Here I am, in day six of the Nerdlution effort of mine to leave 50 comments on 50 blogs over 50 days. I’m doing fine, and am making an effort to avoid bloggers I know (sorry, friends) in order to read and write on blogs that are new to me. I’m finding a wealth of words just off the #nerdlution twitter feed. It’s a been a great way to connect.
And a funny a thing has happened on the way to the Nerdlution.
Although my goal was just a single comment a day on a blog, once I have left that first one, I find myself seeking a few more bloggers each day, and adding more comments during my morning writing. On average, I am doing about four comments per day. Plus a few responses on Twitter. It’s interesting how a single goal can morph into something larger, and small accomplishments move into a larger shift in how we view our days and how we view our lives. Suddenly, commenting is what I am doing, a natural part of my writing experience.
I chose the 50 comment idea because I found myself slipping back into the mode of “I wish more people would comment on my writing” until I realized “I’m not commenting on anyone else’s writing, so why would they comment on mine?” This harkens back to a 30 day challenge from a few years ago, overseen by Sue Waters at Edublogs (if I remember correctly) to go out of your comfort zone, and out of your usual echo chamber circles, to add ideas and questions and reflections on the posts of others. (Although some of the same concerns remain for me — how do I best track where I have left comments so that I can return to read and respond to what others have written? I have not yet figured out a good system. I am using Diigo to bookmark my trail and Storify to collect the stories of my Nerdlution effort. Neither is seamless and a natural fit to the commenting idea, though)
If we truly believe that we are in the age of the Read/Write Web, or whatever term we want to give it, then we have a certain responsibility to engage in the writing part. Blogging is not a one-way street, at least in the way I see it. The reason to use a blog is to write and share, and instill the ethos of conversations and discussions. We should be engaging our communities in thinking an struggling with ideas.
Maybe that’s too much to ask of a comment on a blog, but it’s a start. It’s a start.
Peace (in the challenge),
Kevin
PS — yes. I created memes. Trying to keep the mood light in the #nerdlution twitter feed.
