I’m going to do something I have never even seriously considered before and close the comments on my blog. I have read a lot of articles over the years about closing comments, but I never felt that they applied to me because I don’t receive much in the way of hate. In more than four years of blogging, I’ve only been directly criticized a couple times, and none of those incidents left any marks.
So let me see if I can explain myself without inviting my first serious criticism. My blog used to receive way fewer views and way more comments. That changed over the years and I started to receive fewer comments as the conversation switched more to twitter. I personally stopped commenting on blogs about a year and a half ago. I found that instead of enjoying reading, I was worried way too much about the obligation of commenting. I stopped worrying about it and went back to reading blogs for fun.
I figured if I wasn’t leaving any comments, then I couldn’t expect any, so I largely stopped worrying about how many comments I received. I mean, I’d like to say I never worried about it, but come on. That’s been mostly successful, but I still find myself letting that little number at the bottom of every post control some of my feelings regardless of how many people read the post or how proud I am of the writing. If I felt like comments were still an important part of blogging for me, then I would continue to put up with that tiny bit of angst, but I feel like the conversation happens other places. So I’m going to close comments.
I wanted to explain all of this, so that it didn’t seem like I was closing comments because I don’t want any feedback (negative or positive) on the things I write (content or style). Of course that’s not true. You can find me almost all of my waking hours on twitter or you can always email me at writetoreach[at]gmail[dot]com. It does make a difference to me to know that people are reading and I’d like to be useful to you if I can, so I welcome reminders that you’re still around and I’d be very happy to answer a question if you have one or write a post if you have a suggestion for a topic.
Still here. Not going anywhere. Love your faces. Okay, bye.