This is one in a series of posts pulled from Chris Brogan’s “100 blog topics I hope YOU write.” (#70)
My ratio of blog posts to comments is pretty large, I don’t get comments all that often. I mean, let’s be clear, I have minimal blog followers. However, I try hard to bring my post content together at the end in order to ask the audience a question. I don’t write that often, so when I do, it’s generally a topic on which I feel inspired enough to write and so would love to discuss.I think I feel disappointed at times because of past experience on a little site called Open Diary. I started posting there 10 years ago, in March 2000, when the site seemed like this amazing thing and such a great idea! I still write there and have recently gone back to it on a more regular basis, I think in part because I missed having people respond to what I was writing about.
I’m not trying to be whiny, I get that the spaces are different. In addition, my account on Open Diary is kept private and only available to those people whose diaries I have been reading for years, many of whom I’ve even had a chance to meet in person. I have friends there, and I don’t expect nearly that level of interaction with the readers of my blog. Anyone reading on Open Diary can’t subscribe via RSS, and those seeing my blog content in a reader probably aren’t coming to the site to comment since they are going to read or skim my content and then move on to the next item in the feed. I am guilty of that myself.
Something that I would love to have installed is a signature feature. This is an Open Diary standard where you go to leave a note, and you simply sign a blank note, generally done in order to tell the person that you stopped by and read that entry. It’s a courteous “hey I read this” message that I always try to utilize when I read so that I’m indicating that I was there. I appreciate all of the content I read, whether or not I feel like I have something to add to the conversation, but it would be great to be able to give some love to the person who spent time writing that content.
So here’s that italicized question:
Is there a tool available that you know of that would accomplish my signature thing? Would you check a box, etc, if it was an available feature, to let blog authors know that you read their post?
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
I’d check a box for u, Jamie!
I don’t usually read anyone’s blogs. I didn’t even know u had one. I kinda like the Open Diary idea tho. Maybe I’ll do that. I know the diary and the blog r really the same thing…but I would feel like the diary was my own and if people wanted to read it they could, vs. feeling like I was writing to others, as I would in a blog. I think I’ll check out the diary thing and find u on there if u want. 
there needs to be a feature similar to the “like” function in Facebook, but maybe more neutral, like “read”. Or, hell, even a “like” vs. “don’t like”, it could be interesting to see people react to something negatively as well as positively.
I agree with Will. I really like the ‘like’ feature on F/B, it shows you are interested in what friends have written without having to write anything.