Saw this comment on a "MyCommunityNOW" blog and thought it was so well-stated that it needs to be posted here as well. With slight edits for context and my added emphasis, this good advice is by the commenter known as "JUST1THOUGHT":
The post says: "It is appropriate and quite helpful if the individual and/or group that is distributing the literature provide full disclosure on the pamphlets, brochures, etc. with contact information including name, address, telephone number, e-mail address."
I sort of agree with him about the literature distribution. I’d like to know who is saying what too. But when it comes to blogging on a regular basis (3-5 times a day) those rules don’t seem to necessarily apply. But why not and what if they did? Scary thought isn’t it?
Most blogger bios are blank or vague at best. Some are down right silly. Yet they complain about anonymous commenters as evil. Again, I sort of agree, people are mean, but they are responding to something you "distributed".
Just imagine if we had to provide our “contact information including name, address, telephone number, e-mail address" on a blog or a comment for that matter. The literature distributed, and the comments they receive would be more objective and less subjective (and less in general) Or we all would have broken windows and flat tires.
To prove the point, view your blog with the highest comments in the last few weeks and look at the subject. Then read the comments. Good begets good and bad begets bad.
Now it might be said, (has been said), if you don’t like it, don’t read it. But I have to read it to come to a conclusion. You are posting on a Community Web Page as a “community voice”. Comments are invited by nature of the ability to comment. But the blogger is in full control. You don’t have to pass through a comment you find offensive either. But sometimes you do, just to counter attack. A real dialog never develops. I guess that’ why there are so few comments these days. Unless it’s good news.
Don’t mistake a high hit count for popularity, curiosity counts too. People love to hate. Good or bad, the numbers of comments you receive to a post are the true gauge of the effectiveness of your blog. Since you have control of what gets through, you control how effective the conversation can get. The tone of the initial post sets the stage for what is to follow. We get what we give.
Bloggers (especially NOW bloggers) - I am not suggesting that you provide full disclosure on your bio, I sure won’t, but try blogging as if you did. Try and imagine yourself entering my neighborhood and placing you literature in my “newspaper box or at my front door.” As long as you are on the Now website, it’s sort of the same thing, 21st century style. I go to the NOW for a lot of reasons and there you are.
BUT MOST OF ALL, IT IS NOT WHAT YOU SAY AS MUCH AS THE WAY YOU SAY IT.
End of Post.
I sort of agree with him about the literature distribution. I’d like to know who is saying what too. But when it comes to blogging on a regular basis (3-5 times a day) those rules don’t seem to necessarily apply. But why not and what if they did? Scary thought isn’t it?
Most blogger bios are blank or vague at best. Some are down right silly. Yet they complain about anonymous commenters as evil. Again, I sort of agree, people are mean, but they are responding to something you "distributed".
Just imagine if we had to provide our “contact information including name, address, telephone number, e-mail address" on a blog or a comment for that matter. The literature distributed, and the comments they receive would be more objective and less subjective (and less in general) Or we all would have broken windows and flat tires.
To prove the point, view your blog with the highest comments in the last few weeks and look at the subject. Then read the comments. Good begets good and bad begets bad.
Now it might be said, (has been said), if you don’t like it, don’t read it. But I have to read it to come to a conclusion. You are posting on a Community Web Page as a “community voice”. Comments are invited by nature of the ability to comment. But the blogger is in full control. You don’t have to pass through a comment you find offensive either. But sometimes you do, just to counter attack. A real dialog never develops. I guess that’ why there are so few comments these days. Unless it’s good news.
Don’t mistake a high hit count for popularity, curiosity counts too. People love to hate. Good or bad, the numbers of comments you receive to a post are the true gauge of the effectiveness of your blog. Since you have control of what gets through, you control how effective the conversation can get. The tone of the initial post sets the stage for what is to follow. We get what we give.
Bloggers (especially NOW bloggers) - I am not suggesting that you provide full disclosure on your bio, I sure won’t, but try blogging as if you did. Try and imagine yourself entering my neighborhood and placing you literature in my “newspaper box or at my front door.” As long as you are on the Now website, it’s sort of the same thing, 21st century style. I go to the NOW for a lot of reasons and there you are.
BUT MOST OF ALL, IT IS NOT WHAT YOU SAY AS MUCH AS THE WAY YOU SAY IT.
End of Post.
UPDATE: As if to underscore and add an exclamation point to "JUST1THOUGHT's" excellent observations and articulation thereof, the blogger in question "responded" to this well thought-out comment thusly:
Now if only the hateful left would read and heed.
We get what we give, hey? You have no idea what I all get...
We get what we give, hey? You have no idea what I all get...
Name-calling, non-engagement and self-pity, all in the space of 24 words. At least in this case his approach to mediocrity is somewhat parsimonious.
Extremely well put. I comment psuedo-annon soley for work related reasons, and the need to keep my politician employers from discovering my political opinions via "the google", but I always try and imagine that I'm speaking face-to-face with a live person. Not always successful, but that should always be the goal.
Posted by: JCG | April 01, 2009 at 01:23 AM