Goodreads Bookshelf
Where's my commenters?
Over on --W--'s blog, he posted today about how his hits and especially his level of comments received had gone down dramatically and was at a much lower level than his mirror site on another service (same entries). I left a lengthy comment there which, since I've reached the end of the day without posting, will be the bulk of my post, though most folks who would be likely to comment on it have probably done so over at --W--'s blog.
[I made some corrections to say what I actually meant to say] When talking about comments, I suspect that part of it is the nature of our little slice of the Blog-City community. A fair number of bloggers that I used to read who used to read and comment here (Mr. Bob, Easy, Rina, Jane Smith, Rosebud) have all stopped blogging and, largely, visiting blogs, while some other bloggers like Pimme have cut back on reading and writing. There's a certain synergy when we have a big group blogging and reading and commenting on each others' work.
This contraction in our little network has been compounded by a lack of growth in our little community. I know for myself, in my earlier days of blogging, I "explored" quite a bit, looking for blogs that were new to me that I liked and reading and commenting. By doing so, I attracted new readers to my blog, some of whom no doubt read comments from you and other bloggers commenting on my blog, which took them to your blog, etc. Pimme was very active this way, and I'm sure I got some readers through being connected to her, but she now blogs sporadically and I think she said that she wasn't so active anymore (as opposed to once upon a time when she was the B-C welcome wagon). For my part it's been enough to get blog entries out almost every day and keeping up with the blogs I already read (though that's getting easier as bloggers stop blogging or blog less frequently), so haven't continued to grow at all. Add to this the lost bloggers, and we've really lost some momentum in our corner of B-C.
It's a funny thing, the tipping point. At one point in time you have a blog that no one reads, then suddenly you're in the midst of a thriving on-line community of writers, and next thing you know you're an internet backwater again that no one seems to read or comment upon. Don't they say in business that if you're not improving, you're dying? That there's really no such thing as standing still? For my part, I tried to stand still--I got pretty content with the readers I had, whose stuff I was reading, but now that number's dipped to where I have a few loyal readers and a few fewer loyal commenters, and that's that. I suppose that to be part of an active community, you have to be active in your community. Anyway, that's how it looks from this side of the blog interface. Any other thoughts readers have are, as always, welcome.