In Reply: "Generating interesting comments is all about what a good blog does."

In reply to the following comment at the Common Sense Political Thought post "Trying Something New":
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"Perry’s definition of a “good blog”:

Generating interesting comments is all about what a good blog does.

Sorry to break it to you, Perry, but there are many political blogs that don’t allow comments of any sort that have a higher readership than APB. Blogs cannot be judged by the number of comments made. That’s a very unwise yardstick to use. That’s like judging a college class by its in-class participation. My calc-based physics class had virtually zero in-class participation and 80 percent lecture. And it was a very high-quality and demanding class."

If ya ask me, blogs can be judged by any criteria one wishes. If hits is important to you, judge based on hits. (In my opinion, hits say nothing about quality. I'd much rather watch a PBS documentary on monarch butterflies than American Idol, but the Neilson "hits" say AI is a more valuable contribution to American society.) Those who value numbers can count comments if they wish, though I don't think that's any better than counting hits... That said, more power to the hit or comment counters. They know what they like, anyway... If good writing and high quality commentary rings your bell, judge blogs based on that... It's all a matter of what the blogger values, and what the reader values, and I'm not sure there is any one right answer that fits everybody, or should...

For the record, I'll take a relatively low hit blog (not that I'm casting any aspersions on CSPT; quite the contrary, in fact.) that allows and appreciates commentary over those high hit yield one-way lecture blogs any day of the week. I'm with Perry, in that I value well-written posts that generate interesting comments for and against, and like him, I believe that that is an important measure of what good blogging is. If I want cut and pasted articles and "talk at me, rather than with me" verbiage, I'll read a newspaper or a book. Other folks milage may vary, and more power to 'em if it does... There's all kinds of blogs for all kinds of people...
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Posted 29 April 2011 at 15:16