August 27, 2008

commenting on commenting

Matt Haughey has an interesting post on his blog about feeling like an “old man” of blogging, railing against the young whippersnappers and their commenting habits…

It’s tough because I love blogs and I love comments in blogs, but I’m starting to think there’s this “new generation” that has grown up online only knowing blogs as having snarky comment areas and never realizing it used to be a personal, intimate space where you’d never say anything in a comment that you wouldn’t say to a friend’s face.

It’s worth reading in its entirety, of course, and there’s great stuff in the comments – from a pitch-perfect “FIRST!” to cardhouse attributing it to lowered barriers to entry (“Weblogs are practically crotch-thrusted at you, and commenting is crazy simple.”) And though I rambled on in my comment a bit (sorry, no comment permalinks on Matt’s blog, unfortunately), I’ll stick by my opener:

I used to get the best comments on my weblog hand-delivered to me over lunch. And you know what? I still do. (Plus, food!)

So if you have comments on this post, let me know and next time we’re together I’ll buy you lunch. I love lunch.