Thoughtful Replies

Jun 24, 2008 | blog

Mark Evans has a post today in which he talks about the importance of thinking through our contributions to conversations. It’s something that I’ve learned myself in various businesses & projects that I’ve been involved in.

Taking even a half hour to contemplate and let the questions or ideas rattle around in your head allows you to better understand what was sent to you. It also gives you the time to formulate a more informative and relevant response.

Since we’re so connected and probably overloaded with communications, it’s too easy to simply reply right away. Sure, in doing so we demonstrate our ability to respond, we show that we’re connected and are willing to participate.

However, do we really give every communication we receive the full attention it deserves?  How often do you take the time to fully contemplate the full context of what someone is asking? Do these quick replies really add value to the conversation or to the person who sent the message?

I think Mark is onto an interesting line of thought lately. Thinking about blogging, conversations and the quality involved simply in communicating with each other. Sharing information is a great thing, and we can do it so easily these days. The responsibility is upon us to use these opportunities of sharing information in a useful way. That means not sharing incorrect information, or being too verbose in our replies, thereby wasting time in misunderstandings.

What else fits in this area? What more can you add to what Mark is pointing out? There are many great tips that you have to share – leave one here or on your own blog. How do you handle replies? Quick or thoughtful?

Thoughts on Comment Fragmentation

Apr 14, 2008 | blog

I suppose I should be upset by the current wave of tools & services like shyftr that aggregate blog content and also host commenting features for that content. In essence, these services could be accused (and are) of stealing content.

I guess the short of it for me is that I hope people read my feed, visit my blog and comment because I’m providing some piece of information that has value for them. Like many bloggers, I may have had ideas of being a professional blogger and deriving my living simply by blogging – I’ve long since dropped that assumption. I blog because I want to participate, or want to voice my opinions or ideas. If what I have to say is important, people will show up at my blog.

There are legal aspects to these arguments, but I’ll need to think about it a bit longer.

UPDATE: What I really think this trend means, is that its time to change.  When the playing field is altered, the players need to adapt.  As such, new perspectives on blogging and conversations need to be adopted.

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