Pavlov's Blog
I'm getting a bit tired of reading blogs that require me the reader to comment in order to make the article interesting. Guess what blog writers - it's your job to entertain me! However, more and more of my bookmarked pages are supplying me with fewer and fewer interesting stories to read. I used to look forward to checking them like clockwork every morning, but now it's just "What are you drinking tomorrow?" or "What would you pair with this meal?" or some other question that allows the author to get away with another workless day.
Blogs take work to keep people interested and these quick comment-seeking posts are NOT work, but they do seem to get people to interact more. If they're in a hurry, then I'd rather they post nothing. The question you have to ask yourself is: what is the motivation for these authors to write a blog to begin with? Me, it's simple. I run a liquor department, I like to interact with my customers and keep them satisfied, and this in turn results in good business. Plain and simple. Keep people informed about what's going on and bring in more interested parties. Too many blogs these days, however, constitute little more than pure egoism (including this one from time to time!) because, let's face it, you have to be a bit full of yourself to believe that people actually care about what you have to say.
Anyone who tells you they're just serving the people or some other sanctimonious horse crap is lying. If the goal is to educate or entertain the public then there would be some informative prose rather than a short paragraph asking me "What do you think? Please use the comment field." I get the feeling that comment fields are becoming tools for authors to stroke their ego, a personal sign that what they have to say is important or perhaps a better way to grasp how many people are actually reading their blog. Provocative statements provoke encouraging comments from readers - "Right on!" "Way to tell 'em!" etc. It's like ringing a dinner bell for self-esteem.
Personally, I don't want to read comments unless they continue an already interesting discussion or provide filler for originally broad details. I think sometimes that blogs are measuring their success by how many comments their articles are getting and this results in more articles that are geared towards getting them. Just like TV networks that attempt to grab a target audience rather than actually program quality shows, the outcome is boring and stale. Let's get back to good journalism please! I need more interesting stuff to read when I wake up and lay in bed! Besides, the best articles should be the ones that get zero comments because there's nothing more to add!
-David Driscoll
P.S. Comments disabled for this one!