Perhaps I will have to try disagreeing as part of the comment challenge?

I think this is a great idea but a lot has changed on the internet since I started blogging in 2003 (publicly). Though this was by no means the “early days” of blogging it was just prior to the mainstream adoption of social media - even the big media were still, at that time, attacking blogging and bloggers.

Here’s how I described it in 2004:
http://www.mindjack.com/feature/linkedout.html

Back then, blogs didn’t even come with comments function. Even blogger. You had to sign up for a service or install code yourself. Permalinks and trackback were the closest thing to knowing what people had responded to. It took a while, but eventually we all had comments.

Blogrolls were also really big - a way of defining your value via inbound links and establishing community ties. RSS was still babysteps.

I don’t remember the exact date but I remember the first time I saw a bloglines URL in my stats. I went and checked it out and behold … somebody was reading me via a third party service. So of course I signed up!

Bloglines was, for me, the begining of the end of comments - in a way. And here’s why.

1. There were fewer of us (bloggers, citizen producers) and thus simpler to stay “on top” of all you followed.

2. We had more time for fewer apps. Before the sexy candy of social networking (or at the very very start) people didn’t have a huge number of things they were doing online beyond emailing and visiting sites they enjoyed. Again, RSS wasn’t even part of the picture.

3. Our networks were smaller and less promiscuous. What do I mean by that? We made connection with people after getting to know them for a while. We visited their blogs, read their stuff then maybe left a comment to see what happened. Maybe later on we’d permalink and then add them to our blogroll (that, after really getting to know them).

I remember the first few weeks of Orkut - when an Orkut invite was a big deal to some. All the people I found in there were other early adopters - most of whom I either knew or had connection with because of my life online. We all added each other based on little more than an awareness of each other’s presence online. That was enough - and so the promiscuous adding of friends began (innocently enough with established networking patterns).

I’d like to argue that comments, in these times as more and more people are using social and participatory media, it’s much harder to respond to all we follow. That’s due to all the factors I listed above - and then some. We’re more selective now about where we spend time commenting. Also, more of us have our own blogs and spaces and frequently respond to other people’s work in those spaces.

Here’s the final piece; Social bookmarking

If I like something online I bookmark it and write up a short note for context explaining why I thought it was worthwhile. By doing so, I’ve created a link back to that site and a miniature response. That’s a form of reciprocation - however small - many bloggers are grateful for.

If I really like something, I’ll go further. I’ll leave a comment to express how much I liked the piece.

But the ultimate expression of my linky bloggy love is to write a post in which I feature this person’s words or content in some way. As I will likely reference this post (since my comment is turning into a post). In this scenario, If I’ve made the decision to do so, I rarely leave a comment in addition to blogging it.

I too rarely comment but read avidly. It is good to see you back!