This is not a question specific to this particular blog, but blogging in general.
As I’ve been reading on Super Blogging about Interacting with your Readers and Visitors. One of the things that Tay talks about is making sure you reply to emails and comments from readers in order to build that good connection that keeps people coming back.
So here is my question:
When you leave a comment on someone’s blog, do you expect them to reply to you via email, or via a subsequent comment on that post? Do you go back and check now and then to see if they have replied or do you just comment and forget it? How do you prefer to create ongoing communication between you and a blogger that you read?
September 6th, 2007 at 8:36 am
I don’t really have any expectations. If I leave a comment that I think might spark further comment, I’ll often check back to see if there’s been any replies. But unless I’ve asked a direct question, I don’t expect a reply at all. And I certainly don’t expect an email, unless it’s something not for other eyes.
September 6th, 2007 at 8:37 am
How come you haven’t replied to my last comment yet? Christ, you’re rude…
September 6th, 2007 at 8:52 am
LOL
What’s funny is that I was looking through some of your blog roll links while you were leaving this comment here.
Then I noticed the little Outlook “new mail” icon in the lower right corner and went to see that two comments were posted by you.
I’m so glad I had the opportunity to reply and let you know that I value your commentary, and hope to see you here again soon and often.
cheers and best wishes, and I look forward to your thoughtful and insightful commentary on all future posts.
September 6th, 2007 at 12:10 pm
It’s so rare to get a response when I leave a comment … honestly I rarely check to see if the author has bothered to respond. If I’m really interested in watching the thread, I’ll subscribe to the comments feed.
September 6th, 2007 at 12:10 pm
The best way to keep me coming back is to allow me to subscribe to the comments. There’s a WordPress plugin that does it. That way, every time anybody posts a response to your post (or maybe even my comment), I get an e-mail alerting me. Otherwise, there’s a good chance I’ll forget to come back a look.
I’ve received e-mails when I’ve posted comments. I thought it was quite nice. I try to remember to e-mail new commenters on my blog.
September 6th, 2007 at 12:13 pm
brent: good point. I know there is a comments feed for the post, and I will see what I can do to make it easier for people to subscribe that way!
September 6th, 2007 at 12:15 pm
Ok - does this one work for you?
http://www.digitalheath.com/blog/comments/feed
September 7th, 2007 at 8:20 am
While I like the concept of being notified when comments are added to someone else’s posts, the constant emails would drive me batty. It’s hard enough to keep up with all of the offers to enlarge my penis and reduce my mortgage rates. When someone emails me with a single product that does both of those things simultaneously, then I’ll consider it. But I digress. What were we talking about?
September 7th, 2007 at 8:57 am
actually, i did discover a product the other day - it’s a simple patch that you apply to the back of your knee or to a shaved part of your scrotum. it serves two purposes.
first, it extends the length of your manhood by approximately 1cm per day of wear. basically you wear it until you’re the size you really want to be - and as an added bonus, this works on both length and girth.
as the patch works downstairs, it also works upstairs, supercharging your brain in ways you never imagined, giving you insight into new job opportunities causing you to start your own home based business which brings in so much supplemental income that you are able to pay down your mortgage so fast and increase your credit score at such a lightning pace, that companies will be calling to offer you bottom of the barrel rates for anything you want to purchase.
September 7th, 2007 at 12:50 pm
Unfortunately, that feed subscribes me to comments on all your posts, rather than just the post I commented on.
By the way, if you really want to improve your comment community, consider getting rid of the capcha. Is it “yopsy” of “yop5y”? I guessed wrong for this comment, returned back to this page, and my insightful comment I’d intended to leave was gone. What’s worse, I didn’t get a different capcha word to guess. I’ve tried to leave a comment on your blog before and was unable because I couldn’t guess the word and couldn’t get another one to attempt.
With WordPress, Akismet, and Spam Karma 2, you don’t really need capcha.
Damn! It was neither “yopsy” of “yop5y”! This time I was smart enough to copy my brilliant comment before submitting it. Pressing F5 gave me another capcha word. If I wasn’t commenting on your getting rid of capcha, I would have just left without commenting. Would have been the second time…
September 7th, 2007 at 1:20 pm
So here’s the rub….I don’t like akismet…I just don’t. And I don’t want to install more plugins than I absolutely need. I also get a lot of comment spam, however, after having installed capcha, the comment spam has dropped to zero.
Regarding the words, I change them now and then - they used to be normal words but I think a bot was farming them and trying the list at random until it worked, so I made them less english.
I will endeavor to make them more easily readable, and hope you’ll continue to comment.
As for the feed - ok, so that’s the full comments feed - I know wordpress creates a feed for each blog post as well, how does this one work for this particular post?
http://www.digitalheath.com/blog/2007/09/06/comment-responses-email-or-posted/feed/
that should only feed you the comments on this specific post…
September 7th, 2007 at 6:39 pm
Heh, I’ve watched this whole conversation since my first comment… I subscribed to the “Comments RSS” at the bottom of this page
The end of your post footer has a link to the feed there as well: “You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed”. 
September 7th, 2007 at 6:44 pm
Nerd.
September 7th, 2007 at 9:41 pm
Argh! Entered a reply and forgot the captcha. There went my reply. Not worth typing again…
September 8th, 2007 at 10:00 am
I don’t understand why it would wipe your text because of a missing captcha - it should just prompt you to complete it. I have disabled the plug-in temporarily.
September 8th, 2007 at 6:24 pm
Getting back to your original question… I never liked people who responded in private on newsgroups for things that aren’t really private and which “rob” others from seeing the interaction and enjoying my pithy comments… plus interrupting me outside of the time that I wanted to spend on the newsgroups. Oh course if it was someone I really wanted to talk with, then that is another matter.
Gotta run… David Tennant is on Graham Norton and I want to watch it in near realtime.
September 8th, 2007 at 6:37 pm
Thanks for reading and sharing the post.
Personally, on my blog, I simply don’t have the time to email each and every commentator. However, I will always comment back. And if it’s an important question or inquiry, or if the person needs help, I will send an email to them.
If you want to track comments you’ve made (and only you) all across the web, you can use a little something called CoComment. Check it out:
http://www.cocomment.com/
September 8th, 2007 at 9:20 pm
tdbear: is graham finally having some new episodes? i thought i had seen all of them - bbca?
tay: thanks for visiting - i’ve picked up tons of helpful hints from your site!
September 9th, 2007 at 12:48 pm
heath: I think this was new since it was from March or April in the UK. My Tivo has recycled it already, but I think it erroneously said it was April. I’ve been vry disappointed with Tivo’s scheduling service in not having complete descriptions for some of the cable channels like Logo and BBCA. I think that I had removed Graham Norton a while ago because they didn’t list descriptions and Tivo was re-recording too many episodes.