Monday, August 28, 2006

Comment

We have strange reader comments patterns here at Phronesisaical. Sometimes every post is receiving plenty of comments; sometimes nothing gets comments. The post with the most comments ever for this blog remains, in phronesisaical fashion, The Most Irresistibly Linkable Blog Post In the World.

Here, appearing for the very first time, is a space set aside exclusively for comments. Tell us whatever you want, and let's see where it goes from there. Of course, it could remain at zero comments. This would be mortifying indeed.

20 comments:

helmut said...

... I'm hungry... banana pancakes sound good....

SteveG said...

Made banana pancakes a couple weekends ago. The kids loved them.

helmut said...

Delish. I like coconut syrup on banana pancakes.

SteveG said...

To comment on commenting, I find that I most often comment on posts that I think are wrong. If someone writes something insightful, the response is, "Ooh. That was a good one. Need to remember that point." and then move on. But if the post is off the mark in an interesting way, I feel the need to put in my two cents.

I think people are often intimidated by well argued posts, evenif they disagree. Never underestimate blog insecurity.

I also find posts where people feel free to be silly generate more comments.

MT said...

Of course, a few enlightened commenters feel free to be silly about everything. Goes with using a psuedonym, I think. Note this is no comment whatsoever on any ideas or phrases that may or may not be perceived to have precipitated this thread of comments.

helmut said...

Steve - I think I probably do the same. MT has figured this out too, and will prod and make me go on ad nauseaum.

It's also true, I think, that people don't want to sustain arguments (except MT). I've received quite a few over the life of this blog to the effect of "you're wrong." Maybe it's our pedagogical instinct, but I always want them to tell me why I'm wrong.

MT - Sure.

I didn't make the pancakes. I made coffee instead.

barba de chiva said...

Anybody else cold-brewing coffee? It's mighty good.

helmut said...

Nope. I'll give it a try, though. Any special instruments?

barba de chiva said...

I use a setup by a company called Filtron (you can find 'em on Google). Pretty simple. We brew a pound's worth of coffee at a time & it yields a concentrate that's pretty much acid-free and tasty.

helmut said...

Hey, Wege. Did you take time off from your blog for some NAZI training??!?!?!?

We're cold-brewed, latte-drinking LIBRULS here at Phronesiaivdkjsiuignal!!!!!!! Highway 6 runs both ways.

Rodger A. Payne said...

Surely you're wrong.

If you want fruit in pancakes, then you must desire blueberries.

Or maybe whole wheat pancakes with warmed strawberries on top.

helmut said...

Oh, I'll go with blueberries too. But coconut syrup goes better with banana pancakes.

When I was a lad, and we lived in Asia in the late 60s to mid-70s, planes always had to stop halfway between the US and Asia. This usually meant Hawaii. I must have been there 20 or so times and we would always stay a few days at Waikiki or the Big Island. It was all still very much the pinnacle of American exotica - tiki rooms, loungey Martin Denny music mixed with Don Ho, flower print shirts and bermuda shorts, longboards, and the cheesiest of tourist activities.

In Honolulu there was a tiki-room type of restaurant where we often ate for breakfast. They put coconut syrup on their pancakes. A little taste from childhood that has remained to this day.

MT said...

...planes always had to stop halfway between the US and Asia. This usually meant Hawaii.

The second leg must have been quite a swim those other times.

helmut said...

Well, smartguy, there was the time we thought we had a stop in Hawaii and it turned out to be Anchorage.

MT said...

Well...unless that was back in the ice age I think it still counts as a good swim.

MT said...

Sorry, it's that behavior of mine you mentioned: Over-bering.

helmut said...

Groaaannn... on your Bering joke.

"Stopover," whatever. You don't arrive at a stop sign and treat it as the last time you'll ever drive your car.

MT said...

"Stop" is fine by me. Just being silly. Sorry to get your syntactical back up.

helmut said...

No silliness allowed here. This is a serious thread about pancakes and meta-commenting.

helmut said...

To do some meta-commenting...

I've noticed that commenters here usually don't talk to each other but rather to the author of the post (me, Barba, or Flaco). Some blogs are like this.

Of some of the ones I read, Bobby Lightfoot's is like this, so is Ned's for the most part, and the same goes for Jim at Decorabilia.

Other blogs seem to have commenters talking into the void with little response from anyone - Digby and Tristero's Hullabaloo, for example.

Yet others - e.g., SuperFrenchie - have commenters who talk freely among themselves and seem to know each other, with some participation by the post author.

The number of readers/commenters and length of threads doesn't seem to be a determinant here. Compare Digby and SuperFrenchie.

It also doesn't appear to be a matter of the blog author commenting upon comments. Digby generally doesn't comment, SuperFrenchie and Bobby do (and I try to).

What is it that produces these variations? Any thoughts?