As I gad about the streets of Glasgow, one overriding thought haunts my mighty mind - how can I make my blog even better than it is? ("Shouldn't be too hard," some of the more witty amongst you may even now be thinking.) I enjoy doing the blog for its own sake, of course, but it's nice if others enjoy it too, though one can never quite be certain. Some posts get many comments, some get none, yet sometimes I'm not always certain that the posts which generate reader response are necessarily the ones most deserving of it.
Do you comment because you want to, or because you feel obliged to? Would you prefer not to feel as if you have to leave a comment when you can't think of anything to say? Would you still visit this humble blog if I did away with the commenting option altogether, as I'm considering doing? You see, sometimes, having spent ages scanning something and racking my cataclysmic cranium for a subject with which I can thrill and enthral you, if there is little or no response, I feel I've failed to deliver - disappointed you in some way. If there were no comments section, then I needn't worry that the absence of any kind of response was an indication of my having failed to deliver an interesting or worthwhile post.
"But surely the number of visits that each post receives tells you whether it's struck a cord or not?" you ask. Sometimes yes, but not necessarily so. A particular post might get a fair amount of hits, but while the title or illo was perhaps interesting enough to entice visitors to take a look - it doesn't reveal whether they stuck around to read the whole post or bailed out three words into the first paragraph. Only comments can do that, and the absence of any tends to suggest indifference to the subject. So while I'm grateful to all those who do regularly comment, if you only do so because you feel that you should, then removing the option may be a relief to you.
Anyway, fully aware of the inherent irony in asking you to comment on whether this blog should continue having a comments option, what do you think? Should I leave things as they are, or do away with the commenting option altogether? Yes, no, don't care, get a life? Vote now. (If you want to - and if you still can.)
