The Challenge of Comments

image gleefully borrowed from Lee Wind

Over in the Kidlitosphere, my friends Lee Wind and Mother Reader are the driving forces behind another Comment Challenge, now underway. The short version of the challenge: leave five comments a day for 21 days to create a habit. I'm participating again, as I've done in past years, as are over 130 other bloggers.

Personally, I love getting comments on my blogs. I like the conversation, having my ideas challenged or expanded, and, yes, even the acknowledgement that someone is listening. Still, not all comments are "equal" so to speak, nor does all content really encourage comments (nor does all content encourage the same kind of comment).

In thinking about it, here are a few thoughts I've come up with. As always, I'd love to hear yours in... ta da... the comments!

Creating Comment-Worthy Content

In reading blogs during the challenge, I sometimes find myself unable to really come up with something to say in response to a post. Often, though, I'm almost compelled to chime in. What makes me join in? Here are a few recurring themes:

Confronting an Issue

When a blogger writes about an issue, if that issue resonates with me, I'm very likely to join in the comments. This can be a controversial issue or not, though it's often true that controversy provokes commenting.

Sharing Personal/Professional News

If someone shares news like "I sold my book!", I almost always  join in the celebration. When folks share personal news about life matters, quite often I'll jump in, too. I would note that at a certain point, if there's too much news (particularly publishing process news), I stop commenting, even though I'm still interested.

Sharing Personal/Professional Stories

Different than news, stories about our lives and work can be very interesting - emotional, instructional, funny, etc. - and often are my favorite posts of all.

Inviting Comments

Sometimes it truly is the prompt at the end of/somewhere in a piece that gets me to take action. Certainly, one reason my post The Fib went viral was because I asked people to participate in something (on my blog and elsewhere).  Mind you, this doesn't always work - the content also has to give a reason for people to say something - but it can help grease the wheels.

Posting Original Work

When I see a poem or a piece of art that makes me smile or gasp or react, I am more likely to leave a response than if I see someone talking about their day.

There are other categories of posts that get reactions, too - posts that teach me something, posts that make me laugh, or, in general, cause a strong reaction in me.

Creating Comments Worth Their Virtual Ink

Okay, fine - there's no "worthiness" involved, but it was a nice tie-in with the prior headline. Still, it is true that different comments create different reactions, too. I think comments fall into categories. Here are a few:

Adding Value

This covers a range, but can include everything from sharing an on-topic resource ("great post on book trailers! here's some more information about editing software....") to making connections (either people or ideas) to making folks laugh, even. (I suspect that all other categories of comments fall squarely under this one, at least for me.)

Responding to an Idea/Question

When there's a question in a post, a comment that answers it is fabulous. Building off an idea, or questioning it, can be great, too.

Continuing a Conversation

Sometimes the comment thread is full of reactions, and they build upon each other. Participating in this broader conversation is among my favorite things to do, and I also love it when it happens on my own blog. This is potentially just a variant of "adding value" since a good comment will continue a convo, and that's valuable, but I decided to break it out on its own.

The Acknowledgement

Sometimes, you simply want to say "I read this. I liked it. Thanks!" This happens a lot when I read poems: I simply want the author to know that I liked it. This is one time when a "Yes!" or "Great!" comment feels natural to me, whereas in other situations, I feel like that hasn't been the best I could offer.

Asking Followups

Here at the Happy Accident, folks are constantly asking questions in the comments - clarifications, related issues, and beyond.  This is another way of keeping the conversation going, in a sense, but it's often starting whole new convos.

Again, there are other categories of comments, too, including, I'm sure, some I haven't thought of.

A final thought on comments from me is that I find the community of a blog helps, too. This breaks down to two areas for me: a host who participates in the comments, as appropriate (I am my own blogs' number one commenter, by the way), and a place where commenting is part of what the readership does. It can be hard to leave a first comment, but most active communities have that brave soul or, usually, a lot of them.

What have I missed? This is another reason I love comments: someone's likely to tell me. Perhaps it will be you.