Join the 2008 Comment Challenge
May 1, 2008 by Diane
Coordinated by Sue Waters, Silvia Tolisano, Michele Martin and Kim Cofino, the Comment Challenge has been designed to motivate us to become “better blog citizens.”
I think this is just the kick-in-the-pants I need to get back to being a participating citizen of the edublogsphere, one who enjoys the right to take part in collegial dialogue and lives up to the responsibility of adding to the conversation in a meaningful way.
I’m looking at the Challenge Activity for Day 1 (and I’d better hurry as this day is rapidly getting away from me). The activity is to do a commenting self-audit. It’s interesting that as I’m reflecting on my commenting behaviour, I stumble upon today’s post by David Truss where he re-visits one of his posts from a year ago. One of the comments David quotes from the original post is mine. A year ago I commented daily – on many of the blogs aggregating in my Google Reader as well as throughout the Classroom 2.0 community.
Here’s a snapshot of my Google Reader as of five minutes ago:
Four hundred + unread items. That’s actually not too bad, considering it was consistently 1000+ items for the first couple of months this year. I’ll admit – in juggling all the things screaming for my time, I’ve let reading slip down the priority list. And if I’m not reading it follows that I haven’t been commenting either. Well I’m back – at least for the next thirty days! Want to join me?
Technorati Tags: comment08, Sue Waters, Silvia Tolisano, Michele Martin, Kim Cofino, David Truss, Comment Challenge
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Thanks for the comment Diane,
I have been moving my entire blog one-post-at-a-time and reflecting on each post along the way… a great, but exhausting experience! You had actually commented on Ning’s Classroom2.0 site where I cross-posted this blog entry.
I think the comment challenge is great, and if you have a ‘next round’ I will join you. For now my own blog is my focus, then I will get back to my nice post-to-comment ratio:-)
By the way, I can’t remember when the last time my GReader wasn’t at 1000+. I haven’t started over because I love the shared items that friends send me, and recently that’s all I have time to get to.
Happy Commenting!
Dave
I’m in, and I love the screenshot of your GoogleReader “unread items” total… complete with cool green arrow (how did you do that?).
The more blogs I read (and my corresponding GoogleReader number as I type is 314), the longer my online “to do” list gets. And commenting, even with its true position at the heart of it all, sometimes DOES seem to get “the short end of the stick.”
One thing I’m in the technological market for (and by that I mean, one thing is easily downloadable, fully functional, and free or near-free) is an RSS reader that will allow me to comment from within the reader. Bringing the ability to comment closer to the stream of my RSS would increase the odds of my following through on that impulse.
So, too, will this challenge. I just finished a month-long writing challenge on my personal blog, and was leaning towards taking a bit of a break, but this is too good… I’m in!
David, good luck with the move to the new blog. I love your idea of reflecting on each post as you move it. It’s a long story, but I will be moving this blog too, so I hope you don’t mind if I “borrow” your technique
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It would be interesting to do a Twitter Poll to see if people are reading and blogging as much as they did a year ago and if not what’s taking some of that time. For me Twitter and Diigo seem to be grabbing those first few minutes every morning.
Shelley, thanks for visiting! As for the green arrow, I just added it to my screenshot in Photoshop.
I heartily agree with you – the more you read, the longer your to-do list gets. But it’s a different kind of to-do list, isn’t it? It’s a vibrant, exciting list that comes from learning. I often find I’m tackling that list long before my things-to-get-done list. Enjoy the challenge. I’m already meeting new people like yourself!
I think I’m actually getting a ‘different’ audience along with a few regulars. It has been interesting. In actual fact the number of readers that read me through an RSS reader have increased, but my comments have been low… of course, I have never been someone that gets a lot of comments- probably because my posts tend to be too long.
Twitter has been fabulous as a node in my learning network, but I’m still figuring our how to take full advantage of diigo (I still do my searches on delicious but save everything on diigo and have it auto transfered to delicious).
I agree with you about Twitter. As used in the true “what are you doing now?” sense, I have no use for it. When you carefully pick the people you are following it’s an indispensible tool. It’s the first thing I check every morning upon boot-up. As for diigo, I think it’s just a matter of personal preference. I much prefer it over del.icio.us
Hello Diane,
Thank you for your Blog and for allowing me to comment. I’m in this Challenge thanks to twitter: in just about two weeks my whole perception of blogging and using internet as a tool to enrich classic teaching at school has dramatically changed. I was studying some tips on Sue Waters’ The edublogger when I stumbled upon twitter, just by chance. Since then, I’ve discovered web 2.0 and a totally new conception of School; my young students just love to listen to my brand news, each morning, about this wonderful world out there that suddenly became accessible to them; thus we are learning the art of blogging and “micro blogging”.
