I need better coping skills.

Hel, thank you. Mostly it doesn’t feel right to me to speed-read my way through two weeks worth of anybody’s blog posts.

Meno, nice to have you back from Chicago.

Jeanie, I have tried to have different sets of lists in bloglines (and I still have) but finally I have to make the decision if I really want to read a blog or not. I’m not commenting on every blog I read and on the ones that I do comment regularly I only comment when I want to.

Right now I’m feeling all fine again, and my feed reader has remained “all read” for two days. But this shouldn’t be my main goal for the day.

There are days when I do not get around to checking even my faves out and I only ever comment when I am in the frame of mind to do so – but there are some I will comment on more than others – as someone above said, if someone has over 50 comments its easier to not.

I too have learned (by accident, but have done it deliberately since) to “clean the slate” because life cannot be constantly lived in the past – sometimes you just have to junk what you have missed and start from a level playing field.

In other words, i know what you mean.

But I agree one should only blog and comment when one can have fun doing so.

As for advice… I’m not sure (as I struggle with the same questions) so I will give the answer that feels right now.

Do what feels right at any given time.

and then hope for the best.

ps. Your posts and comments happen in their own sweet time and I always enjoy them.

I lurk on many blogs and don’t comment unless the person has specifically asked for them.

And I know this is weird.. but if I get caught up in something else, I have no trouble hitting “mark all as read” and then I start again from scratch.

Otherwise I would get overwhelmed and that wouldn’t serve anyone. My comments wouldn’t have any substance and I’d only be skimming.

Peace,

~Chani

I try to make comments more often when people don’t get much of them. I often don’t bother when there already have been 50 or so before me.

And sober is right, the blog world is big and one can’t stay on top of it. I only get upset when I’m way behind.

Liv, it has been a very long time since I last read somebody’s archives…

And I don’t comment on every blog I read. Not by far.

***
I do agree that sometimes the Google reader overwhelms. My new policy is that when I start reading a new blog, I don’t read the archives anymore. I just move forward. And truthfully, if someone starts posting multiple times per day, I sort of lose interest. It’s like overload to me. And sometimes, if the post is one that I know needs more attention than I can give, I put it off. Like the post you wrote before this post. I am putting it off because I need to dust off my thinking cap.

The blog-world is so big and grand, there will never be a way for me to on top of it. The best I can do is to attend to the blogs that are important to me.

The button was conceived to acknowledge the reciprocal relationship of blogger and commenter. I think it’s fundamental to the nature of blogging, or else why use this medium? When a reader goes the extra step and leaves a comment, it augments the blog. The total is greater than the sum, or however that goes.