So I read a post over at Shannon’s blog that got me thinking.

She was talking about how fewer and fewer people seem to be commenting on blogs at the moment. She admits that she’s gotten into the habit of reading everything from her Google Reader, rather than visiting the sites themselves.

She writes:

I was part of a conversation the other day during which mention was made of how few people are commenting on some blogs nowadays.

I blame Giselle Google.

Okay, well to be more specific, I blame readers/feeds/whatever you call them. I started subscribing to blogs with Google Reader a while back and I love it. I really do. Especially when I’ve been up north and I’m way behind. But, because I’m not on the actual blog, I seldom comment because that would mean an extra click and I rarely have anything important to say anyway.

But I’ve started feeling disconnected—to conversations, to people, even to friends—and I can’t be the only one.

So she’s decided to go back to visiting the people listed on her sidebar, the old fashioned way.

I have to admit, I don’t visit actual sites as much as I used to, and yes, much of the blame can be laid at the door of Google Reader, but the fact is, I just don’t have that much time to play in Blogland as I used to. I even have problems keeping up with Google Reader, especially with sites that post shitloads per day. I’ve unsubscribed from Galleycat for this reason.

I’ve noticed that I tend to open the blogs that only have a couple of posts first, and  leave the ones that are packed out, ’til last. Sometimes I never bother reading these at all, because I know that even skimming them will take a while.

If I have something to say, and as long as it doesn’t exceed my internal maximum word count, I’ll say it, but more often than not, I’ll find myself bleeding all over somebody else’s blog, so I end up turning it into an individual blog topic. (For example, this post started life as a comment on Shan’s blog, but it just got way too long.) This happens to me even on my own blog.

Angie, then wrote a piece inspired by Shannon’s post where she talks about people not commenting on their own blogs.

She wrote:

Then, as I was blog surfing this week, I commented on a few blogs (I do comment when a topic strikes me), and of those, there were several looking for feedback about things. But the blog owners never commented back. Not to acknowledge that I’d “helped” them out, or that anyone else had either. In fact, I then realized that these bloggers almost never comment on their own blogs. And I was irritated. I thought “how rude”.

When I read Angie’s post I thought, wow, that’s so me. I realise that I’ve gotten really bad at replying to comments on here, but once again, I think my reasons are time-related, rather than just sheer laziness. Also, you guys are pretty good at responding to each other anyway, which, I admit, is what I count on.

I hope that nobody who visits KKB feels put out, when I don’t respond. I value most of you guys who take the time to comment, and I do realise that without you, the blog wouldn’t be half as interesting.

I do read every single comment, but I admit, I tend to respond more to the combative ones.

You guys deserve better, and I’ll make a conscious effort to be better, but I can’t promise to respond to every comment. Hell, I can’t even to promise to participate in every post, because quite frankly, I have a life outside Blogland, but I will try, though.

Actually I better ask, do you guys care whether I respond to comments or not?