I intended to share pictures from our Grand Rapids trip today, but I realized when I started working with photos that a whole slew of them are on Christian’s phone, which is currently with its owner on a business trip. So I will take this opportunity to ask a question of you, my readers, this morning:
How do you feel about replies to comments?
In the last couple of weeks I have bumped into several people who read this blog, sometimes commenting but more often not. One of them asked me why I don’t reply to comments more often.
Different bloggers handle comments in different ways. Some people reply to every.single.comment, others say their piece and let the combox fill without having to have the last word on every subject, and others, like me, are in between. I have always liked the blogs where the owner has a personalized note above the comment box, saying how much they appreciate every single comment. That is how I feel, but if WordPress.com has an option to let me do it, I haven’t found it.
What I don’t like is when blog authors reply to comments with, “Thank you for commenting!” just to make sure they reply to every single person, even if the visitor’s comment stands on its own.
But I also want to foster community, even if in online terms it is a small one.
So I ask you this morning (and to make it super easy, I even made you a poll!):
Comments welcomed–as always!
Kathleen M. Basi 
It depends on the comment; some obviously need a reponse but most do not.
That’s kind of been my feeling too.
Ditto to the above. Always nice to know someone took the time to read my comment, and the time I spent reading the blog, thinking about a personal comment, AND COMMENTING were appreciated….
I really wish .com had that option there for a personalized message above the comment box. But maybe that’s just laziness, anyway! 😉
I think it depends on the comment or type of post, and the content of your comment. There is no need for you to agree with this comment, just to let me know you’ve seen it. I assume that at some point you will read this comment, since it is on your blog. On the other hand, if I end this comment with a question, like asking you if you are more likely to return to a blog if the blogger responds, even with “thanks for commenting”, then I think a response is warrented.
Okay, I’m literally L’ing OL here, because I’m in the process of preparing some updates on my blog, fishing through old stuff, and I found a comment from YOU to which I’d never replied! I was feeling all weird that I hadn’t, all “oooh, is she offended?” and whatnot. Of course I found this at a time right before I was called away and I’ve since lost that comment and just surrendered it to God and stuff. So then I saw the subject of this post and had a moment of paranoia… which turns out to be unfounded. Anyway, I agree with Renee G above. In general, I get so few comments to begin with that I do try to at least give a “thank you,” but on occasion one slips by my eagle eyes.
I agree with Rann.