If you read this blog but don't read the comments...

by Michael S. Kaplan, published on 2005/02/20 01:07 -05:00, original URI: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/michkap/archive/2005/02/19/376848.aspx

As Jacqueline (in her blog entitled Jacqueline Mackie Paisley Passey :-)) pointed out earlier today in a post with the same name as this one, if you are one of the (literally) countless throng who read this blog but don't look at the comments, you may be missing out on interesting thoughts or comments or debates from other people. People who sometimes have interesting things to say....

I have gotten enough negative feedback about only syndicating descriptions that it is fair to say that my experiment with that particular feature of .TEXT can offically be considered a failure. Maybe if I cared more about forcing the clickthrough because I had (a) ads trying to generate revenue or (b) a desire to know exactly how many people were reading my random junk of dubious value or (c) a perverse need to torture readers into clicking themselves into a repetitive stress disorder, I might post that way. But I don't, I don't, and I don't. So i won't (for the time being at least, I am a little flighty).

Looking at the comments may be the best way to prove to me that there is something more valuable than what I have to say -- what people like you have to say about what I have to say! This is a viewpoint for which I have tremendous respect. And happen to agree with.

On the other hand, perhaps you may not care what other people think and consider whatever I post to be such perfect prose that the comments would be a letdown. i can respect that too, though if that is the case you should have the attendant check your medication levels soon?

Or you may not even care for what I say and consider this blog to be like a "Howard Stern" shock-jock kind of thing without the popular appeal (in other words you just want to know what I will say next). If I were not me that might be why I would be reading a blog such as this, so I can definitely respect that point of view. :-)

But think about looking at the comments or (if you have a thought to share on a topic) imparting your opinion here. That way I get to learn something, too!

Personally, I always look for which character has paid for sponsorship ad space at the bottom of your articles, so I know what stock to buy! (Speaking of which, I just heard on the news that Howard's big mouth has gotten him into trouble concerning Sirius stock... Uh oh, Martha may be getting a cell-mate!)

BTW, this article didn't have any character sponsorship... You're slipping! (Huummm...is there a character for that?)

Heh heh heh....

I have generally kept the character sponsorship out of these posts that have no real "international" content.

In my internet courses I literally encourage people not to read the comments. I tell them it will increase their IQ by avoiding them.

Sometimes, I would agree with this, but in a technical blog? One not overrun with zealot posters? I don't think it is true....

As I do with a great many technical blogs, I'm reading the blog for learning purposes, which means I am generally reading stuff that's slightly over my head. I don't actually do any internationalization in my development and I got hooked on your blog mostly to learn more about how Windows (and programming in general) works. Sometimes the comments are enlightening. More often, they're not. I seldom read them.

I rarely read the comments unless it's a particularly interesting and/or applicable issue. Mostly I read your posts in Newsgator. I love the content--it has definitely inspired a sense of humility when it comes to I18N issues :).

If I'm interested in the post, I'll scan through the comments. Like Jim, I have no clue what you're talking about a portion of the time. Don't dumb it down any further for us, though... I read for the exposure to other programmers. I'm actually an engineer that programs a little bit, so I like to immerse myself in the programming a little bit each day, which sometimes includes reading comments but other days simply means reading a short article on diacritics.

i dont bother with comments on the tech blogs... i didnt really come over to read your point of view on the war or whatever, so if it doesnt have any tech stuff then i pass on...

i got enough opinions without listening to other peoples'!

of course sometimes i'm over-arrogant... so i'll say that i do read it, but i dont really find the need most of the time to respond to it, unless its an egregious error or massive misconception, then i'll debate it.

Sometimes, there aren't many comments yet, especially if a visitor comes here from an RSS feed which is updated frequently so they are notified fairly quickly after a new entry. In which case, the visitor would have to wait a while for people to have time to comment.

On some blogs, the discussion that follows is really the best part. Raymond Chen (e.g.) writes very good articles, but often the comments that follow (and his responses) are more informative.
But I think there is a distinct difference between technical blogs (like the MS blogs) and say a political blog, where the comments are too often invariant.

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