On comment threads and forums

I really am not a great writer of comments. I also have reservations about this as a text type or genre, though I see the value too.

On my own WordPress blogs at the moment the stats on comment threads are:

1. This blog: 960 comments. (Should there be a prize for whoever writes #1,000? ) That’s on 1,105 posts and 19 pages.
2. Floating Life Apr 06 – Nov 07: 1,659 on 1,101 posts and 11 pages.
3. Ninglun’s Specials: 51 comments on 78 posts and 33 pages.
4. English/ESL: 204 comments on 186 posts and 28 pages.
5. The Gateway: 9 comments on 52 posts and 5 pages.

My longest comment thread ever went for some 80+ exchanges, and yes, it did involve Louisiana Kevin!

Some comments are really useful, correcting what I have said, or offering valuable points of view. Some become really good conversations. Some spin off into posts and counterposts on other blogs; that can be a big plus all round. Jim Belshaw and I have quite often done this, the latest example being just yesterday!

Leaving aside spam comments, troll comments, or just plain silly comments, I still have some reservations about the whole process.

Partly it is that comments are often so quickly written. It can be very hard to get the tone right, or to say exactly what one wished to say, especially perhaps if one is in the grip of some strong feeling about what one has just read. Many a time I have wanted to recall a comment. Has that happened to you? This may or may not be to retract it; it is more often a wish I could revise it. Comments, after all, tend to be written on the run, and have all the hallmarks of first draft writing. Most good writers will tell you nobody, but nobody, ever sees their first drafts!

Another reservation I have is the tendency for comments to refer to the last sentence or two of the previous comment in the thread, quite often ignoring the rest of that comment, and even more often ignoring the rest of the thread and the original post. The likelihood of decreasing relevance is obvious. I have been known to stamp on irrelevance, as some of you may have experienced.

At best, comments are neither point scoring nor cheerleading. At best, as I said, they are good conversation.

I was rather touched on a forum recently where a Muslim made what may be described as a somewhat Muslim contribution; I responded. No-one else had answered him, it appears.* He messaged me:

thanks for your reply I would have felt like an alien if no one replied to my post

I was really pleased by that…

Do you have any thoughts on commenting?

Well, go for it…

According to my usual comment policy on this blog, you have about two weeks…

I have added a poll over the fold. You can vote for more than one answer!

* UPDATE

Just checked that thread; he has had a few more replies. That forum member had earlier had a more overtly Muslim contribution knocked off the forum for breaching some of its rules, but not before I wrote what I think was a good reply, certainly carefully written, challenging some of what he said in a polite and, I hope, respectful manner. Of course that reply disappeared with the rest of the thread, but I am sure the person involved did read it and clearly was not offended.