Should you respond to every comment on your blog?
It's the middle of the night; I should be asleep, but this post on TechCrunch (and a weirdly off-topic post it is too) has annoyed me. Neil Patel from Kissmetrics is writing about "growing your blog" by increasing reader engagement with your site.
The bit of his advice that really caught my eye was this:
Respond to every commenter – every time someone comments on your blog, you should respond to him or her.
Similar suggestions crop up pretty frequently in how-tos for increasing readership, increasing commenting, building community around your blog and so on. Which is why this - which started out as a comment on TechCrunch but grew beyond all reasonable comment length - feels like a really guilty confession:
I really hate blogs where the author responds to everything.
Not all comments need a response: not all comments expect a response. If I want to leave a meaningless but grateful comment like "nice post, thanks for writing", but I see that the author feels it necessary to thank me for thanking them, then I won't: I don't want to add unnecessarily to the burden of thankfulness. (I got made to write thank you letters after Christmas for years and years, and I'd never do that to anyone.)
Threads on which authors have said that they will respond to every. single. comment. are just painful to read. They end up with dozen of author-comments like "hey xxx thanks for commenting". And frequently, the author doesn't have time to respond in real time, so the conversation that's developed among the commenters is interrupted by the host going back to say "hey thanks for the comment" - or to post a response that's actually already been posted by another commenter.
Responding to every comment on your blog is like being the host at a party, and every time someone says something, saying "great point, Bob, thanks for contributing to my party". It's unnecessary. It's annoying. And ultimately, it kills conversation.
When your blog's new, of course you'll need to do some responding. The first couple of people who arrive at your party will need someone to make conversation with them, right? But once things have got going a little, it's time to step back and let the conversation do its own thing. You should be part of that too - but you're only one part of it, not some automatic thanking machine spewing out meaningless drivel every time someone types a word or two.
What do you think? Respond to everything, or not? Leave me a comment: I promise I won't thank you for writing it (unless you really want me to). 
Tags: comments, opinion, TechCrunch
Posted by Sue on May 3, 2009 in Blogging.
Responding to every comment on your blog is stifling. Comments are a conversation and not just between the blogger and the people who comment but also between commenters.
Of course a blogger is in a sense a host, but they don't have to have a view on everything. That's annoying. It's also arrogant... assuming that the only thing commenters want is reply or validation from the blogger.
Moreover, it's also just a bit tricky. You can look at plenty of blogs out there. Some of the best posts, with the most and most enlightening comment conversations, just start the ball rolling without any other intervention. Keeping up with it all on a vibrant blog is just too time-consuming.
People comment, keep commenting and talk to other commenters because the conversation started by the blogger is worth commenting on. Not because the blogger is hovering at their shoulder.
Almost as an aside: my favourite, and most trafficed posts (incidentally), are not necessarily the ones with the most comments.
I agree. I've always viewed the comments section as a discussion area for guests; you the blogger get to have your say in the post, and your visitors get to have theirs in the comments. As the host, it is your prerogative to add into the discussion, or abstain.
I think I would only answer a comment if it contained either a question that I needed to answer, or the comment sparked a thought and therefore a conversation piece in my own mind.
So, yes, with you.