Comments

[mirrorshard]

This is a public service announcement, inspired by a discussion with nou about why some posts and indeed some posters garnered more attention than others.

I like comments, including ones that go off on a rambling tangent and start conversations with each other. Comments on the subject matter of the post are especially welcomed, but as far as I know they're still not rationing space here.

If nobody comments, I have no idea whether anyone read it or not. If I have evidence that people read it and enjoyed it, I will most likely post more of it. If I'm feeling nice, I'll even do requests. Alternatively, if you dislike my rambling and wish I'd just delete the journal entirely, please say so and I shall take the appropriate steps¹.

---

1. Please don't forget to leave your full address and postcode when you do.

Comments

[malvino.livejournal.com]

I read my friends page, but often don't comment unless I actually have something to add, or ask, or can think of something encouraging/useful/funny/intelligent to say.

[unsomnambulist.livejournal.com]

I read my entire friends page on a regular basis and go in and out of comment phases. I always find your posts interesting though.

[mirrorshard.livejournal.com]

Hm, that's a point. I wonder how many people (or out of the ones without hugely spammy friends lists) do read all of what goes through it, or at least see it. I do, more or less as a point of principle. This may change if & when I make many more friends.

[unsomnambulist.livejournal.com]

I think Malvino actually got me started on this... ;)

Basically, if the journals on my friends page aren't interesting enough to read on a somewhat frequent basis what's the point of keeping them?

[tiquetoque.livejournal.com]

Is that why you de-friended me? :(

[unsomnambulist.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry. :(

After I left the Disc there were a large amount of people I felt I really only knew Discwise.

[kake]

I keep people on my friends list, but not on my default view, because I mostly post friends-only and I want them to be able to read my posts. I know I'm not on everyone's default view who has me on their friends list, and I'm fine with that. You sort of have to use some kind of filtering when you have over 200 livejournal friends and still want to have some kind of life away from the computer!

[kake]

Oh, yes - and I'm also fine with having people on my friends list who don't have me on theirs.

[owlfish]

With the exception of the odd period when I'm travelling too much, I generally manage to read everything on my friendslist. Because it's a fairly substantial thing these days, it means that even on days when I also have time to comment in addition to reading, even if I leave a fair number of comments, they're fairly scattered. Another related bad habit of mine is to leave tabs open with posts I'd like to respond to, but am not sure what to say exactly... days can go by that way, and then I need to reboot and close tabs in a hurry and even when I note the URLs, I often forget to go back and actually act on those good intentions.

[kake]

"Another related bad habit of mine is to leave tabs open with posts I'd like to respond to, but am not sure what to say exactly... days can go by that way, and then I need to reboot and close tabs in a hurry and even when I note the URLs, I often forget to go back and actually act on those good intentions."

I do this too :( Not sure if there's a solution that will work for me. If there is, it probably involves a bookmarklet of some kind. I shall have a think.

[sleetersoulfire.livejournal.com]

I like reading the stuff that you write. Most of the time though I lack the inspiration to actually comment.

[vashti.livejournal.com]

I hate commenting, because usually when I do people talk to me like I'm a piece of dirt. Therefore I try to avoid it as best I can. And, in fact, all forms of social congress whatever.

*is in a weird mood this morning*

[mirrorshard.livejournal.com]

I can sympathise with that. And with the weird impulse that happens every so often, which I'm sure you get too, to jump up and say something anyway.

[vashti.livejournal.com]

Yes, it is upsetting. :/ But I'm getting very good at keeping quiet and not saying them.

[hellison.livejournal.com]

to both of you -
I've found, that on the rare occasions you DO comment, it's usually insightful and thought provocking.

You have both introduced me patterns of thinking and new ways of looking at the world that I wouldn't otherwise have encountered.

Your input has been eye/mind-opening and valuable, and I would miss it if it stopped.

