In my experience I have found that the best way to get people to not comment on what you have written is to end your post with a question.
Why is that?
OK, just kidding. We’re not quite done yet. What has been more effective for me is ending my posts before they are finished. Sometimes I just say all I have to say but I don’t have a snappy ending to wrap it all up. There’s something sort of hanging. An unresolved point or some shaky logic. For some reason, and I might just be imagining this, when I do that it seems to prompt people to respond more to what I have written.
But this doesn’t seem to be universal. I read Ted Gossard’s Jesus community pretty regularly. He almost always ends with some kind of question to kick start comments. And, from what I can tell, it works. I don’t have time to do the math, but it seems that his posts ending in questions get more comments than the other posts.
Jesus community is a cool blog. There’s no syrupy devotional stuff. It’s not dogmatic. Ted strikes me as… Delphic. His writing is what people call “Zen-like.” I don’t call it that. But I imagine someone might. I wish I could impersonate the way he talks in his posts. Very laid-back. Very open-ended. His voice lulls me to sleep a little bit. I’m a spastic compared to him, like, ya know?!? I checked out the RSS feed for comments on Jesus community and it’s pretty neat. Ted is interacting regularly and intensely with his readers.
Love ya, Ted. I’ve been lurking ever since you got named a Thinking Blogger by the Better Bibles Gang.
Don’t anyone dare comment on this post!
Shaky logic is certainly a good way to get me to comment. The blogs I comment on most regularly (even more regularly than on Lingamish) are those which repeat shaky logic. I sometimes feel it is my mission in life to correct shaky logic on the Internet – well, not really, but I do try to respond to it as a Speaker of Truth. But don’t take this as an encouragement to shake up your logic. And I’m afraid deliberate stupidity doesn’t work, it’s too obvious.
As for comments feeds, I have just become the first Bloglines subscriber to the lingalinga comments feed. Anyone want to join me?
Sure you want to do that, Speaker O’ Truth? Shaky logic is rare here but I intend to specialize in deliberate stupidity. Although I’d prefer to call it “subtle wit.”
comment.
lol, couldn’t help it.
Naughty boy.
Lingamish, You’re simply being too nice here. Anyhow I love to do my simple thing and it’s just like I’d talk in my living room, though you can’t duplicate the emotion part. Never thought of myself as a Zen guy. Though writing is kind of a nice escape at times or better put in my case, I think it can transcend in some way all the inward garbage we’re going through.
Thanks.
Yes, writing is escape. And discovery.