Several other people, disappointed in having their Haloscan comments disappear, have moved their blogs.  Phantom Scribbler notes that comments have gone the way of the do-do bird, thanks to platforms like Facebook and Twitter.  I have never gotten a huge amount of comments, as some bloggers have.  Compared to Phantom’s Whining Wednesday and even to many of Laura at 11D‘s posts, I was hosting an intimate dinner party compared to their big tent affairs.  And that’s been okay with me, though I do like having conversations better than standing on a soapbox.  One thing Facebook and its ilk can’t capture is a conversation around someone’s idea or commentary.  A blogger writes something and people have things to add.  Other people come along and add not just to the original idea, but the new ones.  The original post is more than it was, thanks to the additions of the people who contributed.  I remember struggling to find a way to post recent comments on the sidebar because I wanted to highlight that conversation.  Sure, it was a way to say, “Hey, people actually read my blog!” but more than that, I saw as an invitation for people to contribute, to participate in the conversations that were already going on.

It’s been interesting to be a part of this phenomenon from nearly its beginning.  When we all first began, we commented a lot because there weren’t a lot of us out there.  We had no one else to talk to.  Now, there are blogs and/or commnets associated with nearly every major publication and broadcasting company.  There are places like the Huffington Post for people to turn to for blogs on every topic from politics to entertainment to the arts.  People do comment there and at the New York Times, and at The Washington Post, but they devolve quickly sometimes and/or they sound like the call-in radio callers, some of whom sound like they could have their own show and some of whom you know you don’t want to run into in a dark alley.  Compared to that, commenters here and on other blogs I read had the feeling of running into old friends at the grocery store.  Oh, there’s Wendy and Janice and bj and Grace and Phantom and jo(e) and Susan and Elizabeth again!  Hello, how’ve you been?  What’s new and interesting in your world? I think as long as it feels like that.  As long as people want it to be a kind of camaraderie, comments will linger.  There may not be as many of them, but they’ll be there just the same.

P.S. I’m still hoping to find a way to import comments here.  We shall see.

Related posts:

1. Comments and the Commenters who make them
2. Naked Conversations: A Review
3. Waiting for Wave, Playing with Sidewiki
4. Frontline Followup
5. What do you want your institution to look like?