Comments on: “One Percent” Rule is kicking my butt

By: andy

andy — Thu, 15 Mar 2007 00:49:23 +0000

I read this blog for the “marketing 2.0″ content and not as much the sports (though I’m also a Colts fan). So in some ways I don’t feel overly qualified to participate in “sports marketing” conversations. The other main factor for me, and this is probably even more important, is I read blogs via RSS in Bloglines. So almost all of the time, I’m not actually visiting the blog itself and thus don’t comment.

But I can sympathize with your frustration. I’m a big believer in blogs and other 2.0 technologies. But I know in my organization the 1% rule would quickly be latched onto as a good reason not to bother with those things.

By: Tim

Tim — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 22:39:44 +0000

I read an unrelated blog where the “owner” posts lengthy stuff sometimes, or he can simply put up a one word post like “cricket” and within a few hours there are 30 or more comments from the “readers”. It strikes me more as a forum than a blog, but where only one person starts the threads. A lot of the interaction is between people leaving comments, rather than with the “owner”. He is more a facilitator than anything. I haven’t seen any other blogs like that. The difference is that he does not make himself out to be an expert or an authority on any subject, although he is on several.

Which leads me to think… on a blog where there is an “expert” posting, there might be a “fear factor” for people. “Will I look stoopid if I post something that is wrong?”, “will I get shot down?”

Another thing I often do is use RSS. It gathers up all the new posts from the blogs I read, and I read them offline. of course it means I can’t click through to the blog on the web and leave a comment, but I can email right there. THen when I connect it goes through. I don’t know how many people do that, but RSS is pretty popular so it might be a few. Perhaps you could rig up mailto: link in each blog post, if I click it and reply, then when it’s received at your end, it goes straight to the comments. I guess you’d want to mark it clearly so that people don’t think their email to you is private.

I also think there’s a critical mass thing. If enough people comment, more people seem to do so. There’s a heightened sense of participation. Perhaps it is vanity? “it’s not worth posting my great comment on a blog that no one is participating in”. Chicken and egg stuff.

Finally, the email you get… is it on topic? I emailed you once, but it was a bit off topic from the post that triggered it. Maybe there is a bit of that in it as well.

By: chaosmagnet

chaosmagnet — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 14:51:20 +0000

When I was 9 my mom gave me the the last version of the book “The Whole Earth Catalog.” Wow, a book where I could learn everything?

Come on, jump in…express yourself online…the water’s fine….

There was a great quote from the authors…”Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.”

By: Kevin Makice

Kevin Makice — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 14:30:47 +0000

There are many blogs and bloggers that would quickly dismiss this statement, but blogs are not the ideal places for conversation. In most cases, there is one person (the author) with the power, forcing the rest of the people (the readers) into an inherently more passive role. Even when you are fortunate to get a long string of comments, contributions effectively put up more barriers to participation than they entice people to post. The longer the thread, the more one has to read to understand that micro-community.

I’m very interested in getting my hands on that book, since part of my current research is examining this issue of participation as a function of choice of forum type. I wonder if the overall participation levels would go up considerably if the forums above were structured to form small-group interaction. I wonder, too, if there were any studies of participation in social networking sites included in that book.

(BTW, not all of my comments show up. I think it has something to do with the presence of a link included in comments. For example, I see my comment to your previous post, but it doesn’t show up in the front-page sidebar of recent comments or part of the count in the post thread. Maybe there is an interface feedback problem for the user, and you are getting more participation than you think. Bottom line of the message: I’d love to help with the unconference.)