Not I But We…

Michele Martin posted an interesting question this morning on Day 9 of the Comment Challenge: Should We Be Commenting on Blogs. She was reflecting on this based on a post from Sameer Vasta in his Eloquation blog: Rethinking the Blog Comment Policy. Sameer had shut down comments for a year in his blog.

Sameer stated three core reasons behind his decision at that point:

  1. My blog was a personal publishing platform
  2. People had other places to respond
  3. Nobody was leaving comments

Others have noted as well that blogging is meant to be a personal journal – and if one wants to comment, she or he can do so in their own blog.

I thought we were getting away from the “Me Generation.” One of the things I have learned in the past year of swimming in the Web 2.0 stream is that 1 plus 1 equals a lot more than 2. Bud Deihl mentioned in his post that ideas are in the air, and networked conversations occur in multiple venues. If someone wants to disable comments, that is certainly their prerogative. For myself, I gain value when others comment to me and when I comment to others, because the thinking that moved me to blog in the first place is now being stretched and validated.

“I” may blog, but I firmly believe in the “we” that takes those thoughts, analyzes, adds to, and sometimes refutes in ways “I” probably could not do on my own.

[Photo Credit: MonkeyC.Net]
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