OK, this sort of blew my mind…
I knew that back in the days when I didn’t moderate comments, we used to hit some pretty big numbers, with some threads drawing 200 or even 300 comments.
But I had no idea about this one…
This morning, I had to delete and report a spam comment — actually one linking to a pornographic site, which I think would usually get filtered out automatically — and saw that it was on a post headlined “The Monitor Group.” Having no memory of such a post, I went back to look it up. And it was a rather dull, short and dry one from 2006, sort of peripherally about the tuition tax credit issue. I could see why I had forgotten it. We had a lot of hot discussions on that issue, but this one didn’t stand out.
There was only one remarkable thing about it — it had drawn 481 comments. Whoa…
Most of them seemed to be actual comments, too. I figured the later ones would all be spam, but actually they were largely a back-and-forth between Lee Muller and Randy Ewart. Remember them, long-time bloggers?
Anyway, that inspired me to add a widget to the sidebar at right, showing this blog’s most-commented posts of all time. Some of them I remember as being hot topics. Some, not so much:
The burning question for me is, what would it take to get 481 comments today? I realize I’m asking y’all on a Friday, when you tend to check out, but I’m asking it anyway, because this is when the subject came up.
Not that I want to pander or anything, but I do like a nice, lively — and civil — discussion.
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The impact of climate change on abortions of gay baby seals during USC football season?
That would definitely do it, Doug.
How about a post for commenters to provide some biographical details? Even those who hide behind aliases could give some background.
I’ve thought about doing something like that… maybe individual pages with bio and photos of regulars, so that people know who they’re reading. How many would be up for that?
Great, so we can make it extra easy for ad hominem attacks
Comment # 5
I have no problem with that idea. I yam what I yam and that’s all wot I yam.
Dang, I mean #6. And now 7.
I think one can gain a reasonable sense of others through their writing. But not much more than that. Character is a tricky thing to try to extrapolate from either words or actions – people sometimes do and say the darndest things. Biography isn’t any more enlightening – it just reinforces preconceived impressions we hold of the world.
Patience, humor and grace in life make up for all manor of molotov cocktails chucked in a blog comment; though there are some commenters whom I would just as soon not encounter in real life. Most, of course, would be a pleasure to meet, just as they are interesting to read.
We could have a discussion about which public figure is worse than Hitler. The former leader of the Third Reich is always good for stirring things up.
First of all, you’re going to need to pick a day where I’m not going to Orangeburg and St. George for court in the same day. Two hearings in a day is going to keep me off the blog until later.
Second: Points awarded for appropriate use of Keanu.
Third: Not initially inclined to support a personal bio thing for commenters. What would be the point? I think we all know where we’re coming from. (But commenter meetup isn’t a bad idea.)
Upside possibility, though: When I came back from St. George, I had a whole stack of messages, which is typical when I’m out of the office on a weekday for 5 hours. One of the messages was not like the others. Apparently, a guy had called, and asked if Bryan Caskey “the guy from the blog (my blog) worked here”. When my assistant told him that I was the same guy, the caller got mad, called me a ‘retard republican’ and then hung up.
Made my day. 🙂
Retard Republican. Isn’t that a redundancy? 🙂
Yeah, meet up. Show your face and you can know more about me than I have already shared….yes, there is actually stuff I haven’t shared.
Meet up. Meet up. Meet up.
Hey Friday is when I can begin to comment, this time of year. I think there was a comment I meant to respond to last Sunday before I got sucked back into IEP blitz 2014. Oh well. Guess that post is long buried now.
I personally will post more on weekends and between June 6 and Aug 14, typically.
Here are some thoughts to get higher comments –
– Limit # of posts per day – fewer posts would concentrate available commenters/comments – maybe? I know sometimes If I read all the posts and I’m already kind of tired, by the time I would have commented, I don’t – I’m too tired.
– pick a topic Doug has strong feelings about – he seems to be good for multiple comments 🙂
– Write a suspenseful leading unfinished sentence and challenge readers to continue the story and leave another unfinished hanging sentence for the next writer. We used to do this in High School. It was fun. I’m sure Ayn Rand and Lindsey Graham and Jed Bartlett and who knows, maybe Voldemort would make appearances in any story generated around these parts.
You read all the posts?
No, not always. But there are times I’d read more but run out of energy.