Saturday, August 19, 2023

Comments

I've made up my mind what to do with this blog.

As a strategy to produce a better conversation between myself and my readers, come the 31st of August, I'm turning off the post comments.

Instead, I'm asking readers to submit comments to my email, alexiss1@telus.net.  Likewise for any questions the readers may wish to ask.  Meaningful comments and questions will be compiled and then posted as a group on Saturdays, starting one week today ... that is, before the comments are actually turned off.

You may comment on any post in the blog, or upon any page in the Authentic wiki.  If you ask me a question, I'll answer it.  If, at a later time, you wish to comment on someone else's comment, you may do that, through me.

I've seen other forums succeed at that format.  After much consideration, more than a month, I've come to the conclusion that given the comments section's decline these many years, it's probably best that it's removed.  If I don't expect answers, it will change the way I write posts, probably for the better.  Either way, I don't see any reason for the comments to remain in place as they are.  If people care enough about anything I've said, or their need to express themselves, they can do so as well in an email as they can do beneath a post.

I believe that the convenience of posting an instant comment, as opposed to something thoughtful, knowing it'll be printed days later, should encourage a better quality of comment.  And if it produces no comments at all, so be it.  Each Saturday that I receive no comments, I'll be posting a shortened version of this post on what to do if a reader wants to comment.  It may take years to begin to produce a dialogue, but I believe this is the right course of action.

For these 12 days, the comments shall remain active, for anyone who wishes to discuss this decision, and anything else in that time, in the usual way.

2 comments:

  1. I don't know about others, but I'm totally good with this change. The few times I do post a comment, it's generally a direct question about something I just don't understand, or it's only tangentially related, and I can do that in an email just as easily as on a blog post. If you think it might put you in a better headspace for writing and maybe produce some better and/or more thoughtful comments, go for it, I'll still tag along.

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  2. Let's go!

    I'm looking forward to seeing the questions others generate. I hope mine will be useful as well.

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