iReply: community and commenting
I keep joining things this month - PhotoHunt, NaBloPoMo, and now the iReply movement. I saw it on Hawk’s place (and he’ll tell you where he saw it) and followed the links to Me And My Drum, who posted about the movement that was started after various conversations among blogger buddies.
I have been complaining to a friend of mine lately about this. I’ve found some bloggers with very interesting and relevant (to me) things to say, and yet they ignore comments. So why allow comments at all? I fully admit that I want community from my blogging experience. Not to mention that often some of the best parts of the post actually occur in the comments, so fostering discussion and community benefits everyone.
When I followed Hawk’s links in his post, I found that Mark (of MeAndMyDrum) and his blogging buddies (Mike and Brown Baron) who came up with this were saying the same things. It was much like reading my own thoughts, even down to deleting feeds from my reader of the blogs that weren’t welcoming! Well, other than the issue of having so many comments that I couldn’t keep up! That’s not anything I’ve experienced.
So I am joining the movement, and putting the graphic (which I stole from Hawk, because the dark background wasn’t working great with the original from Mark’s site) on my sidebar. I’ll reply to pretty much anyone who comments, unless (not holding my breath!) it gets to be too much, in which case I’ll reply to as many as possible (especially any newcomers) and make sure that everyone feels welcome.
Deb, (((((YOU GO GIRLFRIEND!))))) with the iReply. Bully!!! Bully for you! Glad you have joined with me and the others in the community. I have to find out what this PhotoHunt stuff is all about. By the way, if you want to resize this moniker here’s one of the two links I use to resize images. Letting go with my talons http://www.resize.it/. Also, if you want some other thangs, if you check out my del.icio.us box at the toward the bottom of my sidebar, click on the header of the widget, you’ll be directed to all the nifty little thangs I have tagged recently. Or, if you like, you can just go directly here: http://del.icio.us/Faulcon. Peace my sister. By-the-way, did I ever tell you I just love them bananas!!!!!!!!!!!
I’m boing, boing, boing, gone!
Ill catch you on the recoil…
Thanks for the resize link! I work only with pictures, most of the time, and so I use photoshop, which is a beast to use for just a quick resize. How nice to have a quick and lightweight option! Thanks!
My photohunt button is clickable (if you haven’t already clicked it), and I’ve just joined this past week for the first time, but it was fun. This coming week’s theme is “practical” which is a difficult but interesting photo theme! I’m a shutterbug, so I love these things.
And I’m glad you love the bananas!
Dem tangs r jus’ loded fuld ov potassiam frum wat i here’d!
I see you you got that link and image working yourself. You probably r an ol’ pro at this stuff!
Photoshop is a PITA (Pain-In-The-Ask)! Don’t much use it all!
Peace and all that jazz!
I’m a newbie at linking images, just learned like two or three days ago!
I agree on PS, it really is a pita. BUT most of my image processing has to be done through it (or through similar pita programs), so I deal with it…but it is nice to not deal with it when other programs will do perfectly!
Thanks for joining the iReply Movement! Always great to hear the word being spread around.
Yeah, I hate it when I comment on a site and it’s just ignored. Maybe they just don’t want the community thing or something. I don’t know, but it makes me feel like I’ve kind of wasted some effort. I agree that sometimes the best stuff happens on the comments! Absolutely, girl.
Like the picture - he looks like he’s got something to say too!
Hiya,
I’ve seen it before and thought about joining - it’s a good idea because I feel the same way. I’ll check it out again. My sidebar feels kind of crowded to me at times though. I’ve thought about getting a very different sort of theme though. (I’ve got a style sheet that I’ve used in the past for something else that might work really well to change things up a bit.)
I use a program called ArcSoft Photo Studio that I like alot - it’s very much like PhotoShop but I believe it’s a much lighterweight program than PhotoShop. (maybe a tad less versatile though)
Anyway, I hope everyone’s having a beautiful day today.
Peace, ~ RS ~
If someone takes the time to comment on my blog, I like to respond because it means alot to me that someone would invest their time with me. With this blog incarnation, I’m posting my comment as an ‘edit’ to their original comment, rather than creating a new comment of my own each time. I know with WordPress Users they can go back and check to see the edit from their Dashboard, if they like. This seems like a nice group, but I’ll probably not join it only because I’m already doing it….
Thanks Mark! I’m glad you guys started it! It is a great idea.
OB, I figure that if a blogger doesn’t respond to comments, they don’t want community, but I still don’t get why they blog in that case. Or why they enable comments. They could easily just have a website they update with their thoughts so that we could all go and view them with wonder and awe. Okay, that was a bit facetious, but seriously, I do feel like I’ve wasted effort if they can’t even acknowledge people!
Ruby, you post your commenting intentions on your blog already. That’s all that this really is! Though I’m sure you could get a smaller sidebar thing. I don’t think it matters exactly, other than to just give people a clue.
I’m cool with Photoshop. When I’m working with my photos, I use Bridge and Photoshop, and while I’ve thought about giving Lightroom or Aperture a try, I’m not shelling out more money for photo software at this point, and neither would let me ditch PS, it would just make my workflow and raw image work easier/better (so I hear). However to resize a small graphic, I’ll definitely use the link that Hawk provided! PS would take longer to open than that utility takes to work!
Grace, I think everyone who has joined is already doing it, was doing it long before they heard of this group. That being said, I’m not pushing anyone to join a group, I’m only stating my own intentions. In this case, with regards to responding to comments, well, obviously it is that I’m going to continue on as I have been doing all along!
Oh, and OB, Lily the cow poking her head in? The cows are a bit wary of the horses, but they love the hay in the horse barn, so Lily was poking her head through the people door and grabbing mouthfuls of hay!
Welcome to the community!
Thanks Brown Baron!
Lilly is adorable! I forgot to mention it in my last post.
I think it’s nice Mark and Brown Baron came and welcomed you in this way. Tha’s really - sweet and attentive!
Peace today.
~ RS ~
Gracie, I think the iReply is nothing more than a visual moniker to communicate openness and interaction. We all have been doing it, but it just may be another impetus to prompt someone new that does visit to jump in. Who knows! Maybe it helps and maybe it doesn’t. I thought and felt like you, but I said “What the hey!” Let’s just do it!
Peace my sister!
Spreading the wings…………………….take off!
Ruby, Lily really is a cutie. She came to the sanctuary very young and horribly sick, but you’d never know it to see her now! And it was very sweet of Mark and Brown Baron!
Hawk, I had the same thought at first too! It was actually reading the posts you linked in that made me feel like it was something I wanted to be a part of and contribute to in my small way. Plus a way for people to see right away what they’re getting into with me.
Wow, that’s a lot of things to join. I would forget my password for at least half of those.
lol. The only one that has a password is nablopomo, and only because they have forums!
I am not usually such a joiner, it is just the month for it, I guess! We’ll see what else I join before the month is done!
Thanks for stopping in!