You may have noticed that there’s been an overactive spam filter here lately
Some of you may have experienced comments disappearing for no reason. Well, I usually don’t know the reason, either. I just check the moderation folder and the trash and spam folders now and then and I find them, and then I almost always liberate them to see the public light of day. But I probably miss a few.
So if you’re having repeated trouble that way, please let me know.
Also, here’s a question about blog business from commenter “JimNorCall”:
For any thread there is a usual set of regulars commenting. But, in addition, there is a fairly enormous set of “new names”.
The unfamiliar (to me) names will comment on just one or a couple posts but pretty much every post will have a few of them.
What is the source for all the people who visit TheNewNeo?
Generally there are a lot more people who just read here and don’t comment then there are people who comment here regularly. The commenters are the tip of a fairly small iceberg. But sometimes those lurkers comment, and they are perceived as new names even though they’ve been around a while.
Also, though, when there is a link at a big blog like Instapundit or elsewhere, there sometimes are quite a few commenters who arrive and then comment just once at that link but don’t stay. Some do stick around, though and become regulars.
There are also people who have some sort of alert that tells them when certain topics are written about. Some are trolls and some are just people interested in that topic.
For example, it used to be that, whenever I wrote something about Israel, anti-Israel trolls would come like ants at a picnic. Readers here don’t necessarily see the worst ones because I tend to ban them rather quickly. But many who come that way are also friendly.
For example, I once wrote a post about a certain poet, and his son came and commented. He must have had some sort of alert or perhaps he performed regular searches for his father’s name. Google has since changed its algorithm, however, so that blogs don’t come up in searches in the way they used to.
Apparently there’s also some glitch on my blog – something I have to get some professional to fix – that makes this blog even more invisible to Google than it would otherwise be. I’ve had trouble getting someone willing and able to help me, and I don’t think it’s mostly for political reasons, I think the job is just too minuscule for them to bother with in terms of the amount of money they’d receive.
Dear Neo, i love your blog, but I rarely write comments because there exists a language barrier for me.
Re alerts bringing people on a particular topic: Quite a few years ago on my blog I posted a pretty negative commentary on Ayn Rand. It apparently triggered some kind of alert to which a good many Randians were subscribed, because they poured in to argue with and/or denounce me. I think it ended up being the longest comment thread I ever had, maybe as many as 300. Unfortunately I had to switch platforms at some point after that and all the comments were lost. It would be fun to re-read them now. Or maybe not.
They did not succeed in correcting my thinking.
I too love this blog, but to share a perspective of a “lurker”- commenting anywhere online can be exhausting. Figuring out how to say what I want to say, feeling badly about myself as I may not have expressed myself as best I could have (as I edit this very comment for the 6th time), then anticipating comments on my comment, the time and energy to come back to engage with comments or deciding to try to ignore them, and often comments online can be misunderstanding or combative and then deciding whether or not it’s worth the emotional energy to engage/defend. It’s easier to mostly keep my thoughts to myself.
It takes a certain topic that I care passionately for, and that I have a depth of knowledge in, and that I feel strongly enough about to want to overcome all of the above to add my own comment. I have commented on this blog approx once a year- but I read daily.
For what it’s worth, when I first started reading blogs close to 20 years ago (!!!), I was very reluctant to comment. I would agonize for a long time over everything I might want to write, and so I seldom commented. I got more and more used to it over time, and then I was persuaded (by my son) to start a blog, and the rest is history.
I welcome all commenters here except trolls, and I try to create an environment that’s respectful without being a boring echo chamber.
Mac:
Yes, I’ve had that phenomenon, in particular when a leftist blog would link something I wrote and trash it (almost always by lying about what I had said, naturally). That would draw a lot of trolls, for a while. Most of this would happen when the blog was at blogspot, where I posted until 2007. At the time, it didn’t give the blogger much power to ban people, so I left for WordPress.
Neo:
“I would agonize for a long time over everything I might want to write” – the same is with me ))))))
Quite a few years ago on my blog I posted a pretty negative commentary on Ayn Rand. It apparently triggered some kind of alert to which a good many Randians were subscribed, because they poured in to argue with and/or denounce me. I think it ended up being the longest comment thread I ever had, maybe as many as 300.
IIRC, you were arguing with one guy. I wondered if you’d attracted one of the semi-professional Objectivists at the Ayn Rand Institute.
I lurked here for a couple of years at least before I commented. The one thing I like about this place is the wide variety of topics and I don’t feel the need to comment about certain things then there are some topics I think I am pretty informed on or passionate about and that is where I spout off.
AD–yes, it was mainly one guy, but there were several in the beginning. I think only that one and maybe one other of the Randians stuck it out for very long. I don’t recall now whether they used real or at least real-looking names, but I don’t recall making any effort to find out whether they were affiliated with AR Institute.
Neo–my blog was at Blogspot then, too, and Google owned Blogspot by then, so probably that had something to do with it.
Kshoosh- I too love this blog, but rarely post comments for the same reasons as you. Also, I usually find that by the time I gather my thoughts and start to compose my comment, one of the other commenters has already expressed it better than I would have.
I’ve noticed that when I post a link to one of your entries into Slack, it does not expand. This suggests that you are on some Non-conformist List somewhere….
