Charlie – And thank you… I needed THAT…

I was talking to Maggie at breakfast this morning about leaving comments. Rarely does she ever leave comments, even on my own blog. This is HER perspective:

PRIVACY – most blog comments ask for a name and email address. Maggie is extremely cautious about giving her email for fear of being spammed, regardless of the blog owner’s privacy policy.

TOO MUCH WORK – some blog comments make you jump through too many hoops – register, wait for confirmation email, login… by the time a person gets through all that, they are too ticked off to leave a comment.

Speaking of different perspectives but on a completely different tangent:

We were talking with my little six-year-old step daughter about the possibility of getting a little kitty next year when her older sister goes to live with her dad. The conversation turned to the many responsibilities of pet ownership. One of the things we discussed was veterinarians (vets). Curious, my little one asked, “Russy, what’s a vet?”

I answered, “It’s an animal doctor.”

Ambrosia returned surprised, “You mean it’s not a person?”

It took me a second to realize that she HEARD me say that the animal doctor was… AN ANIMAL!

That’s what we get from watching too much ‘Treehouse’. LOL

But it also proves that we ALL have different perspectives. There is NO END to the many different permutations and spins we can have on any topic.

Bottom line again… your comments add so much value and enrichment to your favorite blogger’s posts. I know I am ALWAYS delighted to get any kind of comment because it means I have an audience with a pulse, and I am stimulating them enough to elicit a response.

I join Charles in encouraging every reader to leave a response if the articles move you, enlighten you, or simply entertain you in some way. It’s why bloggers write!

All the best from Toronto,
Russ

When you first mentioned this during our phone conversation, I was wondering where you would go with this. I remember you pausing and saying, “Russ, that just gave me a great idea!” Then you proceeded to tell me about the pigeons in the park, but I have to admit, I didn’t completely catch your concept right away.

Yes, this is a brilliant insight!

But you know what? We are ALL capable of having these brilliant insights. Maggie is constantly ‘amazed’ at how I can turn what she thinks is an ordinary, every day occurrence into a full-blown blog article with a real message. And I’m thinking, “Dude… we ALL have experiences. And we all have our own unique perspectives. Whenever I hear something from another person’s point of view, it EXPANDS MY OWN MIND!”

In defense of our readers, Charles, I’d like to offer up a couple of other observations that I’ve noticed in myself. I’ve got a growing family/friend reunion on FaceBook. I spend a good 20-30 minutes there keeping up with the pulse of my group. That takes TIME.

I have other blogs I frequent. I read. I get ideas. I see those blogs already have 50+ comments. Mine would only get lost in all the noise anyway, so I exit quietly out the back door. On blogs like yours and mine, most of the time I DO leave a message – but that’s ME… I can’t seem to shut up.

Then there are the forums! I write full-blown articles there, too! Again, that takes TIME!

I would guess that for most people, it’s a time issue. When we come to blogs we tend to just want to be entertained and/or informed. All that FaceBook, high-traffic blogs and forum interaction in addition to our ‘real world’ responsibilities has us just tuckered out.

However, I look at my visitor stats and notice that a good percentage are spending an hour or more on my site. People are reading, that’s for sure.

Then again, writing in a vacuum can be a bit disheartening sometimes. I love to know what people think, even if they disagree (as they did on my now infamous ‘hot’ article) LOL

As for the quick, “I really liked this article – keep it up!”… many blog spam filters actually block these! I know other bloggers who remove these ‘quickies’ because they don’t add VALUE to the conversation. So sometimes we bloggers can seem a bit ungrateful as well!

I see BOTH sides of this issue. I’m certain there are many, many more reasons people don’t comment.

Looks like this post got your desired result. That was an interesting experiment.

All the best from Toronto,
Russ

As always, spot on and good food for thought.

And Thank You.

One thing that keeps me from commenting or posting more actively otherwhere
(Hi Susan!) is that it feels like I have to have something to add to the conversation.

I guess you’re right, though. “Thanks, I needed that.” is sometimes just enough.

Continue Rocking.

I’m choosing to abandon my habit of omission right this very minute. And know what? Already I feel bigger, more involved, and yes, happy.

I never consciously thought of blog-reading as opportunity to engage in a relationship–however momentary–with the writer. And yet, I gain so much, so often, from my reading. The very least I can do in response is say, “Thanks!”

So thank YOU! What a door-opening article!

Sandy – thanks for the feedback. So tell me, what was the main takeaway you got from it?

Judy – aw shucks (digging toe in the dirt). If you liked the early teleseminars, I think you’ll especially like some that I’m planning for the coming months. I’ll be trying new things, pushing the envelope a bit farther than I have in the past. Almost always agree? Thanks for the vote of confidence, but it may also mean I should be pushing that envelope even harder. Thanks for letting me know.

Charles, I’ve been on your list for a long time and did a really early telesiminar with you. I still use the meditations from the seminar. And I can never thank you enough for turning me on to EFT, which I have used effectively for ending phobias as well as all kinds of physical things.

Your offerings are always thought-provoking and (you’ll like this) I almost always agree with you! Wow!

Thanks for all you do.