The State of Blogging Today

These are just my observations regarding blogs today.
I'm not going to do an analysis. I'm not going to invest that much time in something no one's gonna read.
And there you have my first observation.

It seems that there are a number of motivations for a blogger.

A number claim it is just a place to vent.
Others a place to exercise their writing skills.
These two types of blogger often claim that they don't care if they are read, their blog is just for them.

Another type likes to provoke a discussion, sort of a salon if you will.

Others, like myself, like to express some insight they may have and perhaps provoke a discussion of that.

Some bloggers are prolific, with two or three posts a day (a bit overwhelming to keep up with) while others, like myself, post whenever inspired or bored.
Many make it a habit to post daily as a discipline.

I read a number of blogs. I like to keep current on them.
This can be taxing sometimes.
Reading other blogs can lead me to:
a: not post, because someone has already touched on that subject well and I figure if I've read it , you've read it.
b: post, as I believe comments were not an appropriate venue for the response to an inspiration from that post.

As to commenting.
I like to comment as an encouragement to the blogger I read, even if I have no elaboration to contribute.
I see it as a "tip jar" to encourage them to continue posting.
I know of one gentleman that seems to do that here, and it is appreciated.
Without comments, it's hard to tell if anyone is reading you.
(Blogger tells me I've had as high as 28 page views. I don't trust the reliability of that as I've seen a reference to my blog post at another blog and yet seen zero page views in the stats.)
I can talk to myself far more efficiently than typing to myself. Yet sometimes writing forces me to structure my thoughts on a matter. My previous post  is an example of that.
Some bloggers make it a habit to respond to every comment, perhaps as an encouragement to more.
It's a very polite thing to do. That's similar to my "tip jar" notion.
At least one other studiously avoids responding to my comments since we got into a "debate" on the definition of a term he used, and another has banned me from her site as referred to in a previous post.

I see commenting as a type of community of sorts, a community which can also encompass some unruly neighbors.

A list of blogs I read is posted to the right. I read some others also.
Of the blogs on that list are a couple that typically generate long comment streams.
Sometimes these long comment streams become shouting matches and name-calling that no longer discuss the topic of the thread at which point you realize adding a comment about the topic is like shouting into the wind.
Some comments get so long and frequent, you wonder why that person doesn't get a blog. Except they probably get more exposure in the comments of someone elses blog.
And sometimes you post a pithy and insightful comment to which there is no response.
Or better yet, someone will make the same observation ten comments later, making you wonder if they even bother to read the preceding comments, something I'm diligent about.

So, that's my take on it. What's yours? Assuming you're there.