In your comment above you said,‘One thing that I was thinking about adding to my post but didn’t have the time (maybe a later addition) is that much learning comes from what’s called “weak ties” in networks. The dense center of networks contributes to “confirmation bias,” or “group think.”’ I’d really like to hear more about this, so I hope you do end up posting about it.

@Mary, thanks for dropping by! Like you, I enjoy the commenting aspect of blogging. For me it is a way to connect with others, and it also makes me want to strengthen my writing because I know that someone is actually going to read what I write!

I know that there are tools like Feed Burner or Google Analytics that let you see how many people are visiting your site, and which posts are getting the most traffic, but it is so much more satisfying reading people’s reactions in the comments.

I think it is up to the blogger to decide whether or not to allow comments on the blog or on the individual blog posts. In my case, I like comments and I really enjoy seeing conversations develop on a blog post; however, I understand that Charles prefers to use track backs. After posting my reflections on blogging, a mentor and long-time blogger pointed out to me that blogs have not always had a comment function, and the introduction of comments changed the way her students interacted with each other on their blogs for her class. I have only been blogging for a few years, so comments have always been a part of blogging for me.

By the way, similar to what Kevin mentioned, I have also seen a friend disable comments on a particular post because she just had to get something off her chest; she didn’t want comments after that.

Thanks again. I’ll visit your blog again soon,

Mary

Yes, why people don’t email me is curious and would make a good study, too. My guess is it’s a combination of ease, time, effort investment, and the lack of the “good” feeling that comes from interacting in a more social manner in comments. If you consider how many people lurk on email listservs as compared to contributing to them, and then make it a little harder to contribute, then it’s likely that that number will decrease even more for trackbacks. And it may be also that many people (especially those who are new) just aren’t that familiar with the trackback mechanism and aren’t sure how to go about it, although I explain it as mentioned below.

On trackbacks on my blog, at the bottom right side of my post is the word “Trackback,” and if there’s a number there, the number indicates the number of trackbacks. If you click on “Trackback,” a window comes up showing the trackback address, plus the trackbacks. So, everyone can see a blurb about someone’s post elsewhere. Using the trackback address, you then need a trackback mechanism to send your trackback post to my blog. If you notice in the sidebar under Colophon, I have “Subscription and Trackback information,” explaining a little about RSS and trackback, plus providing a link to making a trackback if you don’t have the mechanism. I believe, however, that Wordpress has that ability.

One thing that I was thinking about adding to my post but didn’t have the time (maybe a later addition) is that much learning comes from what’s called “weak ties” in networks. The dense center of networks contributes to “confirmation bias,” or “group think.” Much learning comes from the outliers, those with whom people have few interactions and so think differently (along the lines of diversity). As you came across my blog and I came across yours, a parallel conversation via weak ties emerged from which learning is more likely than the conversations embedded in comments on individual blogs. The fact that parallel conversations across blogs, I believe, promote learning more than comment conversations within blogs, is another reason that I lead toward trackbacks as compared to comments.

Take care, Charles

In your post you mentioned that “In the two years since I initially gave my rationale for no comments, not one reader has taken me up on my invitation to send me by email a thoughtful and measured response to anything I’ve written for posting on my blog.” I’m surprised by that and I’m trying to grapple with what that means. Do people only want to interact with bloggers on the blog because it feels safer? or it’s easier? or are we all just show offs who only want to say something if we can be guaranteed that our audience will be larger than just one person? or does the phrase “thoughtful and measured response” scare people off? It is curious.

With regards to trackbacks, I didn’t notice a way to see what the trackbacks were on your posts. I’m not sure if I’m missing something as I am relatively new to this. So if people did take the time to write blog post in response to something you wrote, others reading your initial post would not know about the dialogue that it provoked. You are benefiting from being notified of the response posts, but your readers are only seeing one side of the conversation (again, unless I’m missing something.) Thanks again for reading and responding to my post!

I was looking for the trackback mechanism but couldn’t figure out where it was. I enjoyed reading your post and have responded on my blog, concluding with this paragraph:

Although I lean against commenting, I do not see it as black and white. There’s no research along these lines that I am aware of that can give definitive answers according to type of blog, context, and so on. But for those of us who are educators, I would say that we need to be careful about being sidetracked by the social contagion of commenting and instead keep the goal of learning in the foreground of our blogging and of our students’ blogging.

Thank you also for your polite correction (he not she); I have made the change to my post.