A litter and a question
March 19th, 2007Three weeks ago, our beloved Mandarine gave birth to a litter of kittens. She is now, at age four, the proud mother of seven.
She seems to have set her mind on breastfeeding, but I am a little worried: she chose this without consulting her veterinarian, without querying any advice from her mother, sisters, colleagues, mother-in-law or even the father(s) of the kittens. She obviously has no answers to the basic questions every reasonable mother should ask herself:
- will she have enough milk?
- will it be rich enough?
- is it the best food for her kittens?
- will this not make her less attractive afterwards?
- what effects will repeated paraerotic oral contact have on her kittens’ psychological development, and will it not skew their relation to nutrition and reproduction?
I am quite sure she is unaware that kitten formula has made terrific progress recently, and is quite sophisticated now. Animal-loving manufacturers put a lot of research effort into these products, and the recent discoveries in kitten nutrition guarantee that all nutrients are combined in an optimal way. This explains why the stuff is a little expensive, but she can’t expect to have the best for nothing, can she?
(I wager she gives up in little more than two months)
… and a question
I recently whined in Lorelle’s blog that my short posts (such as this one) often get more comments than the long posts which take ages to write. This begs the question: does anybody read them or should I skip long posts altogether? I am convinced that they are the heart of this blog and that they are the reason I have readers at all — but I wonder if there is a way I could get more feedback on those as well.
Obviously I understand that readers who have spent nearly ten minutes reading an article might not have the time to comment, and that the more complex the post, the more intimidating it may be to try and phrase a witty remark or complement; I myself tend to skip commenting when all I have to say is “great post”, or “I am not quite sure what I think of this post”.
If I were to setup a small ‘rating’ plugin that displays a series of possibilities at the end of each post (maybe as basic as “read, liked”, “read, period”, “read, disagree”), all it would take readers is a single click to let me know at least someone read my verbiage. The question is therefore: would you find such an artefact useful, or should I just quit whining (as Lorelle wisely advises) and be happy with page view statistics?
Ah, shucks, too cute. Precious cute.
And the wrong question to ask.
The reasons people might comment on this is not the length. In fact, length isn’t always a consideration in the decision to comment or not.
Reasons to comment on this post are:
1. Cute factor - Kittens and puppies always win. Page view and comments.
2. Funny factor - The debate over breast feeding is hysterical. I read it to my husband and neighbor. That kind of funny factor will get you links and may end up getting copied and distributed via email jokes to add to the crap on the email bandwidth lines.
3. Question factor - You asked an honest, and intelligent question in a way that elicits comments from people who would have an opinion on this: fellow Writing directly to bloggers gets a strong response in general than writing just to the world.
It’s a great question but wrong assumption. Size may be important in some situations, but the content rules comment responses overwhelmingly.
And congrats on the new additions to your family. They are beautiful.
Ah, the fourth factor.
Many times after reading your posts I have something to say, but I usually feel intimidated to comment. I always read you, though. Whether the post is long or short.
Lorelle: I do understand the cute/funny/question factors, and I occasionally play with them, but my ‘long’ posts (OK, wrong adjective but real issue) include none of the above — predictably, they get few comments. I understand commenting is the sovereign feedback tool in blogging, but I wondered if there was some alternative feedback tool that would work with content that is not tailored to encourage classical commenting.
Maria: I am sorry you should feel intimidated, and I am proud to count you among my most faithful readers (there is always a dot in my Google analytics map in Sandy, Utah, that fills me with joy — I sort of believe it is you).
I think part of the issue is making people think too hard.
Right now I have open several of your posts that are both long and short, but they require time for me to sit and consider before responding. I call these “thinking posts”. I want to say something because they make me think and I want to share my thinking, but I need time to read them in order to digest the information, treasure the lovely writing skills, and to come up with a response.
Honestly, I’m so busy right now, I am a week behind in laundry (and living on the road in a small tin box, we don’t have many clothes to permit such a lapse), I can barely see the floor of my tin box, and I’ve got 25 emails awaiting my response and two blogs two weeks behind.
Thinking posts require my undivided attention. They deserve it. Which is why you often get a comment from me weeks or months after posting. I want to give it the respect it deserves and that means making time for it.
As for using a rating or feedback tool, since thinking posts sit in a tab on Firefox for weeks on end waiting for my attention and a few spare minutes, I don’t scroll past the first paragraph until those few minutes. And I will never score anything until I read it. Same with contract signing.
I don’t think tools encourage comments, though some blogs reply upon building a social network of fans with some comment tools. I don’t think your blog is appropriate for that kind of audience.
I honestly believe that the content motivates comments, not the length. Some of my most commented on posts are over 20 printed pages long. It’s the presentation of the information and the information within that dictates comments.
And some posts just don’t need comments. I have tons of those.
