Hi all,
I know I haven’t been writing about my classes yet, but things have been busy this week, and to be honest, I don’t see things slowing down any time soon, so what I may actually do is make one post, possibly on Fridays summarizing the weeks up’s and down’s. It will be my own personal digest, if you well. However, today I will not be writing about my classes, but I have a question, which I am just going to go right ahead and ask because it has been bugging me for some time.
Why can I not make comments?
That is my question for today. I just read a great article from Mike Guest about research papers, and I wanted to make a comment, but no matter how hard I tried, after about an hour (Yes, an hour!) I gave up. And this is not the first time this has happened to me. It’s really bizarre. I start writing; I edit; I erase; I go do something else; I come back and try again; ultimately, I turn off my computer. I don’t mean to be a lurker, as I think that is what I would be called, but what is it exactly that stops me from finishing my comment and clicking that send button? Have any of you had this experience? How did you overcome this problem?
Cheers,
eisensei
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Start small, and keep going. Sometimes it's intimidating to comment.... there are some really well crafted and intelligent blogs out there and I don't want to say something dumb! So just make a couple of little observations, your personal context or take, and keep going. After a while, you'll start adding more and more...
ReplyDeleteDon't worry, it's like Darren says, just start small - we have all been there!
ReplyDeleteI actually wrote emails (when the blogger had an email listed in the side bar) because I wanted to say something but didn't want everyone in the whole wide world to see what I said and ha, look at me - sometimes my comments are as long as my own blog posts!
The trick is disengage the idea of perfection, to accept that you'll make both spelling and grammatical errors on some incredibly important intelligent post (I made a huge error once on a David Crystal post... although I shouldn't have used that as an example because I never returned because I was terrified he'd forever remember me as the idiot who mixed up....well, not telling)
Anyhoo, Eisensei, point is you treat commenting like a conversation and you let your fingers tap at the keyboard more or less at the same speak your mouth would and it doesn't matter what you say (like you know when you're down the pub and you're chatting with colleagues about whatnot) - the blogger wants to know if you liked what he wrote, if you agreed or disagreed, and/or if you've got any tips to add to the general pot, right :-)
K
oh great.. my own example - that should read
ReplyDeleteYou let your fingers... at the same speed that your mouth would..
Hi, eisensei.
ReplyDeleteI know the feeling.
It's really got to do with what Karenne says above: the fear of putting your foot in your mouth before a huge audience and remembering that the Internet never forgets. I like Darren's advice: start small. I guess that you must have so many fantastic ideas and so much to say that you end up writing an essay-like post which gets sort of daunting halfway through. So, once more around the mulberry bush: start small and, as you gain confidence, keep expanding the comments/posts. But one thing is certain, do get started: the world wants to hear your voice.
Great post, by the way!
Cheers,
Fernando Guarany
Yes, but...it is really so bad to be a lurker? (It's true: I'm definitely one!). I really enjoy a number of blogs, and often I find that it's nice to read it, go away, mull things over, mention it to a colleague in the staffroom, maybe discuss things, perhaps follow up a really interesting blog with some reading and reflection on your own.. i guess what I'm saying is that perhaps if you don't feel compelled to reply, then replying would be easier?
ReplyDelete