Comments: Following Your Comments
How do you follow your comments and the conversation that ensues? Maybe the word "how" should be left off that question.
How many times have you made a comment on a post, checked back on it once and forget it's there. Or, maybe made your comment and just moved on?
What happens if a follow-up comment is one you shouldn't miss (someone asking for your elaboration)? There are ways to track your comments - though I'm not sure any are a full proof method of staying in touch with a conversation.
Del.Icio.Us: I've tried to use del.icio.us to track my comments, but I found it cumbersome in my own personal use - I use del.icio.us for so many other things and I would get distracted.
Kami Huyse uses this method to reach her blogging objective of tracking conversations (See #2). Kami can follow her comments with del.icio.us via RSS feed (so can you)
coComments: I started using coComments in late April. I've found it to be a good way to track my comments, but I'm only able to track comments by myself and other coComment users. One reason I like coComments: I can subscribe to the feed for my comments, but also to other coComment users (Here's Phil's. Here's Easton's).
co.mments: One tool that I haven't tried yet is co.mments. If you have, let us know your thoughts.
Feeds: Some blogs offer feeds for comments on a per blog (Anne 2.0 site) or per post (Flee the Cube post) basis. I follow so many feeds now, that's an offer I'll pass on.
Typepad Hacks has a tip on how to use FeedBurner & Typepad to create a feed for comments. I've used this hack for Dr. Delaney Kirk's class at Drake University and it works great. But that's one blog with two feeds. What does one do when they follow hundreds of feeds? Multiply them all by two? I don't think so.
eMail: Availability to track a conversation via email is pretty standard - but again, I fight email overload as it is.
???: What I'd like to see become a standard is a comment count within a feed (Feedburner's FeedFlare makes this possible for WordPress blogs, but I haven't seen this implemented with Typepad - yet. Maybe John at TypePad Hacks can share something here.)
What is your practice for following comments? Have you found one that works for you?
Photo on Flickr by nickonline
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