Stanton,

Thanks for articulating what many of us bloggers have probably been feeling (I certainly have at times). Perhaps this is the nature of blogs. But there's also the issue that the people who tend to comment are the ones who tend to get most riled up (usually in a negative way) by the post. Actually, they might just be the most riled up about the topic which causes them to prematurely comment without reading the post carefully beforehand. It's a selection bias that might leave you feeling that people are out to lambaste you...when there are in fact many readers who found your post thoughtful and intriguing but didn't leave a comment!

Best,
Daisy

I think you should be more optimistic about the good in your readers and the good work you are doing on the blog, not only for all those peeps who do not respond, but I think even the people who do respond in ways that do not reflect lots of learning and change are benefiting in subtle ways.

Like, obviously people who have a contrary opinion will want to share that opinion, if only so when future peeps come to the blog, they will get to see both sides of the issue. And sometimes, contradictory opinions can coexist--it doesn't matter if the opinions argue against each other because they are relying on such deeply contrasting fundamental assumptions that people's positions will not be switched, no matter how many reasons you give them to.

But that does not mean, however, that they do not hear your reasons. For example, you could talk to a pro-lifer and tell them all the horror stories about clothes hangers and how people will go get abortions anyway, even if they are illegal. Now, this may not change their minds that all abortions are murder and should be illegal, but that does not mean they will not become educated reading your concerns and perhaps they will find a creative, pro-life sort of way to address the same concerns, such as, I don't know, teaching young girls to be more resourceful so they figure ways to cope with whatever situation that they find themselves in without resorting to clothes hangers... I don't know, I just made that up, it might not be the best example to illustrate my point.

Anyways, my biggest point is that even if it does not seem like you are getting your opinions and your point of view across to people, I feel you probably are, even if it's not reflected in the comments. And for every opinionated person who reads your post and responds, there are probably like 25 or more who read it and don't have such a strong and non-understanding-seeming response.

Anyways, that was just my contradictory opinion... even if it does not seem like it, I read your post word for word!!!

I've been an avid PT blog reader for at least 6 months, reading on average 3 per day. I respect every one of you bloggers very much for your wisdom and willingness to share it and the risk that you take for putting yourself out there for sometimes nonsensical/negative feedback.

I think it's easy for the public to leave rude comments that might even be a little out of their character due to the social safety their relative anonymity brings. Some of the ignorance I have observed in other commentors has more than a few times angered me enough to attempt to "set them straight" in defense of the blogger. It's too bad that the more insensitive, offensive people are also sometimes the loudest, but I guess that goes with the territory...

As far as replies that seem to end up off topic, whether or not they've understood your thesis, you've probably caused them to think which is why they're somewhere else entirely. Causing people to think is a good thing, so I would take that as a compliment even if they don't make any sense with their response.

I find myself replying to posts that have made me think and if this leads me to new insight that I think might be of interest to the blogger or somehow useful to the other commentors (ie a recent blogger's post on his experience with the anonymity and delusional thinking induced by road-rage inspired some commentors, myself included, to respond with tips they've found useful for combatting road-rage). Sharing is caring.

I also reply to posts that excite me or inspire me, and I feel the need to tell the blogger.. I replied to your Obama/Lincoln post, appreciating your insight, going off topic a little (because you made me think), and because I was so excited to vote for him that I felt the need to express this excitement. I don't know if this seemed like an inappropriate comment or not, but like you said, people have their own reasons.

To you and the other bloggers: please keep up the good work despite the feedback, because the people who are benefitting from your posts outweigh those who claim not to, and those who do benefit whether commenting or not are proabably intelligent enough to dismiss the ignorance of the bulk of commentors. You guys are the experts which is why we CHOOSE to read you, not vice versa. Sorry you're FORCED to read us : )

Yes I also often write article/blog comments to voice an opinion that is not always directly related to the specific topic of the article or blog.

I must admit that originally I was interested in reading so many opinions to get a feel of the mind set at large. After a while I drew discouraged because it seems at least to me that most comments are simply negative venting rather than contributing an idea or a piece of knowledge about a subject matter.

I was surprised how reactive and hard hearted many of the web comments are.

This confirmed to me that as a society we obviously do not like to look at the whole picture including how we each share a role in both the problem and the potential solution but prefer reductionist, narrow analytical thinking.

As a result we have a popular culture of blame and
wanting "they" out there to take care of things and forget to include ourselves in the equation.

The good news is that in the last 30 years I read about/meet more and more people that are actually interested in growing up and being self responsible.

So it seems we have a continuum with on one end people that are becoming more conscious and aware and coming from a place of compassion and on the other end people that are blame/fear based. Unfortunately most of the blog comments seem to be coming from that segment of the continuum.

The article is OK, but the picture of the nun whacking the girl is obsolete by about 30 years. And given the ignorance of the people who post to this site of contemporary Catholic sensibilities, it only reinforces false stereotypes.

I imagine Kramer, et al. will use it to work themselves up into another lather of superior sanctimony.

Spare us...

Dear Mr. Peele, if you want only (or mostly) positive
comments, then you should write posts that most
people can agree with. Like the importance of fighting
poverty, or how we should wean ourselves from foreign oil,
or not-too-controversial subjects, like what kind
of puppy the Obamas should get.

You, on the other hand, like to write about controversial,
hot-button topics. You can't be toooo surprised by the
response.

As for my description of "jaded, callous audiences
everywhere", it really wasn't meant to describe *only*
"The Bridge" audiences. I think that shows like
"The Bridge", "24", "Dexter", etc that are widely
lauded, are symptoms of, and contribute to, a coarsoning
of our society.

Luckily, things are still much better than during
the dark ages, when entertainment largely consisted of
public flogging and executions.

P.S. Psychology Today Blogs is my new favorite site,
I don't always agree, but it is always interesting.

There goes my blog about the Obamas getting a pit bull!

Ha, very funny, I'm just glad you aren't one of
his top advisers.

Well, I have noticed the same thing over on my blog.  I did one on smoking, and got more than a few requests from high school students asking me to help them with homework assignments... I will say that this is pretty common for any written medium, though.  Writing is a bizarre form of communication.  We really evolved for spoken face-to-face communincation in real time. The further you get from this prototypical situation, the more possibility that things will go off track.  Blogs are written (so you can't use tone of voice and facial cues to detect things like humor).  People are reading them well after you wrote them (so you can't correct mistakes immediately the way you can in face-to-face communication).  They are anonymous (so comments can be as nasty as they want to be).  Some of this is not really specific to blogs, either.  I have written a Cognitive Psychology textbook with some colleagues, and the range of mis-interpretations of what we wrote in that book is also interesting.  Most of the students are actually motivated to learn.  And after 4 editions, most of the text is free from real errors.  Still, students bring their prior knowledge to the table when reading.  In addition, most people do not read that deeply.  There is lots of resarch that only a minority of people really explain things to themselves as they are reading.  Without those self-explanations, people are likely to miss much of the deep causal information in what has been written. Anyhow, if even a few people get the main point of what you write, you have educated someone.  Enjoy!