Four months ago, I posted an article here called Five Hundred Posts and Ten Thousand Comments celebrating the incredible comments we are fortunate to get here every day. Today, I am proud to share this Blog Stat with you:
15,035 comments? Wowser! Thank you! That’s over 5,000 new comments over
the last 120 days. That’s an average of 42 comments a day. Double
Wowser! That comment count does not include comments that are deleted
because they break our posting guidelines. If I published every single
comment offered here we’d probably be at 17,500 by now.
It is great to have comments from those who choose to participate here
on a regular basis because that direct involvement helps create history
and perspective. Commenters come and go but the ideas they leave behind
remain evergreen.
In the brief history of this blog — several lifetimes in the world of
the web — the current crop of regular commenters — you know who you
are! — offer the brightest minds and the most persuasive arguments we
have ever published.
I know the natural ebb and flow of the web requires people come and go
and that is the unpredictable power and pain of this blog.
One
commenter ebbs while a new commenter flows in to make arguments and
propose ideals that are even more fascinating and engaging than what
was published before. The intellectual elasticity of a blog is created
by its dedicated commenting core and by the ideas from new people who
wander in and then decide to stay awhile and for that I am forever
grateful to you. I have some questions concerning your interaction here
and I hope you will take a moment to answer each of them:
What influences your decision to post a comment?
After you post a comment, do you come back later to respond to those
who replied to you?
Do you read an article and comment right away or do you wait awhile to
think about what you want to say?
Do you prefer to wait to offer a comment until you see what others say
first?
What are your favorite article topics?
What are your least favorite topics?
What topics have yet to be covered that you would like to discuss?
How did you first find this blog?
Did you comment on the first article you read here?
Why do you keep coming back?