I'm Writing In The Margins

"There is nothing worse than aggressive stupidity."
- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Photograph by Kilroy_60It's two weeks until Thanksgiving.

Three things for which I am thankful, based on my experience in the blogsophere this past year, are the relationships I have developed, the things I have learned and the opportunities that have presented themselves.

The recent Commentathon was an interesting exercise. While I never expected to reach the "goal" of 365 comments over three weeks, the result was amazing to me. I appreciate all who contributed. It's a good time of year for contemplation, analysis and review. I will be writing a "response" related to that experiment.

There are three more things in terms of comments.

I haven't yet transferred comments from the old blogspot to the new. That's something I'm going to begin working on. I'll do the best I can to plug in the user names/URL's appropriately so you get links back. I can't guarantee that will always happen.

Relationships, those that become truly valuable, must be nurtured. That is one area in which I have fallen short of my expectations. The best any of us can do is the best we can do from one day to another.

I'm going to undertake another experiment. There won't be a timeline involved, but I'm going to track my writing of 1,000 comments. I won't be compiling an ongoing commentary as I did in conjunction with the Commentathon. As I'm writing my postings, you'll see a notation in the bottom right hand corner of the running tally. I started this morning.

One final thing on comments. People, I get the impression, seem to frequently visit blogs, write a comment on the top post and leave. There are people, though, who take an interest in what you are doing. They read through postings, possibly even going into the archive, and write comments.

I will close by sharing a comment I received recently. It came from someone who apparently took the time to investigate The Gonzo Papers and chose to offer thoughtful feedback.

Anonymous said...
Have you seen the Nobody Cares About Your Blog t-shirt? You should take note of it. You seem to have an unrealistic viewpoint of how important your opinions are and how meaningful your commnetary is. I've taken some time to read through your blog. It's much easier to post pictures of flowers than talk about your losing Steelers. Isn't it? How self important are you that you think you can dismiss people like Rush Limbaugh and Bill O'Reilly? This recent campaign you conducted to get comments is a perfect example of warped your perception is of how important you think this blog is. Who are you kidding with Kilroy, "The Best Of..."? I can go along with one thing you said. That's all I can take for now. I'm sure you won't be posting this. You don't have the fucking spine.

I must say, I don't feel there is any value in terms of what was written in this comment. I have no intention of engaging in response nor debate. What is clear to me is the person was interested in getting attention. Why? I can't say. I don't think it was an effort to enlighten me or to provide constructive criticism. I found it interesting, though. Especially in terms of the Commentathon experiment. It wasn't published to dispute the position of the anonymous one; any question about whether I have all my body parts is not one which needs to be addressed.

"12 of 1,000"