Welcome to Thoughts for Thursday! This feature is our outlet to talk with you about whatever we currently have on our minds. It might be bookish, it might not! Now for this week's thought:
Responding to comments
This post was motivated by the fact that I am so far behind in responding to comments. Not that this is anything new, per say, but it has been worse of late. It's not the first time I've been busy for a long stretch of time, but it's the first time that I have been busy with work, school, and my social life all at the same time. It's left me with little to no time to read, let alone blog or be as active as I'd like to be in the blogosphere.
But back to what I really want to talk about - responding to comments. When I have free time I usually spend it doing the following: First, I read. Not just because I love reading and its MY free time, but because if I didn't, I wouldn't have any reviews for the blog. When I am not reading, I am either writing said reviews, or visiting other blogs. Then, when all that is taken care of, I will turn attention back to my blog and do general maintenance, like responding to comments, updating the sidebar and review archive, etc.
I know some people view it very negatively when bloggers don't respond to comments, and my response to this is - give us a break! I read every comment and I appreciate every comment and I try to respond to every comment but frankly, I only have so much time and I think it is more important to (1) keep my sanity; (2) keep writing content for this blog; and (3) visit other blogs; than to respond to comments if my time is limited and I can't do it all. And it's not like I won't eventually respond to comments. Usually. Don't be surprised if you get a notification of my reply like a year after you posted on my blog.
As an aside, but important to note, not all comments warrant a response. You guys know what I am talking about here. AND, not that this is an excuse but it is also important to note, of all the comments I have responded to, I think maybe three people have ever came back to continue the conversation. Does anyone even realize when I am behind in responding to comments? Unless, of course I go ahead and announce it (like I am doing right now). But do commenters ever see my responses? Unless I am notified of a reply, or I am frequently visiting your blog, I don't see the responses to the comments I leave.
And then sometimes I chide myself, "Shut up Nicole, you have like a total of 5 comments to respond to" (Yes, I talk to myself. It's quite normal). And it's true! I don't even know how you guys do it when you receive like 30 comments per post! Are you always behind? I can't even imagine.
So, what are your thoughts on responding to comments? Do you often get behind? Do you respond to every one? Do you frown upon other bloggers if they don't respond? Do you hate me because I only just responded to your comment from February? Just kidding. I hope.
