As someone who’s relatively new to blogging (just passed the one year mark! yippee!) I can identify with the thrill that comes from someone commenting on one of your posts, especially if your hit rates are usually low. And while I agree that comments beget comments, I never seem to have enough time to comment on all the blogs I read–I guess I should keep this in mind when wondering why people haven’t commented on my blog.

As to replying to comments, I agree with most of what’s been said here–unless a question has been asked or a particularly helpful/interesting point has been made, I wouldn’t expect to receive/give a reply. Jane is right, nobody wants to read millions of replies that aren’t particularly informative/relevant. When a comment does warrant a reply though, my preferred mode is for a reply in the comments–although you can’t be sure the commenter will come back to read it, it’s in the most logical place, and can help anyone else who stops past.

The moment the blog and writing for myself stops being fun, I’ll stop doing it. I suspect that day might be very soon, actually. I have loved the relationships I have formed in real life with people who read my blog (and people’s blogs that I read) but these would be people I would hold dear regardless of whether they have blogs or not, or comment on mine or not.

Good food for thought, Emma.

Then there’s the whole debate about whether to reply via email or in the comments themselves – I never know whether or not to subscribe to the comments on someone’s blog (and this isn’t even an option on all blog providers) and on some blogs I comment on I’ll get 300 emails from all the commenters if I do that! It’s a minefield alright. Fortunately I think blogland is a fairly flexible and forgiving sort of a place, and there aren’t many people who would be annoyed with you for not responding to a comment they left or not commenting frequently enough on their blog. I think about this a lot too though, and am always interested to see what others do and how they deal with it – there’s a lot of variation.

I try to remind myself sometimes that if I wrote for a newpaper or magazine, I wouldnt expect to hear from every reader every time, that sometimes just reading is enough. Sometimes I think there’s too much emphasis on comments, but I realise I’m lucky because I usually have a pretty good response rate.

But back to the topic at hand, as I said to you earlier, I don’t expect replies when I comment on a blog – in fact I sometimes wish the people who routinely respond to every comment I leave wouldn’t – it feels a bit empty to have someone simply write back and say hi bells thanks for that. etc etc. It’s for that reason I don’t respond to every comment I get. It can be a bit cumbersome and a bit pointless. But if someone asks a question or makes a particularly helpful/meaningful/interesting comment I’ll write back. I think the best thing we can do as readers and bloggers is support each other’s work, show interest when we feel it, just make contact as and when the desire strikes/time permits.

Firstly, like you I love to get comments (and admit to being disappointed when I don’t!).

I believe comments beget comments so I make sure I comment on most blog posts I read (very occasionally I can’t think of anything to say). If I like receiving comments then it follows that others (like you) do too!

Sometimes, though not frequently, I reply to the comments – especially if there’s a question. My first choice is to reply directly by email (sometimes that’s not possible due to noreply@…); sometimes I reply by visiting the commenters blog and adding a BTW to my comment on their post. Where there are many similar comments, I post on my own blog to follow up. For example, when my dad died earlier this year, I posted a thank you on my blog.