Blogonomics (Pt 2)
In the b-sphere, the ratio of blog posts/comments, on average, is really, really, really massive. Quickly eyeing a very high traffic blog - Engadget - the ratio is only about 1/3. This tells us two things. Either:
1) On average, people want to converse, but there are barriers to conversation.
2) On average, people don't really want to converse - what they wanna do is post.
I don't think 1 is likely - comments are pretty costless. But even on moderately high traffic blogs (like mine), there really aren't many to speak of. Conversations are really a hugely concentrated market: MeFi, /., nicheDots (like Daily Wireless), etc. So I will go with 2 for now. Which tells us:
3) Mechanisms are required which create gains to conversation, since costlessly conversing doesn't provide an incentive.
Which is something I'm thinking about...
Here's a comment, just so your post about lack-of-comments has one. :)
But really, as an information consumer, I can quickly scan hundreds of blog posts in a day, but there are very few that I have the time or (as you say) incentive to comment upon. Rather, they inform me, I process the information as I go about my day, and it eventually spills over into the posts I make on my own blog.
# // Anonymous // 5:15 AM