Thing 12: Creating Community Through Commenting

1. Explain two of the points about successful commenting that you think are important.

There were so many important points in the discussion of blogging etiquette that were very useful. Two that will impact my future use of blogging and commenting are:
Darren Rowse, ProBlogger.com, shared tips about how to get more people to comment. Since all of this is new to me, I learned that blogging is more than an online journal that people can peek at if they want. Since I'm also a writer, this site will be helpful in getting me to develop and use a site related to my books to enhance community and sales. The discussion about whether to comment on comments was enlightening.

At Blogging Basics 101, I read a very interesting discussion about what name to use when commenting on edublogosphere. I hadn't given this any thought, but now I have. I am going to combine my extremely common first name for a personal touch with my book brand to be memorable and possibly lead people to my writer's blog and Website. I like Pat@StretchyLibrarian.

2. Choose at least five different Library2Play blogs and make at least one comment to each. I did so, starting at the bottom of the list since those folks may not get a lot of attention. Unfortunately, I had posted comments on 3 sites before I realized they were all graduates of the course! The other 2 are current librarians and I got a good lead to sites from each of them. It was fun to comment. I can see why it is important to try to return the comment if anything of substance has been contributed, or in the case of the limited responses I will have on my blogs, to each person who has taken the time to write.

3. Find two blogs about a subject of personal interest and explain what drew your attention to these blogs. One is PlanetEsme Book-A-Day Blog by Esme Codell (I love her books) which keeps me informed as a librarian and the other is Writer's First Aid by children's author Kristi Holl which gives me a weekly shot in the arm in my life as an author.