I have not done enough to provoke you. I am just too middle-of-the-road-nice and likable. I have not done enough to get you angry so that you leap out of your seat and feel compelled to act.
How do I know? What is my measure? It is because I do not hear from you. You are not engaged, you are not commenting. This blog is over 6 years old. At first I thought "oh, it is because librarians are shy about being online." But I see plenty of librarians on Facebook and on Twitter and on listservs talking up a storm. But on the blogs you fall silent.
Many ideas pass through this blog, and you think "ah yes, something new to learn." But, what do you really learn? Do you take any of this and use it?
I have not done my job. I have not gone far enough. I have not provoked you. How can I change this?
Photo: Free Children of The Revolution Punk Girl With Fun Mohawk by Pink Sherbet Photography, original photography by D Sharon Pruitt, made available under Creative Commons license. Some rights reserved.
15 comments:
As in all things I think it depends on each blog. I see more and more blogs inter-connected with Twitter. Someone may post a new blog entry and it results in a volley of discussion on Twitter, retweets, etc., but not necessarily many comments. So people are still discussing the blog topic, but comments on the blog post are down because the discussion has bounced to another medium. Again, not always, but I do see it.
Hi Connie,
I love following you on twitter and reading your blog! Through you I've found a number of people to follow on Twitter. I'm not a librarian, just an information enthusiast. Keep the content coming!
My blogging has certainly dropped off since the advent of Twitter. It's just much more immediate and you know easier. I still think there is a lot of value in blogging, look at those presentations of yours I found recently.
Connie,
On the one hand, I see your point, and in like manner I wonder whether anyone reads my own less frequent blogging. On the other hand, if you were to become, say, the Glenn Beck of librarian blogging, you would generate plenty of heat, but very, very little light.
I think most blogs don't get many comments, and to some extent I blog (when I do) to get down and refine my thoughts with any comments being a bonus.
Maybe find a way of integrating Twitter, FriendFeed, etc. with the blog, so people can comment from any of those?
Connie,
Part of the problem is that there are so many great librarian blogs! I had to weed my GReader as I subscribed to too many to read. But keep up the great posts that pose lots of interesting questions and discussion will follow. Twitter is great, but can never replace the depth and threaded conversations that can occur on blogs.
Thank you for the thoughtful comments!
I think this post came from angst of hearing from lots of people that they are reading along and finding what I have to say informative, but that they don't have the time to apply any of it. It makes me wonder if perhaps I'm talking into the ether.
wnylibrarian - yes indeed, it will depend on the blog. I often tweet my blog posts, so they do get out there. And rarely any discussion. I'm finding more success with my posts on Slaw.ca which has a broader readership. The culture there seems to be more about the comments, but it has taken time.
Lisa--thank you for the kind words!
James--yes, I've been learning a lot lately and explaining my thoughts on Twitter just hasn't been adequate. I'm vowed to try blogging more, here and elsewhere.
Ken--Wise, you are.
Steven--thanks kindly. I agree, my main reason for blogging is not to get comments, or I would have given up long ago! But I still kind of wonder. I'm not sure how to get tweets and Friendfeed comments fed back here, but usually I feed them out to those places. I just noticed Friendfeed isn't picking up my blog feeds at the moment, though, so need to correct that!
Dana--I am honoured you have found time to stop by! :)
There was a bit of discussion on Friendfeed as well suggesting I need to ask more questions and invite more feedback. Point well taken! I guess at some point I got away from that practice when I wasn't hearing anything back. But indeed, I need to start asking more questions. Starting with this post. :)
Connie, I hear you, and I feel your pain. Literally. When Simon started redesigning SLAW, I considered not signing on as a columnist because I wasn't sure that anything I said was resonating with the audience. At the CALL conference, however, I had a couple of chats with people which showed me that at least people are reading my posts!
I think that perhaps Twitter has a different culture. Blogs are emerging as a more formal medium, and people feel the need to ponder before they respond to a post. This will, alas, mean that some readers will not comment, even if your post *did* speak to them.
Connie, we're still here and still interested. But the conversation has moved. What you are doing is providing the conversation starters. Don't stop, please.
@Wendy - thank you for the sympathy! That is why I try to make a point of commenting as much as possible on Slaw. It's funny--it was the same kinds of conversations at the CALL conference that got me thinking about this. People saying they were reading. I hear that every year, and few break out of the silence to say anything. Thank you for sticking with it!
@Joseph - I appreciate the encouragement! I'm not sure my posts usually start much of any conversation. My impression is many people read along but that is about it. I need to somehow invite more conversation, even if it is not on the blog.
I have had a few email as well from fellow library bloggers expressing the same frustration. I think we need to start commenting more on each others' blogs. I've been guilty of not doing enough--I need to step it up myself!
We can converse in lots of different places, but as Joseph said above - conversation starters.
Even when we were blogging all the time, there are always 'hits & misses'. The thing is, we all need to re-engage. More writing and more topics, and eventually more conversations.
I suspect it couldn't hurt to post more lighter & shorter commentary. Even if the conversation fleshes out on Twitter, starting topics on our blogs (over twitter) seems to make more sense.
Cheers!
Steve
I'm so grateful for info. I find on the many blogs I follow. Frequently, I forward links to lawyers and staff at the places I work. I may not be commenting - but maybe I should be saying thank you more often. Thanks Connie, by the way, for the HST links you posted on SLAW!
Oh wow--Sandra, thank you for commenting. I appreciate your support over the years and am delighted you have broken out of the silence. :)
Steve, will give your ideas some thought. I know most of my fleeting thoughts in recent years have gone onto Twitter, so I have felt the blog needed to be longer, better thought-out pieces. Which in turned has slowed down my blogging. I put a lot of pressure on myself to produce something more profound, which isn't all that easy.
I appreciate your help in figuring this all out!!
Cheers,
Connie
you need more commercials from Goldline iNternational, that's guaranteed to get people making comments! hehe
Oh n8 you are funny! It would also help if I blogged once in a while. Thank you for pulling me back onto my own blog. :)
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