What’s the point of commenting on blog posts?

My good friend Wally Bock commented on my post ” Why Do I Blog” saying

“What I didn’t anticipate was that commenting on other blogs would be such a great experience. Now I tell coaching clients that they should read blogs on topics of interest, but also comment. It helps you learn, but, more importantly, it makes you part of the conversation and a wider community”

 and his comments got me thinking some more…. which is the point of this post really.

I love when people comment on my blog. I have a band of regular commentors and from time to time somebody new comes by and takes the time to tell me what they think. Sometimes they become regulars too which is good. As a blogger I gain a huge amount from the comments others make. We don’t have to agree  – the point of the conversation is to share your perspective   – and knowledge – and maybe provoke some futher thoughts.

Wally tells me that he suggests to his coaching clients that they read blogs and make comments. I think this is a great idea. I found it really challenging to do this in the early days so I ”lurked” for a bit  until I plucked up the courage (As an aside –  when I talk about social networking and lurking my audiences love it…they recognise themselves and know that they are not alone. Hopefully it helps them come out of those shadows!) . Then I found a couple of bloggers who were saying something that really caught my attention and I pitched in. I thought, rethought, edited and finally pressed the “submit” button and was delighted to see how other strands of the thread came from what I had said – it gave me the confidence to do it more and then set up my own blog.

A post might be worthy of reading in its own right – with comments attached it can take on a life of its own.

But I do have some concerns. Sometimes I am attracted to a post that has loads of comments but when I look a good number of them are saying “great post”. I realise that this might be spam but if you have gone as far as saying “great post” how much more valuable would it be to say why you think so? I realise too that some commentors want their profile to be linked to a recognised blogger but really it would benefit  their reputation so much more if they added something worthwhile to the discussion!

I also have a bit of an issue with anonymous commentors. I participate in several discussion groups in which people are obviously using pseudonyms  and much of my community is made up of HR professionals I accept that this might have to be so. But I regularly see comments making a particular point and usually at odds with the original post which does not allow the author to take the discussion with the commentor further. To me that is a bit like ringing a bell and running away….!

So let’s hear it for commenting on blog posts you agree with /disagree with/want to learn more about to keep the conversation going.

….and please share your thoughts.