It certainly gave me the dimension of how long we spend to comment! I tried to keep my comments shorter than usual, though I also didn’t want to leave something totally shallow like “great post”, or “excellent idea”…It doesn’t add much to the blogger’s idea. I have the principle of commenting only if I have something to add to the blogger’s post.
I tried hard, but then realized the issues involved in commenting:
- On most of the blogs, there are different commenting patterns. Some are moderated, some are not, some have verification word, some don’t.
- Bandwidth is an issue. How long does the page take to load? Is it too heavy on videos?
- Technical glitches mainly when you post a comment and I don’t know why it’s not submitted…
- The kind of reasoning you’re going through to react to a blog post may lead you to take much longer you intended to.
- The size of a blog post matters! Keyboarding skills, as well.
- If I became more straightforward in my comments, I could reply to more blogs.
- It led me to comment on blogs that I don’t comment and just love the people writing there, like in Julie Lindsay’s e-Learning blog
- It’s interesting to just sit, write and speak up your mind.
- I’m terrible managing my time!
Ken pointed out to commenting on Michele’s blog. I had the same problem and lost a lot of time there because my comment just wouldn’t go through, I rewrote the comment, and I guess she never got it… Without even knowing, Michele might be losing some of her readers due to technical glitches with her blog host(?).
It’s missing one blog here! Easy to retrieve it through tracking “my conversations” in my cocoment space. So, the last blog I visited for the challenge was Kevin’s Meandering Mind with his inspiring post about his online tutoring experience.
Maybe 5 in 5 is not for me, but definitely was an eye opener!
Hello Carla,
Thank you for taking the 5 in 5 challenge! The points you make in your post are right-on and reflect what so many people are finding out through this simple, little idea–driving ourselves for a defined timeframe encourages us to look at how we do what we do–and how long it takes! I realized through this that it really takes much time to offer up thoughtful responses. It also makes me appreciate thoughtful responses to my blog posts even more! I always feel good when I write a response to a post and also when I read a response to one of my posts. I commented to a colleague (on her blog) that I think “linking is the new commenting.” I still think this is what is happening. The 31 Day Challenge sure has encouraged us to remember what dialogue is all about. Here’s to keeping the dialogue and supportive conversation up!
My best,
Tony
It was definitely easier to attempt the 5 in 5 using the RSS feed from the comment08 posts because I was able to quickly load up all the posts at once then work through which ones I wanted to write comments. Would have been considerably harder any other way. Interesting how both you and Ken had problems commenting on Michele’s blog. She switched off her captcha word months ago because of problems and I haven’t had a problem since.
@Tony “It also makes me appreciate thoughtful responses to my blog posts even more!” good point! I hadn’t thought about this aspect but it is important for us to remember.
Hello Sue,
All the small quirks of commenting and small hoops we jump through do make a dint in the time we spend writing up responses, huh? Have you ever written up a comment and then hit submit only to get an “error message” which means your post is lost in space? That is an ick moment. It’s happened to me often (sadly, enough).
I have found that responses on my posts are as good as feedback on the job! It feels as if someone is listen and “gets it” (or not, which is OK, too). But at least there is a dialogue and we’re sharing thoughts and growing together.
Thanks for your thoughts an input!
Best,
Tony
Great Post!!!!
(Only joking)
I’m becoming increasingly interested in the comment challenge you have all been taking Carla. There are some really interesting discussions going on which, if nothing else, really make you think as a blogger.
As a teacher and teacher-trainer, I really find the task design fascinating (and ingenious.) As a blog commenter, surely none of us could realistically comment in any depth or with any sense to what we say in one minute? I’m sure none of us as bloggers would actually like comments on our blogs that took a minute or less to think of and write too.
Yet is is exactly by asking the comment challengees to fire off “machine gun comments” that Tony (the task designer?) has forced you (me, us!) into considering exactly what goes into a good blog post and a good blog comment.
5 comments in 5 minutes? No thanks!
Food for thought? Yes please! I’ll have seconds too please!
Seth,
I also find impossible to survive the 5 in 5 challenge, but I’ve just realized how much I’ve learned from it, mainly because of the time constrains we have, the strategic thinking behind commenting that I’ve never realized before.
I guess commenting is getting to a new stage with this challenge.
You bring up some good points, including the format of the blog and how easy it is to use (and how familiar it is to navigate) and the clarity of the writer/blogger to whom you are responding.
I suppose this shows some value to the five in five, as it forces us to reflect on the blogs we are cruising through.
Thanks
Kevin
Kevin,
It certainly shows a LOT of value as we’ve been discussing here. Not only did it make me reflect on my commenting strategies, but also on the kinds of posts that are inviting to comment and the ones who hinder others to comment when time is an issue.
