The last four hours have been a blur.
In my effort to show appreciation for everyone that comments, I have committed to responding to each in 2014. The process is a lot of fun and often what you write is funnier and more poignant than what’s in my post. I started tonight by responding to fresh comments from the past few days. Then I went back in time.
I found a ton of comments that had never been replied to over the years.
For fun I decided to pick posts at random.
I thought it would be hilarious to respond to readers from 2010-2012. My system is set up to send an email to the comment author immediately after I reply. Therefore two hundred emails went out from post comments that were several years old. I’m sure many of the people no longer read my blog and probably didn’t know what to make of the notification.
Can you imagine how you’d react if two years after writing a blog comment you got a response?
First you wouldn’t remember the post or maybe even the blog. Then you’d click the link to see what this was all about and the post might spark a faint memory. You’d see your words in the comment section but not remember writing them. You would then notice my reply underneath with today’s date. Next you might spend a few moments wondering about the mental well-being of an blogger going back this far to write his readers.
Let me tell you – replying to two hundred comments is not an easy task. I attempted to conjure up a decent retort to each response. So essentially I spent four hours writing jokes tonight. I’m exhausted.
I also found emails (some over a year old) where people had written in and never received a response. I responded.
There are still several thousand comments with no replies. I’m not sure if I can ever fully empty that inbox. But I’ll try. It’s fun to go back and read what people responded toe. For example – I missed this the first time around but somebody attacked me this fall when I called myself a professional blogger. I was simply referring to that I make some dough from my site. Anyway, this reader got offended and wrote a nasty comment about how I wasn’t successful at writing.
One of you came to my aid and ripped this person apart. It was awesome. I had completely missed the exchange the first time around.
In going back I found people that had been commenting frequently and then disappeared. Did they get fed up with never receiving a reply? Did they stop enjoying my posts? Did they plumb forget about me? Maybe they just stopped reading blogs in general?
Bloggers have a special relationship with their commenters. It’s a shared intimacy and develops over time. I’m sad that some people have stopped commenting and I find myself missing them. Then again, there are newer people who are writing in and I’m excited for that, too.
Okay, my fingers are woozy. Time to go soak them in a bowl of that stuff old people bathe in.
photo credit: dirtygirlsuds via photopin cc