Why I Don't Always Respond to Comments

Hi There, Valued Blog Visitor-

I thought I put this explanation up for anyone who might think I'm rude for not regularly responding to comments, as many other blog authors do. Interactivity is one of the best aspects of blogging, after all -- which is kind of what makes smaller blogs much more fun than the giants like BoingBoing (which has comments disabled). It's surprising to me that, for a bunch of uber-geeks, they don't take advantage of the opportunity to create a community among readers. But, hey it's a free net; you can do whatever rocks your virtual world.

On the other hand... maybe they'd be SO inundated with lame-ass and/or spam comments, it would be equally as bad. Take The Dilbert Blog, for example. I enjoy reading Scott Adams regularly, but the thought of adding one more quasi-witty comment on his daily pile of 350 others is not very appealing. I wonder about those people who write nine paragraph responses on blogs like that.

Blogs seem to be the most fun when someone leaves a comment like this:

BLOGSURFR: Cool... What happened afterward?

And, then you comment on your own blog in response:

BSUWG: Oh, my dad got arrested after that, but the judge tossed it out.

I get all fired up reading comments; I really do. My instinct is almost always to continue the conversation with the commenter. But I don't. I can't, in fact -- not during the day, anyway.

As part of this whole "Patrick Hillman" identity, I make it a policy to never access my site (which would be required for responding to comments) during the day, lest I create a direct virtual trail of bread crumbs that could lead my company's "nosy IT guy" directly back to my blog. (And he would follow such a trail; I've caught him reading my work email a few times, which is why I switched anything personal to a Gmail account.)

For both posting blog entries and reading incoming comments, it all happens via my Gmail account, which is password protected and inaccessible for Nosy IT Guy (unless he has managed to install a key-logger program on my PC without my knowledge, which is highly unlikely).

Nosy IT Guy doesn't know me as Patrick Hillman, of course, but it wouldn't take many readings about Horn Dog Enterprises (our employer, aka HDE) to tip him off -- and then he'd get all "legal" on me, as IT people are prone to do. "Patrick, you can't be posting stories on the Internet about our boss' adultery..." Or worse, he'd tip off one of the owners, and I'd be up shit's creek in no time.

Maybe they wouldn't fire me, but at the end of the day, I simply enjoy the anonymity. Well, near-anonymity; I suppose a few friends of mine know who I am, but they seem to appreciate good stories of the Horn Dogs here at HDE. How could I post any further stories of their debauchery and ineptitude if the Horn Dogs themselves knew my identity? It would just deflate the whole thing, you know?

So, bottom line: I can't always respond, even though I'd often really like to. But, sometimes I do go home and log on in the evenings (and can then respond). So now you know why I'm not technically rude for not always responding to comments. (I'm sure I AM rude for several other reasons, though.)

Best regards,
~Patrick Hillman