I’m going to make some changes to how I blog

In response to recent feedback on my blogging–some of which came at my request, some of which came via other routes–I’ve decided to make some changes to how I blog.

The one change that will be noticeable immediately is that I’m no longer going to make any comments on my own posts (including in reply to other commenters) for the first 24 hours after the post goes up. Instead, I’m just going to let commenters talk about the post, and to each other, without any input from me. After 24 hours, if it seems like there are things I could say that would further advance the conversation, I’ll say them. And rather than reply to individual comments, after 24 hours I’m going to try to default to a single “omnibus” comment that briefly addresses any points that seem to remain salient (I’ll link back to previous comments as necessary so it’s clear which bits of my “omnibus” comment are in reply to which previous comments). I may or may not comment further after that, depending on how the ongoing conversation develops, but in general I’m going to try to err on the side of commenting less rather than more.

I enjoy engaging with commenters. But I want my engagement with commenters to be productive, and to be seen by others (including but not limited to the commenters themselves) as productive. Based on the feedback I’ve received, I’m hopeful this new approach will encourage more comments from more readers, and will make my own contributions to the conversation less voluminous but more valuable.

I’m going to change how I operate in other ways as well. But those changes, while important, won’t be immediately obvious, I don’t think. So rather than preview those changes I’m just going to make them. The test of those changes will be whether, over the coming months, my blogging gets better, and is seen to get better.

As always, thank you for reading, and for your feedback, positive and negative.