18th Day

Comments on my Blog

Now I must face the consequences of my own lack of method: on Sunday I felt so enthusiastic about an article Sue Waters wrote on “Embedding Jing Screencasts Into Blog Posts” that I took the risk to download Jing and tried to capture an image made on photophiltre: I hope it will show up here.

That is why I’m starting only now to analyze the comments on my posts:

1. Which of your posts have generate more comments? (Quantity)

Perhaps I still can’t answer that yet; my posts were actually born with the Challenge, they are being modeled by the daily activities; the posts where I expressed worries or need for help have certainly attracted comments, for instance.

2. Which has generated the best conversation? (Quality)

For the moment, comments are usually single ones; they give me something to think, or they invite me to take decisions, like the one from Michele on the connotation linked to the word “policy”that caused a misunderstanding of her thought or the one from Tom suggesting me to write an “about” page.

3. Are there any patterns to the commenting on your blog? Do certain types of posts generate more comments than others? (Tracking specific features or qualities)

There are different types of comments on my posts; I can distinguish comments to greet, to encourage, to clarify, to raise a question, to answer a question, to share an opinion, to make a suggestion…

The posts that have had more comments were the one where I discussed a “hot” topic – the one about the comment police – and the one where I showed to be aware of certain blogging strategies – I made a “list” of my improvements in using technology to make my blog more attractive to commenters.

4. If you do see a pattern of commonality between posts that generate good comments, what can you do to increase those qualities in other posts? (Increasing specific qualities)

Perhaps it is not only the type of posts I’ve wrote, but also the way they have been written that counts to enable a pattern to be recognizable; it’s difficult to me to distinguish specific features on my posts as my activity is incipient; however, I should include in these specific features the endeavor to be precise, clear and open to other ways of thinking.

And bearing in mind some tips I’ve read on The Eddublogger, I will try to do several small paragraphs rather than few and longer ones; to raise questions inviting readers to engage in the conversation; to choose brief and “intriguing” titles; to link, link and link, thus recognizing the value of the presence of others and respecting their work, while keeping connected to the invisible and nurturing network.

And for the near future, I’ll try harder to honor my engagement towards comment08.

16th and17th Days

Five Comments in a Glimpse
That’s it: I’m not keeping up any more and, this time, – shame on me – its partially my fault.
Last Saturday – the 17th day – I went to the park of my village, take a long walk and think quietly about the comments I would like to write; I felt surprised to have learned by heart so many bloggers’ and blog’s names, even if I “mix up” the threads of multiple conversations.
Returning home, the task showed to be different from my previous drafts, as we were supposed to comment directly on posts; I took a deep breath and plunged in the bright cloud of Blogs; comments should be short and have some content, it was a nice and easy task, but it took a lot more than 5 minutes, wondering from post to post like a  bee among  flowers in the gardens of comment08.