Most of what makes blogging fun is interacting with others through comments, whether through comments left on your own blog or leaving comments on others. Because of this, I love reading comments left for me comments and I hate getting behind on my google reader.
I try to respond to most comments that people leave me, but I wasn’t sure how many of those people were seeing the replies. So to allow for better discussion on this blog, I added a plugin that sends an email to a commenter when someone replies to it. That is one thing I miss about blogging on vox and couldn’t do at wordpress.com – the emails always kept the discussion going when it might have died out because someone understandably wasn’t constantly checking the comments section of a particular post. I hope people like this new feature.
As for other blogs, I try to comment regularly, but I know others are better at it than I am. I have a perpetual goal of commenting more but I’m not sure how you measure that. How do you handle commenting on others blogs? Do you have a regular routine or just comment when you feel like it? Do you have certain blogs you comment on more than others?
[Note: I changed the topis of this weeks TSS because I didn’t read much this week and didn’t finish any books mostly because I was setting up this pretty new blog and watching an insane amount of Gilmore Girls.]
my books. my life. 
Oh, I like that! What plug in did you use? That’s one of things I miss from Vox as well.
LikeLike
There’s a few of them out there. I’m using the “WordPress Thread Comment” one because my theme wasn’t allowing for nested comments and this did both of those things in one plugin.
LikeLike
I also have a perpetual goal of commenting more…I think most of us do. I used to be a better commenter back when I only worked part time and from home, but now that I work full-time somewhere with no internet access, I’m permanently behind. I do what commenting I can during the week and then try to catch up on weekends, not always with success. Still, a little bit of commenting is better than no commenting, right? I also try hard to reply to comments at my own blog because I hate the thought of anyone who stops by feeling neglected or ignored.
LikeLike
It’s hard if you don’t have access to the internet at work. I use google reader as a 5 minute break when I’m working. But I usually still get behind and have to catch up on the weekends.
LikeLike
I usually comment when I feel like it. I read all the posts from my googlereader in iGoogle. So it takes me a few clicks to comment. And sometimes those few clicks seem like a lot of work (they are not) so I don’t comment a lot. I should though. I like getting comments, and I’m pretty sure other people like getting comments as well!
LikeLike
I understand about the extra clicks. 🙂
LikeLike
Interesting to know about the plug-in.
I have a set of blogs which I keep following regularly and I try to comment whenever a new post comes up. I get an email whenever I get a comment on my blog and I try to reply to all comments. Sometimes when I discover a new blog which has an interesting post, I leave a comment there too. I don’t use Google reader – I check blogs that I follow, one by one. I thought of using Google Reader, but decided against it, because I felt that it will be like looking at emails, and I will miss the beautiful look and feel and creativity and the pleasant surprises when I actually see the homepage of a blog. But when one is following a lot of blogs, I think using the Google Reader is a good idea.
LikeLike
You are the best commenter ever, Vishy. And I notice it on everyone’s blog. You comment on practically everything. 🙂
LikeLike
Thanks for saying that. It feels like I have won an award 🙂
LikeLike
Commenting on a post about commenting…weird.
I wish I commented more. I read my posts through Google Reader, and sometimes I don’t have the time to click through and comment. A lot of times I’ll star entries and come back to them later and comment. But I love getting comments so I try and comment as much as I can, not because it’s a tit-for-tat sort of situation, but because I think commenting enhances the book blogging community that we all enjoy. 🙂
LikeLike
You just summed up my thoughts exactly. 🙂
LikeLike
Vishy really is the best commenter! 🙂 The email pugin thing sounds very practical. I use google reader as well and always check it when I check my emails. I don´t follow that many blogs and I have enough time to comment regularly on the ones I do read. And I love getting comments so I want to make others happy as well 😀
LikeLike