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Saturday, September 29, 2007

On Blogging

One of the things I like about blogging is the opportunity for debate on issues that I think are important, and that is why I place such a high priority on the comments that readers leave on my columns. Observations has a small but loyal set of readers whose comments I value highly, and I especially appreciate that they often do not agree with me, as it gives me the opportunity to perhaps see points I haven’t thought about.

Regulars have probably noticed that there are some topics that I address fairly often, such as journalism, global warming, government’s rights and wrongs, crime and punishment, cultural issues, etc.

Whether people do or do not comment has become an item of fascination for me. It isn’t unusual for a column that I expect to get a lot of comments to receive only a couple, or perhaps none and, conversely, sometimes a column that I think won’t get many will get a bunch. My most recent effort, a piece that dealt with both journalism and global warming, surprisingly hasn’t had a comment, whereas the piece on Ahmadinejad’s appearance at Columbia University had a bunch, and both of those surprised me. What all of this means, apparently, is that I really don’t have a clue as to what people think is interesting or important.

I also continue to be surprised at the exotic variety of locations that people who visit Observations connect to the Internet from, and have posted pieces on that occasionally. Here are some recent results, some not so exotic, but new, and some from you regulars:

Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada

Redmond, Washington

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

Exeter, Devon, United Kingdom

Bene Beraq, Tel Aviv, Israel

Madrid, Spain

Raleigh, North Carolina

Williamsburg, Virginia

Oleiros, Galicia, Spain

Buford, Georgia

Framingham, Massachusetts

Portland, Oregon

Colleyville, Texas

Lewisville, Texas

Research Triangle Park, North Carolina

Little Rock, Arkansas

Nassau, New Providence, Bahamas

Quezon, Nueva Ecija, Philippines

Syracuse, New York

Coventry, Rhode Island

Shepley, Kirklees, United Kingdom

Belfast, United Kingdom

Bensalem, Pennsylvania

Honolulu, Hawaii

Buffalo, New York

Spanish Fort, Alabama

Wouldn’t it be great if even half of them left comments?

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