On Frequent Commentators and Lurkers

What I’m reading: Stellarnet Rebel by J. L. Hilton (cyberpunk), The Toll-Gate by Georgette Heyer (Regency mystery romance)

(New feature! I decided to prefix all my posts with a line or two about “what I’m reading.” Help me remember this.)

Don’t worry! I’m not going to beat up on lurkers. I love lurkers. Before I decided to start blogging, I was a lurker, myself. Most frequently, I lurked on Kimber An’s blog. I admired her chutzpah. And now, she lurks around here, I think.

Anyway, I never commented. Ever. So I’ve been there. I’m not here to make you delurk. A loyal readership is always going to consist of those who comment and those who don’t, and those who don’t always vastly outnumber those who do, by a factor of 10 to 2, I think I read once.

I am here to express my appreciation. For all you readers who have stuck with me.

It’s been a rough couple of years since I published The Sevenfold Spell. Many of you started reading my blog when I was writing Debuts & Reviews — or even Fantasy Debut —  and yet you’re still here even though I changed my blog focus. I have vanished for weeks on end, and you’re still here.

I try to show my appreciation in small ways. Those of you who keep commenting will eventually find yourselves on my “Longtime Readers” or “Author Buddies” blogroll. I just added Savannah Chase. Some people, like Chicory, I can’t add because they don’t ever link to a blog or a site. (I will be delighted to add her if she ever sends me a link.) When you leave a comment with a link, I try to jump over there and read it.

But I don’t know what to do for the rest of you except to keep writing more of the same. I thought about putting up post reaction so you could vote, but that just seemed like looking for attention. If you have any ideas, or would like to guest post (“Lurker deLurked!”) or just want to say hi, I am always an email away at tia dot nevitt at gmail dot com.

Anyway, thanks everyone!

16 Thoughts to “On Frequent Commentators and Lurkers”

  1. Deborah Blake

    You’re just fine the way you are, babe. I’m not commenting as much as I was because I’m trying to channel more of my computer time into writing. But I’m still here 🙂

    1. Tia Nevitt

      Same here! Seems like time gets scarcer as you get older.

  2. Sherri Marx

    I was thinking about this very thing the other day in regard to the many, many author and review blogs that I read. I find that I feel a little distanced from them because I am often just a consumer and not an active part of the conversation.

    But this is due to the fact that I usually read blogs late in the evening, so someone has often already commented in a similar manner to what I might have wanted to post. Additionally, since I am doing this so late in the evening, it often needs to be something I REALLY want to say to go through the effort of corralling my thoughts into enough logic to want to share them with the rest of world. Or at the least that corner of it that is active in that site. 🙂

    1. Tia Nevitt

      Ugh; I know just where you’re coming from. I can only comment late in the evening as well. In the good old days, I responded to comments within an hour!

  3. Chicory

    I’ve been mentioned by name in the post! (Pauses to bask in the glory.) One of these days I’ll work up the motivation to brave all technology and find out how to add a link. When I do I’ll have to let you know. 🙂

    As for lurking, I have been rather bad about that over on Evil Editor’s site. I love reading his comments and I feel like I’m learning a fair bit about writing queries, but I never seem to have anything to say. The few times I do, someone else has usually already said it better.

    1. I sent Tia your blog address in email. I have it on my blog reader, and she did ask so it was easy. I hope you don’t mind. {wink, SMILE}

      Oh, I just noticed I don’t have you on my own blog roll. Not that it’s much exposure, since mine is mostly a personal blog, but would you mind if I added you? {Smile}

      A.E.B.

      1. Tia Nevitt

        I would love that! However, I added Chicory’s without asking … am I supposed to? I always assume that if you keep a blog, you are happy for additional traffic, but I could be wrong!

        1. Chicory

          You don’t have to ask permission to add me to your blog roll. I am happy to have people reading. 🙂

          1. Thanks. I will err on the side of caution if I can in these things. {Smile}

            Anne Elizabeth Baldwin

        2. Well, you may have noticed that, given a choice, I’d rather err on the side of caution. That said, only once did a friend not respond entirely postitively to that question. In that one case, the gal has more than one blog, and she told me which one she particularly wanted added, and which one she did not want added because it was more personal at that time. {Smile}

          Anne Elizabeth Baldwin

          1. Tia Nevitt

            Caution is rarely resented, so you’re probably safe!

            1. That’s what I figure. {wink, Smile}

    2. Tia Nevitt

      Glad to give you a tiny moment of glory! Just add your site name (unless you want it private) to the Website field of the comment form. But I’m thinking you already knew that …

      You have outed yourself as an Evil Editor lurker! I tend to only comment on the smaller, more personal blogs myself. I feel too lost in long comment threads.

      1. Actually I… didn’t know that about putting the blog address in the Website box. Thanks for the tip. (And you should be able to get through to me in future comments.)

        I have been pretty bad lately about commenting because I still haven’t gotten the glitch fixed to let me access blogger from my laptop. (Sigh.) It shouldn’t make such a difference whether I comment upstairs or from the family computer in the living room, but somehow it does.

  4. Raven

    I lurk around here more than I used to. In general I’m not as active online as I once was; it’s that time thing you were talking about. 🙂

    1. Tia Nevitt

      Isn’t it amazing how the older you get, the busier you get? It’s because you keep adding new activities but very rarely take one away!

      Glad you’re still around!

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