I've been doing a blog for over a year now, but it's only since moving to Typepad (which I've come to adore) that I've had the capacity for comments. Em has ragged me about that in the past (which is why I invited her to co-author), but I have to say I liked my soapbox better without the comments. I wouldn't mind if they were more substantive, but they've been largely nothing but snotty opinions about me, personally, and inaccurate assumptions (i.e., flames), not to mention the sick punster, who is the most interesting of the lot so far, which is (a) not helpful in furthering dialogue, if that's the purpose of comments and (b) boring. I've posted enough fic online in various forums to be used to thoughtful feedback, but these snap judgements about my personality from the trivial amount of text here aren't feedback. Maybe I'm just hopelessly mired in the pre-Internet and somewhat academic mindset about the exchange of ideas, but that was what I was hoping to see in comments. Foolish me, I suppose, living where all the world's a stage for Short Attention Span Theatre. I guess comments like this are the equivalent of flash mobs or guerilla flaming. I should adopt the attitude my dad's always espoused: opinions are like assholes; everybody's got one.
The thing I don't care for is that I feel defensive when I respond to them, and I can't stand not having the last word in my own blog. I've kept journals for too long to let that happen. No hijacking my forum, dammit! It's like having somebody writing rude comments in the margins of your diary, but less of a violation since you're leaving it about in the open for anybody to get hold of.
So what I'm looking for is quality here, people, not snap judgements. Is that too much to hope for?
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