2 March 2010
Commenting on Comments, Part 1

Filed under itself

Long-time readers of this space will remember when I still wrote it in HTML. I had been running Movable Type at the Village Idiots site and liked it a great deal, but I still wanted to keep this space old-school. The problem was that sometimes the effort prevented me from actually writing, so a few years ago, I cried uncle (in a post titled UNCLE) and switched to WP. Every so often I get motivated and convert the older entries to WP, but that doesn’t happen often and the enthusiasm lasts me just a few posts at a time.

This space has always served as a place for me to write my thoughts to some unknown audience. Despite knowing who some of the specific readers might be, I also know that readers drop in and out, and at any given time in my life, I don’t know who’s reading this and who’s not. The audience is an important part of the exercise for me, but I like writing to nobody in particular, one reason I seldom use the word “you” in reference to readers of this space.

Comments have always been welcome and appreciated, but I made a decision early on not to turn this space into a community. “Making Connections through Blogging” was the title of one of the sessions at Wordcamp a couple of years ago, and while I respect what the speakers had to say, I knew that the advice didn’t really apply to me. “Respond to every comment!” one of the speakers said. I Twittered my difference of opinion.

I like comments, because for one thing they tell me when I’m wrong about something, something I can stand a lot more of in my life, as when Gregg informed me that Tom Brokaw’s book about The Greatest Generation wasn’t about the Boomers but about the generation before them. My grandparents’ generation. Yeah, I am not as smart as I think I am.

My favorite experience with comments in this space came when I was prompted to approve a recent comment on something I posted long ago. The new comment itself was not the cool thing, but noticing that the comment that preceded it, dated December 18, 2005, was made by Jocelyn nearly three years before I knew who she was and met her in real life. Crazy.

Sometimes I do have responses to comments, but I seldom express them except to myself. Perhaps this is not very nice. I’m not opposed, really, to responding to comments. I merely don’t want this space to turn into that kind of journal; this needs to remain MY space and it needs to continue to be what I need it to be, and my becoming a comment whore is enormously counterproductive. This is not to accuse others of comment-whoring. Other people’s spaces are theirs to do with as they wish, and some people wish to Make Connections through Blogging. That’s just not going to work for me, at least not here. Twitter me, or FB me, Formspring me, or join in at HT or HB (back online and soon to be streamlined).

In my continuing quest to find new ideas to write about, I’ve decided this would be a good time to respond to some of those wonderful comments readers have left. So that’s what I’ll do today and tomorrow. I won’t hit all the comments, because not everything needs to be responded to, but I’ll hit quite a few, I hope.

@Susan: Thank you for the kind words. If it’s not clear, I also consider myself a decent writer and am regularly conceited about it, but it is nice to be encouraged that way. You didn’t link to your own webspace, though! Is there somewhere I can get to know you through your own writing?

@Randall: Actually, I’m pretty sure the lyric is, “Misery loves company, but she will never foot the bill,” which amounts to the same sentiment but is not as lyrical as yours! I can totally see the bill sitting there, face-down on the table, equidistant between two diners, waiting for someone to claim it.

@Ryan: I liked Jersey Girl. It had its flaws, but it was overall quite good. Affleck can act, no matter what his haters say.

@Melomane: Thanks for the nice words! I live in Hawaii, so house concerts and even regular concerts are generally out of the question, ‘though Bela Fleck did play with the Honolulu Symphony a couple of years ago. I got free tickets but was too sick to attend!

@Alan: I still haven’t seen Crash, and I enjoyed The Terminal a great deal. I don’t get why the critics were so harsh. Hanks is very good in that, even though the premise is kind of far-fetched.

@Brie: *sigh* Yes, yes. I know. Nobody who hasn’t had kids can ever understand how parents feel about things. This, however, doesn’t mean my position on capital punishment is less valid than a parent’s; nor does it mean that if I had kids my position would be different. I know a LOT of parents who are opposed to the death penalty.

Okay, that’s a good start. More tomorrow.

2010-03-02  ::  me