I’m with Griffin in that I like the variety of topics, Neo’s clear writing, and the community of regular commenters. I usually find that someone has said what I might have been thinking so I don’t comment unless I have something to add.
And it’s always good to have a jack wagon or two among the regulars!
I read it all but doubt that I comment more than once a week or so. With my schedule what I want to say has often been posted by somebody else already.
I’m another one who reads regularly and comments rarely – like the others in my situation, by the time I get here, someone has usually beaten me to the punch, and said what I might have in a much better way.
I recall that I found Neo from PowerLine. They had linked to one of her posts at the top of their page. Really happy to have found my way here. I comment from time to time, but not every day. See you ’round!
I’m always pleased to hear from lurkers and semi-lurkers.
Although of course I support your right to remain silent 🙂 .
I came for The Bee Gees and have stayed around for everything else! After lurking at MOTUS blog for 10 years, I ventured over to American Digest…and then one day Gerard linked to Neo regarding brotherly “close harmony.”
Some commenters write (and think) so easily and naturally. That can feel really intimidating to those of us who have to labor over it a little more. I’ve resolved to just enjoy and appreciate. I learn something new with every visit!
Neo, one really good thing is your choice of Open Threads. I share them often with friends and family. Even the daftest bleeding-heart liberals seem to appreciate your topics…Ozzy Man to Russian folk dance! I have hopes they stick around for more serious subjects.
If so, your smart, balanced, encouraging tone stands a good chance of reaching them. I know it has great appeal for the rest of us!!
I comment irregularly, picking and choosing topics really important to me. However, often people getting here before me make the comment I planned on, so other than just to say – I agree – I just leave it.
But I’ve been around A LONG time online – getting first into BBSing, then Usenet. Blogs just were a continuation of my already annoying personality! And yes, you can find my presence back then….if you dig deep enough!!
From bits and pieces here and there I would first assume it’s political. Lucky my favorites are saved so don’t go through a search.
I know the feeling of doing a first blog comment. Even though I’d done some BBS and usenet I just lurked at blogs. I felt like a non-swimmer jumping in the deep end at both Belmont Club, which I rarely commented at, and at Protein Wisdom where I ended up mostly for about a decade or so. First comment anywhere is the hardest one. Just try to be polite and exact in meaning. Typing your words doesn’t have the bandwidth of talking personally.
Well, I have to assure Neo that this Salon certainly is NOT a boring echo chamber!
I particularly like hearing from people who have so many different personalities, preferences, life stories, and insights into topics that I only know from skimming the punditry, which does often seem to be an echo chamber (“here’s MY take on the crisis du jour, according to the company Memo”) on both the Left and the Right.
@ Kshoosh > staying engaged does take a lot of time and energy, but I have decided this is my hobby, and it isn’t any harder than training for a marathon or tying fishing lures.
Plus, it’s cheap.
(But don’t be a cheap-skate — hit Neo’s tip jar when you can!)
I’m one of those introverts who enjoys doing research, likes connecting dots (articulately or not), and prefers long-distance “relationships” to dealing with live people up-close-and-personal about controversial topics.
This is where I do the ranting that I forego around the relatives and friends.
PS Go ahead and throw your thoughts out on the board, and don’t worry about having to reply, engage, or defend anything.
We may not be entitled to our own facts, but we’re certainly entitled to our own opinions!
I’ve been following neo for so long that I no longer recall how I originally found her – it was probably Little Green Footballs. LGF introduced me to many of the blogs I follow (or followed) – Belmont Club, USS Clueless (the late Stephen Den Beste), Dr. Sanity, and was the first place I heard names like Ayaan Hirsi Ali and Geert Wilders. Then one day the person/people (Charles Johnson?) who ran LGF got sidetracked with fighting ‘intelligent design’ in schools or something and I completely stopped visiting the site. Neo introduced me to Power Line, which I now frequent, rather than the other way around.
I forget how I found Neo’s blog, I would suspect it was probably a link from the Erstwhile Dr. Sanity’s blog (*sigh*. She’s doing fine last I heard, which wasn’t too too long ago, but no longer doing much poliblogging of any kind, not even on her personal social media page)…
But it’s been one of my three go-to blogs for two decades, and the only one consistently, since Dr. Sanity ceased regular blogging.
}}} Then one day the person/people (Charles Johnson?) who ran LGF got sidetracked with fighting ‘intelligent design’ in schools or something and I completely stopped visiting the site.
LGF went over to the Dark Side about 15-odd years ago, and hasn’t been anything but another Lefty echo chamber ever since.
I will confess, along with Dr. Sanity, the other one I miss the most is Bill Whittle’s Eject! Eject! Eject!… He now vlogs a lot, which is good in itself, and he probably reaches more people, but his long-form essays are still the best damned political essays I’ve read. Even his cobweb site is gone, about the only way to access his stuff is via Archive.org and the Wayback machine (if anyone needs a link, ask, I can provide one)
For me, I get sent here periodically by commenters on other sites recommending a post. (You had a great fan in a late Samizdata.net commenter who constantly recommended you.) Nothing evil or nefarious. I think I’ve commented here twice.
Trackbacks count! 😉
I figure I got here via Instapundit.
If one hopes for a modicum of impact, it’s good to think about lurkers when one comments.
It also has a moderating effect IMO. I want to be wearing my good clothes, so to speak, when there’s an audience.