Meme - On Commenting
One of the things that separates livejournal from the facebooks and twitters of the world is the ability to write out long, complex posts that deal with nuance and substance and really deal with something in depth1
But one of the hardest things sometimes is to put a lot of effort into a post and then ... nothing. Because deep down, we are all comment whores. Yes, you too.2
But since I've been at livejournal there is this odd paradox - the more effort one puts into a post, the less likely it is to get comments. Instead it is, often, the most inane (or the most meta) entries that get the most comments.3
The thing, though, is that livejournal comments, at their best, are super awesome. Some of them are incredibly thoughtful, perceptive or informative. Some of them are the exact right thing at the exact right time.4
So this meme is a celebration of commenters.
I just don't know how. I mean, if I were any good at commenting, I'd just leave one in their journal. So instead I'll make a meme out of it.5
Instructions: Name one person or name ten or one-hundred. Whatever. The more people we celebrate, the better.
1. Who is the best commenter in the whole wide world, or at least on your friends list?
2. What makes them so good at it?
3. Link to 5 of your favorite comments (it could be of all time or it could be in the past few days), name the person who left them, and tell them why you appreciate the comment.
4. Who leaves the most thoughtful comments?
5. The most supportive?
6. Who says the right thing at the right time?
7. One does not have to comment all the time to be great at it: who, despite leaving infrequent comments, leaves particularly awesome ones?
8. Self-assessment time - and no self-defacing comments about how bad you are at commenting6 - what are you good at about commenting?
Of course, I have not yet done this meme. Soon.7
I hope it will spread.
___________________
1. Shutup. I'm sure I've done this at least once since 2006.
2. Hell fucking yes me too. You hadn't noticed? Really?
3. All entries chosen by going through my 2003 archives until I found something vaguely on point. I do, however, think the survey "do you need a good fuck?" might be the best use of the internet ever.
4. Actual interaction via comments is really the thing that distinguishes LJ from facebook at twitter: no amount of "likes" or "re-tweets" can compare.
5. Note: if you do this meme, and YOU SO SHOULD BECAUSE YOUR COMMENTERS WILL LOVE YOU, you should probably leave out the 800 paragraphs of introduction. Thanks.
6. Fuck you, me.
7. Yes, I really mean it.
But one of the hardest things sometimes is to put a lot of effort into a post and then ... nothing. Because deep down, we are all comment whores. Yes, you too.2
But since I've been at livejournal there is this odd paradox - the more effort one puts into a post, the less likely it is to get comments. Instead it is, often, the most inane (or the most meta) entries that get the most comments.3
The thing, though, is that livejournal comments, at their best, are super awesome. Some of them are incredibly thoughtful, perceptive or informative. Some of them are the exact right thing at the exact right time.4
So this meme is a celebration of commenters.
I just don't know how. I mean, if I were any good at commenting, I'd just leave one in their journal. So instead I'll make a meme out of it.5
Instructions: Name one person or name ten or one-hundred. Whatever. The more people we celebrate, the better.
1. Who is the best commenter in the whole wide world, or at least on your friends list?
2. What makes them so good at it?
3. Link to 5 of your favorite comments (it could be of all time or it could be in the past few days), name the person who left them, and tell them why you appreciate the comment.
4. Who leaves the most thoughtful comments?
5. The most supportive?
6. Who says the right thing at the right time?
7. One does not have to comment all the time to be great at it: who, despite leaving infrequent comments, leaves particularly awesome ones?
8. Self-assessment time - and no self-defacing comments about how bad you are at commenting6 - what are you good at about commenting?
Of course, I have not yet done this meme. Soon.7
I hope it will spread.
___________________
1. Shutup. I'm sure I've done this at least once since 2006.
2. Hell fucking yes me too. You hadn't noticed? Really?
3. All entries chosen by going through my 2003 archives until I found something vaguely on point. I do, however, think the survey "do you need a good fuck?" might be the best use of the internet ever.
4. Actual interaction via comments is really the thing that distinguishes LJ from facebook at twitter: no amount of "likes" or "re-tweets" can compare.
5. Note: if you do this meme, and YOU SO SHOULD BECAUSE YOUR COMMENTERS WILL LOVE YOU, you should probably leave out the 800 paragraphs of introduction. Thanks.
6. Fuck you, me.
7. Yes, I really mean it.