Hmmm—so someone else has had problems submitting comments to my blog. Not sure what the problem is–does it just hang up when you try to comment? Any info you can share is much appreciated so that I can try to address it.
I agree with Seth that the 5 in 5 really does make you think about what makes a good blog comment. It also helps you get more targeted. As someone who can write some pretty long comments, that’s not always a bad thing.
Yes, Michele, being focused and targeting at more objective comments are things I have to consider as I tend to write a lot. So, this 5 in 5 was really effective as an eye opener.
As for your blog, it was a pity. I felt very frustrated as I lost my first comment, tried the second and gave up. When I submitted the comment it said it couldn’t find the server. I thought it might have had something to do with my computer, tested in other blogs, and everything was working fine. I hope you find the bug soon!
This discussion is exactly the type interchange I’ve missed in the blogging experience in the past year or so. Perhaps with so many other outlets for communicating that have become quite popular (Facebook, chat through email, meebo, twitter) “response dialogue” via blogs has taken a backseat? Hmmm, that’s some more food for thought.
BTW: last night I posted on my blog about “Parkinson’s Law” I found in Timothy Ferriss’ book THE FOUR-HOUR WORKWEEK. It essentially says speed or time constraints can drives strong results.
Best to all you dialogu-ers!
Tony
@Tony I’ve rarely lost a comment when submitting but Blogger and Typepad definitely slow me down each time with their antispam words that don’t work well. People commenting on your posts, as you say, are good feedback and helps you feel what you are writing is of value but I also find it is important for my personal learning.
@Carla I think we have all gained a lot from Tony’s 5 in 5 minutes task. My goal of the challenge is to hopefully make the participants realise that so much of the learning from blogging is from the commenting and conversations that happen. As I mentioned quite a bit I’ve found it surprising to realise that majority of the participants, even though they are bloggers and use twitter, are reluctant commmenters who seldom post comments due to the “fear factor”. Without the commenting they are limiting their learning and if they don’t appreciate this (by never experiencing it themselves) they won’t build it into the blogging practices with their students.
Hello!
Sue’s comment really sums it up well. The way my thinking mind works well: by conversation, interaction and finding words to convey what is going on in the grey matter. In the blog world, comment-conversations is what creates this. I’ve learned much from others and about my own way of thinking and responding this past couple of weeks alone because of this challenge.
My best,
Tony
I’m the world laziest commenter. I spend so much time actually updating this site I forget to use it
As you can see, I’ve updated it to WP 2.5, so you’ve got your tags, but there are a couple of bugs I can see. If you are at the ’site’ dashboard, there doesn’t seem to be a quick link to your own dashboard which seems a bit mad, and is totally confusing as you have to notice it through the URL. I’ll try to fix that.
If you find bugs and I’m sure there are a few let me know. I do feel this is the first really ‘mature’ very of the site so updates and things should start moving along soon!
Gary
Carla, I am taking on your challenge…let’s see if I can do 5 comments in 30 minutes! and make them meaningful.
I tend to think about what I am posting too much…maybe…therefore it takes me a while to actually get in there and do it. Sam as when I blog, most blog posts take time and have been carefully thought about a few days in advance. This is just my style. I am thinking of changing it however as there are so many things that happen almost on a daily basis that I want to document and share that this more deliberate style is not conducive to. And then of course three is the typing issue…already I have had to correct about 10 words in this stream due to my bad keyboarding skills.
Thanks for reading my blog as well and for you comments!
@ Julie
Are you sure your blog is at BOGspot rather than BLOGspot
Hey Carla,
I’ve updated the above problem with the dashboard issue. And now stuff in that regard is working very well it seems. It’s easy to navigate between any of your sites now.
Suddenly the system seems to be coming together
Hi Gary, haha, thanks for alerting me to this particular typo!
BTW, just to let you know I have been distracted with other online things…not least of which is reviewing and overseeing Horizon Project 2008 student video submissions, so once again my attempts to do 5 comments in 30 minutes fell by the wayside.
Check out some of our student videos for the project:
http://horizonproject2008.ning.com/video
Julie
Julie, I totally sympathize with you because many times I’ve thought so much about a post that the “momentum” for it just slipped through. That’s why I’m also trying to change my strategy, to get to the computer, type what’s in my mind and then revising it, and not the other way around, mulling it over for a long time and having many reviews in my mind before posting. Incredibly, the results seem to be better! Maybe due to more spontaneity.
Keep trying to reach the 5 in 30!
I’ll certainly take a look at your students’ projects as I’m a big fan of your work with Vicky.