If posting on a blog required committing to spend time in the future answering replies, then I wouldn’t post there. I treat blogging as a leisure activity, which means that I should be able to stop doing it at any time and for any duration without consequences. I think most non-prominent posters feel the same way.
I’m actually divided about this. On the one hand, it’s a really good point—this isn’t something which should be a commitment. On the other hand, it makes sense as a norm—it’s worth a lot to see an argument end in a satisfactory fashion, even if that fashion is, “I don’t see any value in continuing this debate”.
On the gripping hand, though, people will drop out of arguments without conclusion—through burning out, getting slammed with other commitments, or even through the simple decision that the community is not worth their time. And all these are legitimate reasons, even if “I can’t win this argument otherwise” is not.
Your request seems reasonable, and I think it can accommodated without too much difficulty. For example, each user can set a “vacation” option, which if turned on, will cause every unanswered comment directed at that user to receive a “I’m away from this blog” status response.
Something that could be done unintrusively and without manual intervention from users is some indicator that the author has not logged in recently. eg. A change in color somewhere, an asterix, etc.
I like this idea, whether or not any other suggestions are put into practice, though I suggest that there be a way to opt out of using it (with a different/complementary signal that you’re doing so, rather than showing as always or never active) - there are periods when I only have the time or energy to skim the blog, but not comment, and I’m sure I’m not the only one who finds themselves in that position or simply prefers privacy.
I feel that something like bug tracking / trouble ticket software format could be appropriate for this purpose—unresolved arguments would be marked as such, people could view unresolved “arguments” assigned to them, and it would be easy to judge the level of commitment of participants by their number of unresolved arguments.
Obviously, participating in such a system would require much higher level of commitment than that of the current blog format.
If posting on a blog required committing to spend time in the future answering replies, then I wouldn’t post there. I treat blogging as a leisure activity, which means that I should be able to stop doing it at any time and for any duration without consequences. I think most non-prominent posters feel the same way.
I’m actually divided about this. On the one hand, it’s a really good point—this isn’t something which should be a commitment. On the other hand, it makes sense as a norm—it’s worth a lot to see an argument end in a satisfactory fashion, even if that fashion is, “I don’t see any value in continuing this debate”.
On the gripping hand, though, people will drop out of arguments without conclusion—through burning out, getting slammed with other commitments, or even through the simple decision that the community is not worth their time. And all these are legitimate reasons, even if “I can’t win this argument otherwise” is not.
“Encourage it” is about where I’m at, now.
Your request seems reasonable, and I think it can accommodated without too much difficulty. For example, each user can set a “vacation” option, which if turned on, will cause every unanswered comment directed at that user to receive a “I’m away from this blog” status response.
I do not like autoresponders.
Something that could be done unintrusively and without manual intervention from users is some indicator that the author has not logged in recently. eg. A change in color somewhere, an asterix, etc.
I like this idea, whether or not any other suggestions are put into practice, though I suggest that there be a way to opt out of using it (with a different/complementary signal that you’re doing so, rather than showing as always or never active) - there are periods when I only have the time or energy to skim the blog, but not comment, and I’m sure I’m not the only one who finds themselves in that position or simply prefers privacy.
I agree. You shouldn’t be expected to manually delete your cookies in order to manipulate activity indicators.
I feel that something like bug tracking / trouble ticket software format could be appropriate for this purpose—unresolved arguments would be marked as such, people could view unresolved “arguments” assigned to them, and it would be easy to judge the level of commitment of participants by their number of unresolved arguments.
Obviously, participating in such a system would require much higher level of commitment than that of the current blog format.