I don't really understand why people comment on newspaper articles. On blog posts like mine, sure; there's rarely more than two or three, and what you say can be heard. But on a newspaper article, the odds are that no one will see what you wrote -- at most, perhaps one or two folks. And that's only if yours happens to be right at the top, or right next to the 'comment here' box. Otherwise, no.
Sometimes, I think it'd be interesting to see a summary of the comments, similar to what Amazon does with product evaluations. 79% of readers liked this comment. But that implies, of course, that people read them. So I think well, what MAKES a comment readable, or unreadable? I really don't know. But I just had a mildly interesting experience, in that regard.
I went to the web site for the fellow who wrote the Palin article that I liked. It said that in excess of 300 people had commented on the article. Immediately, I thought well, this won't be worthwhile. But I looked at the first one. I didn't even get all the way through the comment before I stopped reading. I almost didn't make it past the first sentence.
Interesting, took you how many days to digest what she said? Perhaps the folks at Harvard should watch the folks from Wasilla a bit closer? Common sense is worth a boat load of degees. Palin’s 5 point plan is like a diamond bullet of common sense to all that use logic and not emotion in making decisions. Nice to see an educated elitest finally catching up with the rest of the country! The rest are either on the take or afraid their invitation to a cocktail party in the Hamptons will not arrive mentioning Palin in a good light. Bravo for the big balls my friend!
O-KAY. Right off the bat, I thought what a snarky first sentence. Take a shot at the writer, why don't you. I left -- but then I came back. Next two sentences weren't bad. Then 'a diamond bullet of common sense'. Hmm, that's a strange metaphor, but -- okay, fine. Then Nice to see an educated elitist finally catching up with the rest of ....
and I stopped right there. Snarkiness will stop me, every time. I'm not entirely sure why, but it does.
So maybe what I need is a 79% of readers thought this was a snarky comment indicator?
Comment by Sean — September 9, 2011 @ 9:52 am