These questions were posed by Rory aka “A Guy Called Bloke” and I’m sure that there are many different opinions on the subject. Rory answers his own question in the link below. Here is my take on it.

QUESTIONS

Do you think there is a difference between the terms ‘commenting and conversing’ or are they the same to you?

You could argue that as we are not actually speaking leaving a comment on someone’s blog is not a conversation. However, I see it a bit differently. Many of us count fellow bloggers amongst our friends even though we have never met them and are not likely to do so. We have conversations via our blogs rather than face to face or over the phone. Of course these conversations are not live unless both bloggers are online at the same time. That rarely happens to me given that I am in Australia and many of the bloggers I exchange comments with are in the USA or other parts of the world. Our time zones don’t always allow us to converse live. Nevertheless I still think a comment thread can be a conversation, just not always.

I consider that posting “Great post” or other similar remarks as commenting, or a short exchange between writer and commenter. However, sometimes an interesting topic will spark a long thread between two or more bloggers giving information, or sharing a story or an opinion. To me that is a conversation.

What encourages or motivates you to leave a comment on content in the first place and on the other side of the coin If you don’t leave a comment why not?

I will comment on a post if I find the subject matter interesting or funny. I may want to share my own perspective, it’s interesting to compare what happens in different parts of the world. Sometimes I might just want to leave a (hopefully) amusing comment or I might want to congratulate or commiserate with the writer over the event they have written about as I would if a friend told me some good or bad news.

Occasionally WordPress won’t let me leave a “Like” on a post which is something I often do to acknowledge that I read it. In that case if it is someone I consider a friend I’ll leave a short comment so they know I dropped by.

I don’t comment if:

• I don’t know anything about the subject under discussion and don’t really want to pursue it.
• I don’t feel I have anything to add to the conversation that hasn’t already been said
• I feel my comment may be considered to be too negative or rude. (If you can’t say something nice, say nothing.)