Gimme COMMENTS!

(The above post title is to be read in a Cookie Monster-like manner.)

Have you all seen the movie What About Bob? There is a great scene where Bill Murray's character, Bob, cuts right to the chase and whines, "Gimme, gimme- I need, I need!" Often, in our family when someone gets too whiney, or we know ourselves that we must be grating someone's nerves, we recite Bob's declaration: Gimme, gimme, I need, I need.

And so, dear readers, here I am, before you today- Gimme, gimme! I need, I need! (Do whines need exclamation marks?) I need your comments!

You may, or may not be aware that the providers of blogs are able to monitor site traffic. Oh, they don't tell me who you are, but I know approximately how many people visit my site on a given day. My provider, Typepad, then makes a nice little graph of my site traffic. Let's call it the "Loser Meter"- OK, let's not call it that, but you have to admit having such a visible and readily available measure, it's difficult not to associate it with my personal value. The stats go down, the stats go up. The changes could be from a holiday weekend, or because I posted several stinker posts in a row. How am I to know?

I do my very best not to value the stats too much. BUT when I don't get any comments on a post it leaves me wondering... Was I rude? Did I use bad grammar? Does no one else in the world feel this way? Your comments give me an idea of where you want our conversation to go. If you like something, please leave a comment or there is a chance I won't post something like that again- especially if it is personal and close to my heart. It can be crushing to put myself out there only to get no response.

If you don't like something, not leaving a comment when you usually do, can be a gentle way to tell me that it wasn't your cup o' tea.

If it is difficult to comment to my posts, technically, please let me know, I'll do what I can to change the settings. I've done my best to make it easy, while still maintaining a little security. But if that security gets in the way of our conversation, let me know and we'll push that big, burly fellow in the security uniform out the window.

Interaction between people is a good thing and that is why I'm willing to put in the time, thought, and effort to do a blog. This is not a one way street, believe it or not- this is not all about me. Please just leave a comment when you like what you see, and read.

Consider it your nickle for this nicklelodeon. Thank you very much!

Comments

[Sara]

1.

Hooray for comments! I'm happy I checked your blog today, on the very day you plead for comments! :)

This post made me smile. I'm like you -- I like comments.

[readerMom]

2.

I feel the same way. I am grateful that you read my blog because you are the only one that comments. And I know others do too. If this works for you I might try it on my own.

[Heather Johnson]

3.

Hey no worries, I feel the same way about comments... the bad thing is the people who I blog for (mostly myself) but my parents and dave's relatives who live far away, most of them don't even understand the concept of blogging! So when they like something they just e-mail me! Its a whole other generation of people out there! I'm not an active commenter myself, maybe I'll change that!

[Michelle L.]

4.

ah, Jen-- I feel the same way(though you have to admit I comment here a lot, but I may quit if you never leave me any comments ;))

I'll admit to checking the sitemeter on other people's blogs(easy as pie) and wondering why they have 1/2 my readers but 67 comments?-- I've never admitted that bit of OCD to anyone before. Be careful with this valuable information.

[jendoop]

5.

Thank you for your comments! It seems we all like them, which makes sense. The interesting thing is- I'm usually reminded to visit your sites when you visit mine! :)

One way I'm trying to encourage more comments is by responding to comments within the comments (like this). Sometimes it gives the blog more of a dialog feel, which is what I like.

Michelle, I'll have to think about if I even want to know how much site traffic other people have, it would probably depress me.

[Pam]

6.

You mean I can't quietly just read?! Shocking! It's like trying to talk and read at the same time. I'll try harder. (Grin!)