It’s a personal choice so I’m happy when people do make the effort to post a reply.
I definitely agree about using a feed reader. It also makes me feel like I’m in my own little box, instead of going to someone else’s blog, which feels like being on their territory where I ought to at least say hi.
And Amanda, I think one of the strengths of Web 2.0 is definitely the fact that no one is pressured into participating. It would be much worse if everyone who read my blog was required to leave comments, because then I’m sure I’d lose most of my readers!
I feel like a lot of people are either reading blogs more slowly [check me out coming in here a week late!] or reading them via facebook or whatever and not really coming on to the open web again. I try hard to leave as many comments as I receive, as a loose metric, but I do feel that they sometimes dangle out there, that I don’t go back to check on them.
Oddly, I was thinking about you this weekend since the waiter at the restaurant I was at told my boyfriend he looked like a “Greg Lavender” [I think?] who lived in Portland OR. A relative?
Will do, Graham. I only recently discovered this log, and I’m eagerly looking forward to further updates.
Your blog was mentioned in a book! How’s that?
Here’s the quote:
“The drumbeat urging librarians to blog came in the form of cheerful encouragement (“having a blog shows you have a constructive online presence… A blog is also a good to thing to list on your business cars… It feels great to be part of the community… sharing ideas and promoting the field” – advice from the Inspired Library School Student).” – page 52-53 (Chapter 4: The Blog People.
The book:
Marilyn Johnson, This Book is Overdue: How Librarians and Cybrarians Can Save Us All. (2010)
Very cool! I’ve heard good things about that book, but I haven’t had a chance to check it out yet. Thanks for letting me know.