[vashti.livejournal.com]

Wow. Thank you. :)

[kake]

Dammit! hellison already said what I was thinking! I was going to make my comment last night and then I would have BEATEN HER TO IT, but I was too tired to put words together. So, yes, I like it when you comment, too (and if you have the time or energy at any point to reply to the latest one I left in your journal, then that would be lovely, though I will understand if you're just utterly fed up of the issue and don't want to discuss it any more). You are sensible and clever and wise and interesting, and I like people like that.

Regarding the issue of being treated like dirt, though I think it's unlikely that I'm one of the people you were talking about there, I wanted to say this in case it helps. You have become one of the (actually reasonably-sized, but not infinite) group of people who I will strive to make things right with if I ever unintentionally upset you. As long as you find a way to let me know that you're upset, that is.

[hellison.livejournal.com]

See, sitting up all night drinking DOES have it's advantages. Tho what i was doing at the pc at 4.45 in the morning I'm not entirely sure ;p

[hellison.livejournal.com]

I do enjoy reading your entries. I don't always comment back because I am a.lazy

and
b. sometimes they're not about things i feel qualified to comment on eg depression or classical music or food or stuff or ok. mostly, lazy.

But, having gone from only knowing you by name on the mud, to meeting in person, to reading your journal I feel I've gotten to know you more/better this way and I think I'd miss out if you stopped posting.

[mirrorshard.livejournal.com]

Aw, you write lovely comments when you're drunk late at night :) (Not that they aren't interesting and indeed lovely at other times, but most of us are familiar with the drunken-hellison phenomenon In the incredibly, earth-shakingly, absurdly unlikely event you were considering stopping, please don't.)

[hellison.livejournal.com]

Damn that evil alcohol, it brings out the NICE! And i keep it so well hidden the rest of the time ;p

[dreammonkey.livejournal.com]

I am a comments hoor :)

[hairyears.livejournal.com]

I comment when I have something useful to say.

And, being somewhat unoriginal, I find that other peoples' ideas are far more likely to draw my interest and set off a train of thought that can be captured in an interesting and entertaining reply. Much of the best writing that I do - and some of the oddest - is in the comments on other journals.

It follows that my own journal is somewhat repetitive and banal, attracting very few comments in its own right, except for those occasions when I recognise that I'm on someone else's journal writing a comment that is, effectively, hijacking their space; in those cases I credit the original idea and put up the comment as a post in my own LJ.

Said hairyears, who wandered in from pfy's journal.

[mirrorshard.livejournal.com]

Hello!

I know what you mean about hijacking space and deciding to kidnap the idea for further thought instead - I quite often do that to newspaper pieces and the like, too. Things rarely come ex nihilo.

[kake]

"[...] in those cases I credit the original idea and put up the comment as a post in my own LJ."

Do you leave a comment on the original post so people know to come over and look?

(And why have I not added you to my friends list yet? Now fixed.)

[hairyears.livejournal.com]

Do you leave a comment on the original post?

When that happens, yes - Although I only started doing so consistently in March 2005 - It's not just courtesy to do so, what with it being their ideas sparking it all off; there's also the likelihood that, if they blog about it, they want to know what other people think about it. Whatever 'it' may be. The point is that they probably don't want their journal hijacked!

[scootersaurus.livejournal.com]

I do my best to read all my friends' posts. If I comment, it's because I have something meaningful to say, or I can think up something that is both funny and appropriate. This doesn't always happen, but the posts are read none the less.

[keira-online.livejournal.com]

I always read posts. Whether I reply generally depends, is it actually a subject I know anything about/is there anything I can offer/have to say etc.
I guess, like Ridcully, I always try to spend a few moments considering the person who wrote the post and wondering how they are.
But maybe thats just me.

I do go thro patches of not replying at all, but thats more to do with my own persoanl life than anything else.

[ceirseach.livejournal.com]

Ridcully does lj and sits and considers the people writing?

I must have missed that footnote. :(