Also, you have me curious where I show up in your analytics map. Do I move around when I travel, responding to your posts from all over the planet?
Lorelle: thank you for the long comment (which I will read when I have time ;-). I think I get your point. I’d better spend a couple of hours writing than setting up a mildy useful plugin.
I had you pinned down for a while in Mobile, but then pheeww, you disappeared in thin air — I am no master spy and I will not be trying to connect IP addresses and visit times with datestamps on comments. At the moment, I have no clue where you are, although I take a wild guess that you are in front of a computer screen.
Yes! That’s my dot…
I think I’m going to check Google Analytics for site stats. Have been tracking site traffic manually, and it’s gotten to a point that I can’t manage it any more, so I no longer know as much about my users as I used to.
I also doubt that old lady cats will stop Ms Mandarine in the street and ask her how well her kittens are sleeping and if she has enough milk. All old lady cats will presume that she is a bloody brilliant mother, which I too am sure she is.
As for your longer posts, I always read them. They are interesting and demanding and merit good quality comments back. Sometimes I don’t have the energy to frame a good quality comment so I remain silent. I could sign in and say “thanks for the post; am still digesting it”, but I feel your posts deserve more than that.
Maria: the google analytics plugin is quite easy to install. My hosting service also has built-in site stats. The funny part is that they disagree by a factor three (google see fewer visitors — I wonder whether they have an interest in underestimating traffic
Charlotte: I forgot to talk about sleep and feeding patterns. My poor Mandarine is doing everything haphazardly, with no regard whatsoever for the golden three-hour rule. And her kittens certainly cannot sleep through the night. I bet they will never be able to, unless she tackles the issue hic et nunc and resorts to the good old Ferber method. I have a nice comfy lined cardboard box with a lid that can be locked, where she can let them meow it out, while she gets to sleep a well-deserved eight-hour non-stop stretch.
Mandarine, I read your posts. I don’t always comment, usually because I feel like you have already done such a marvellous job of getting the point across, anything I had to say would be extraneous. I have the same sort of problem. I write posts, and I know people come to my blog and read them because of the stats. If 100 people come to my blog to read my post, and I get one or two comments, why is that? Maybe they just don’t have anything to say.
Lots of times, I read someone’s post, and I’ll think of a cogent response. Then I get down to the comments and find out that two other people have already said what I was thinking. Do I post a comment that says, “What she said” or “That goes ditto for me”, or do I just go on to the next blog I want to read?
Your cat and her kittens are beautiful. I applaud her choice, and support her completely!
I agree with you, but I cannot convince myself to trust site stats. As I mentioned above, depending on the system I use (my hosting provider or google analytics), there appears to be three times fewer (or three times more) page views. And stats will never tell me whether readers could finish reading or just gave up.
Maybe I am a being a bit fussy — after all, in a public lecture, I do not get many approbation nods or angry frowns, and I only get a handful of comments or questions (and often there are many more questions and comments when the presentation had weaknesses).
Ah, can anything be cuter than this! Congratulations.
About the question regarding long posts:
The rating plugin might be useful if you want to gauge the way readers respond to your posts, and if you want to change the nature of your posts to favor “short posts with more comments”, or “long posts with fewer comments”. That said, I honestly like your longer posts more: They do not ramble off-topic, they are off the beaten track, they are somewhat nerdy (which in my universe is a virtue
).
I agree with Lorelle that it is content and not length that motivates comments. I would like to add the obvious fact that it is content that determines length. Thus, if one decides to have shorter posts, the content will have to be chosen so that it lends itself to shorter posts? Would you want to do that? A naive solution would be to split a long post into two or more shorter posts, but their effectiveness/impact might not remain the same.
My own length varies wildly. However, blogging time is at such a high premium these days that I have ceased to worry about it. It is a wonder and a relief when I am able to blog at all.
I certainly do not want to remove the long posts. I added the short ‘easy’ posts as mortar in between so that I could keep a steady pace and attract comments (and they’re fun to write too). I once thought I might split the longer ones as series, but decided against it (Charlotte rightfully argued that the long posts exactly lasted a coffee-break).
The more I think about it, the more I realise a steady posting pace is not that important. I mean, I can wait a month for your next post, I will go nowhere and you can still count me among your readers.
I’ve found that my longer, more complicated posts, often book reviews, get fewer comments, and people comment more on the short posts, especially when I ask questions. I’d love to get lots of comments on everything, but it’s okay — I remember reading one blogger who said comments aren’t the best way to judge the success of the post or the kind of reading experience people have, and that makes sense to me. So I try not to read much into the number of comments I get.
Could you please send two of those kittens to the U.S. (without traumatizing either Mandarine or the kittens)? I love all your posts, but I think I tend to comment (except when I’m on the road) on them no matter the length. Check boxes are an interesting idea, as long as I have space to explain my answer.
