Many thanks to my fellow bloggers for their helpful posts and comments to my blog posts. I certainly get a lot out of blogging as a result of what I learn from their comments. However, I feel baffled as to why there are so few comments from others, and wonder whether this might be because no one else is reading the blog apart from the 3 of us!
What would it take for people to take a more active part in this blog? There is a danger that the blog will become untenable if no one else expresses sufficient interest in it....
I do remember having had some responses to posts via the google groups, and am curious to know whether this is because people want their comments to remain private, or whether it is because it is more convenient to give comments in that way. Certainly google does not make it easy to post comments to blogs, as I have found out from my own failed attempts at posting comments. Am really interested in the answer to this as my own firm's blog gets no comments, and am wondering how to improve the situation. Does it have somethng to do with the google blogging comment facility which makes it difficult to comment.... Dying to receive your comments....
A lot of people are terrified that any comment they post -- even anonymously -- might be traced back to them. Also, among those of us who are British, there's a certain degree of shyness when it comes to these things.
ReplyDeleteIt took years for people to get comfortable with the idea of posting comments on the IPKat, even though we used to beg them to. I think we just have to be patient -- and to post items that spark off conflict/dialogue where possible.
I agree with you on that score Jeremy. On the other hand, quite a few people wonder what effect their views will have. What impact will what i say have anyway? That is probably the greatest impediment.
ReplyDeleteIn some other jurisdictions like mine in Uganda, the legal community is terrified of technology! Many practices have just purchased their first desktop 'for the secretary'. My practice is so small for instance that we hardly can afford a front desk person so the first person you meet is my legal assistant. Many times people address her without respect only for me to refer them to her!
Lastly, connectivity is still a tremendous challenge in developing countries. If you are paying for internet access by the minute and the link is doing 10kb per second, there is no time to go through the rigorous process Google has set up for comments.
As another British IP practitioner, I think Jeremy's comments on our reserve getting in the way of posting on blogs is very true. However, I have overcome this to post what I think is my first comment on a law related blog. I did not feel I could ignore Shireen's plea for a contribution.
ReplyDeleteMy other excuse for being a poor contributor is time, especially as a sole practitioner. Whenever I am motivated to contribute to a blog, I look at the stack of e-mails in my inbox waiting to be answered, and am struck by a guilt attack. Inevitably some emails get dealt with, but the blog gets left.
However, I am one of what I am sure is significant body of readers who enjoy reading the postings, who extract benefit from the comments, who are keen that the blog continues, but who are culpable of taking a passive role.
Now that I have overcome the first hurdle, hopefully my contributions will start to flow.
POST SCRIPT
I have now been trying to post this comment for about 5 minutes, and the other obstacle mentioned by the bloggers kicks in - the technical difficulties in making a posting - in my case inability to logon despite trying every password and username I can recall using or having been issued.