I have not felt “lost in the web-ocean” any more, since I started following e-learning teachers and colleagues on twitter; on the contrary, the sense of belonging to a Community gives me the strength to study and learn and the joy of sharing it all with my students.
(I’m sorry not to know how to tag my comment with a technorati tag as I’ve been told to do, but this is one of the many new wonders of the web I didn’t understand how to cope with…)
Inpi, nice to “meet” you! If you are like me you’ll find that once you’ve discovered the “wisdom of the network”, you’ll never go back to be a solitary learner again.
As for the technorati tags, you only need those in your own posts, not in your comments. Are you using coComment to track your comments?
Diane,
Yes, thank you! Yesterday I’ve been taught how to use coComments and I’ve just found your comment through them. I’m surrounded by dozens of comments from unknown and friendly people to unknown and friendly people! Its amazing, I somehow experience the empowerment hidden in this beautiful expression you just used:the “wisdom of the network”!
Diana, I came here through David’s post and also thinking about how I found the time to read and comment last year. Our online universe has expanded so much. I have double feelings about this. I sometimes feel guilty for marking as “all read” the posts I admit will never read, but at the same time I know that this expansion of my network has provided me valuable learning strategies.
Just remembered I was writing a post, which is also something I’ve been neglecting recently.
Nice to “meet” you Gabriella! I just clicked through to your blog and read the wonderful explanation of your Reveal Ties metaphor. Simply beautiful! You’ve hooked me, so now I’m going back to read your posts
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I understand completely your feelings of guilt when you just can’t keep up with your RSS reader. In fact I wrote myself a post about it.
I’m going over to your blog now. See you there!
I’m also participating in the 31 Day Comment Challenge. Despite the fact that my RSS feeder is 1000+ I’ve decided that I am going to read some new blogs by going to the blogs of people who have left comments on my blog. (Like you!) I hate to admit that’s not something I do on a regular basis and I don’t get many comments so there’s no excuse! I’m also going to check out the blogs of the people that have joined my new Ning for elementary tech teachers. I think this will be one more step in becoming a better blog citizen.
You said, “Four hundred + unread items. That’s actually not too bad, considering it was consistently 1000+ items for the first couple of months this year. ” I’m wondering how you managed to get this number whittled down. I’m subscribed to over 60 blogs. Is that too many? I keep finding more blogs I ‘d like to add but try to resist the temptation. I’ve thought of unsubscribing to some but can’t make myself do it! One of these days I’ll hit the Mark All Read button and start over. But before I do that I’m looking for advice on keeping up with it. Do you have any tips to share?
Hi Nedra – it’s good to “meet” you!
At the moment I have 67 feeds in my Google Reader and four of those are my own projects so I should discount them.
It’s pretty easy to skim a lot of the feeds. Every once in a while the “same” conversation happens all over my network. If I’m interested I jump in, commenting “all over the place”. If I’m not interested I just quickly mark the posts as read.
I also find that some bloggers often post on a theme and if it doesn’t interest me, I unsubscribe. I may find my way back to their blogs through links on other blogs and re-subscribe.
I guess my point is that “the network” is fluid. It’s OK to subscribe, unsubscribe, tune in and even turn it off! There’s so much to be learned – it doesn’t matter what our entry or exit points are.
Thanks for commenting! I’ll keep checking your blog – we elementary teachers have so much to learn from each other!
Nice meeting you too Diane! Thank you for your response. Remembering “the network” is fluid is a good point. At first I was feeling guilty when I didn’t keep up the reader but quickly got over that. I know I’m reading blogs everyday just not necessarily ones from my reader. I tend to read a lot of posts that come through that quickly moving river called Twitter. I’ll keep your blog as well.
Glad to have you with us for the challenge Diane! I have to admit I’m envious of your under 1000+ items in your Google reader. I am too anxious to consume everything that I have far too much flowing into my account than I could ever possibly read. This challenge is definitely clarifying for me that I need to thin out my reader before I can even begin to change my (currently very poor) commenting habits!
Kim, thanks so much for dropping by! The first time I marked all my feeds “read” I had an incredible sense of loss – a feeling that I was letting go of nuggets of wisdom that would be irretrievable. I’m over it
This is a flowing river where I can jump off on a group of warm rocks, take a breath, relax and soak up the sun. Then when I’m rejuvenated I can just jump back in and let the current take me where it will.
I’m glad that same current pulled you over here!