P.S. Oh, and hasn’t Mandarine read the latest research? Two months is not nearly long enough when it comes to nursing kittens. The standard is now two years, minimum.
Dorothy: it makes sense to me too that comments are not the ultimate feedback system for everything and anything. Pages views are not either. Are we doomed to groping in the dark or are there other tools? I really cannot tell.
Emily: they take way too much disk space (probably several terabytes each) to travel by e-mail, so I’d have to send them by fedex or dhl. Maybe I could dehydrate them to save on the parcel weight, and all you’d have to do is soak them in water for a couple of hours. But I am not sure they like water all that much, and I’d rather spare them the awful experience of jetlag — I am afraid the answer is no.
These are such good questions — I love your writing, partly because what you have to say and how you say it is not like anything else I read.
Sometimes I’ll save your blog up and then go and have a long read. I like doing that. Other times, I just wander over and see what’s up. (Kittens??!! Cuuuuuute.)
I think the answer to your question about whether you should keep writing long posts might lie in what exactly defines — for you — a writing product of high quality. I don’t know if the number or quality of comments is a good measure of that. (In other words lots of great comments = a great post.) Could be that it’s simply deeply satisfying to get your ideas down, and that’s enough. Could be that the point of the long posts is to engage readers in a discussion. If you’re not getting enough engagement, and that’s what you’d want, I’d tinker with what you’re doing a little — maybe establish a schedule, or make a short announcement ahead of time. It’s Mandarine Friday, and that means a good meaty post on the topic of ______.
For what it’s worth, though, I think of your blog as very successful — it reaches me and I love reading it.
xo, BL
Damn! You found me!
This is excellent feedback.
Please, please, please don’t give up your long posts just to get comments. I love them. They make me think, and I often read them to my husband (or print them out and add them to the pile of “round tuit” stuff).
I don’t want to be one of the few “lengthy post bloggers” out here all alone.
bloglily: your idea of a regular schedule and a formal annoucement for posting tought-provoking articles so that readers are not taken off-guard is worth considering. I am a bit behind at the moment, but as soon as I have two or three week’s worth of head start (I can dream on), I will give it a try.
Lorelle: it was never my intention to remove the long posts (god forbid). I only mentioned it as a provocation so I could get a lot of great compliments
In a sense, these have filled my feedback pride to keep me going without comments for a year at least.
I haven’t been blogging long enough to really have a feel for all this. I love it when I get comments. But when I look at the stats, there are certain posts that seem to get visited every day, by people who are out searching the web for information. If they don’t comment, or don’t finish reading my post, my feeling is “Oh well.” I don’t really do this for anyone but myself. It is such good practice to write, and I love to brag on my garden.
If I hadn’t discovered the world of blog, I would never have come across you, or Charlotte, or Bloglily, or any of the other wonderful people I have had the great good fortune of reading.
Incidentally, one of my favorite posts here was the one on fidelity, and I don’t think I ever commented on it, although I have read it twice.
Well first I have to say your post was wonderful - and the kittens adorable. Please give mme mandarine some scratches under her chin for me.
I only discovered your blog recently through healingmagichands and have thoroughly enjoyed it. Your long posts are fascinating reads for me … usually I comment. If I don’t, it is because I do not have anything to add or I need to think first. Mention Virginia Woolf however and I’ll chime right in!!
I know that I go away thinking about the issues you discuss and to me, that’s a successful post.
Funny about the length question - I had this discussion with a friend a few days’ back. Since I have just started blogging, it is a brand new world and I am constantly learning new things. Most of my posts are not long and receive some commentary. But then I began to wonder if any people had read the two long book reviews that I wrote. One of them has not received any comments and I was struck by that.
After talking about this, I figured I would just keep on writing as I have been … whatever the length. Why cut one’s thoughts short just to retain readers? Self-expression seems like a more worthy goal to me.
Enjoy the kittens and keep on writing!
Thanks for the encouragement. I’ll try to mention Virginia Woolf now and again so I can get more fine comments from you.
If I just comment with “great post, please do continue!”, is that too short? Is that pointless? I feel equally bad for lurking without commenting, so please forgive my unoriginality…
I’d love that sort of comment, but I understand you can wish you had more things to say — it happens to me all the time.
I think I have found exactly the right feedback tool so that ‘lurkers’ (I hate the word but I like them) can partially de-lurk. Stay tuned for a digital creole storytelling feedback gizmo.
[…] I was recently reading the comments to A litter and a question on Mandarine’s owner’s blog (Mandarine is a beautiful kitty). Most of the discussion centered around the question of what types of blog posts garner the greatest number of comments. Here are a couple of the commenters comments about commenting: […]