Is Commending the Commenter a Matter of a Pinion?

After delivering thousands of comments on others' posts here on beBee.com, and responding to 99.99% of the comments by others on my own posts, over the last three years, I believe I’m somewhat qualified to comment on our comments by way of this limping (rather than running) commentary. 

When I published my first long post on beBee (back in April 2016) it was new and exciting, and comments were flying back and forth, up and down, like a fiddler's elbow.  We were all telling stories and there was a mood of anticipation.  Some of the comment strings were long enough to be more engrossing than conversations we were actually having off line, with real face-to-face people.  Some were philosophical, some argumentative (but without too many 'troll de rolls'), some jocular (often verging towards the infamous 'dad joke tennis'), some poetic (at least rhyming, occasionally verging on the doggerel, if seldom artistically constructed), some (but not very many) were respectful in an almost boringly polite way, and then there were the downright 'pull your leg', 'tall poppy demolishing', retorts, being mockingly, tauntingly, often 'one roo short in the top paddock' of being downright offensive, yet saved from the ultimate punch-up by being inevitably hilarious.  

This latter line of comically abusive verbal attack was, as I remember it, best practised by the 'Boys from the Gap', a term I coined for a few of us located in the centre of the universe, defined by a smattering of countries all far enough away from, yet between, Europe and North America (sorry but I've casually included Canada in 'North America' and fully expect to be verbally hung, drawn and quartered for it).  When I say 'between' these large European/American blots on the atlas, I mean, of course, when journeying the long way round the globe (otherwise we 'Boys from the Gap' would've been swimming in the Atlantic Ocean). Sadly many from the Australasian Antipodes, the east coast of China, the African continent and the Indian subcontinent are no longer providing a pinion to prop our discussions and keep them 'real', but, thankfully, there are still a few diehards dabbling in the wings and occasionally in the spotlight.

Although, back in those days, many of us were refugees from the corroding 'Link Tin', there was a community spirit of being united by a common theme, a new platform where there was a refreshingly common attitude and even expectation of always responding to comments made on our posts.  This was something sadly missing from other platforms like the 'Link Tin' rust bucket, where many post authors (or their ghost writers in the case of the 'rich and infamous') ignored the  contributions from their commenters. And then, of course, we had regular verbal 'visits' and contributions from our platform upper echelon, a truly unique feature, combined with an IT department that was, back then, keen to respond in a timely manner to suggestions from the buzzing masses on how to improve the user's experience.

Here's a short ditty I composed back in the days when beBee was new and star dust was in our eyes (and before I sacked my barber).

What's this beBee all about, should I stay and work it out?

Why do strangers follow me, should I follow them and see?

Share a photo, post a link, tell them what I really think?

Write a buzz, long or scant, will they find it relevant?

.......................................................................................

Can this social network be, true affinity for me?

Will it give me what I'm missing, or just leave me reminiscing?

Will my creativity, lead to hive activity?

Will my posts be liked and read, shared around, so they spread?

.........................................................................................................

Wait a moment, what's this bell, on the top line, pray do tell?

Numbers pop up, now I see, I have feedback, just for me.

Comments come, smooth as honey, some of them are really funny.

Happy bees all start to buzz, when I tell them how it was.

...............................................................................................

Now things start to come alive, when I dive into a hive.

Shares commence, quite a lot, when I stir the honey pot.

Comments flow, smooth as honey, some of them are really funny.

Every bee's a honey eater, like it, love it, nothing sweeter.

..............................................................................................

Bye Bye Facebook, see ya Twitter, leaving LinkedIn's sweet not bitter.

Come on over, one and all, join me on my beBee wall.

Happy chat's the way to go, no 'trolls' here, they spoil the show.

........................................................................................................

Now it's time to stop this rhyme, cause it's beBee blogging time!

........................................................................................................................................................

Well the marketers marched in, followed by the 'snake oil' purveyors, and then the listicle constructors proffered us rainbow's end advice on how to improve business, with promises of soberingly serious success. Now, with the possible exception of the 'snake oil' charmers, these are not necessarily bad things in themselves, but, with the in-rush came a plethora of corrosive selfishness, with little thought for bonding ..... a one way street of authors demanding readers, yet seldom, if ever, commenting on the posts of others, or responding to comments appended by their readers to their own posts.  There is now an epidemic in our midst, staggeringly reminiscent of the limp 'Link Tin' tedium. 

Yet the cure is obvious and as simple as a sugar coated pill, and without any bitter aftertaste.

• When your readers choose to comment on your posts, make a point of ALWAYS returning the complement (yes for each and every comment), acknowledging their contribution by a well chosen few words of thanks (you may even propagate a commentary of conversation if you're lucky); 
• Don't just post your profferings like sterile and characterless milk bottles ('past your eyes' milk comes to mind), as though we are the great unwashed. Open a window on your heart and soul and let us see your character and foibles, warts and all; 
• Read the posts of others, not just the stalwarts and old timers amongst us, who have already developed an interactive following of sorts, but the 'newBees' and the occasional visitors to this platform, who are still dipping their toes testily in the beBee honeypot; and, most important of all
• Comment positively on the posts of others, since this is your investment of a future audience for your own work and every successful platform is a two way street. 

For every 'take' there must be 'give', and without this balance of writing and reading, talking and listening, offering and accepting, by both parties in the 'conversational contract', we'll all lose our necessary equilibrium and this platform, still so full of promise, will ultimately fall over.

Out future, as potentially the 'Platform at the End of the Universe', surviving while other worlds make way for interstellar bypasses to nowhere, is firmly in our hands, all of our hands.

GO FORTH WITH YOUR COMMENTS AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS AND MULTIPLY!

(Yes, commending the commenter is a matter of a pinion)

....................<<..................>>...................

http://ken-boddie.squarespace.com

The author of the above, Ken Boddie, besides being a sometime poet and occasional writer, is an enthusiastic photographer, rarely leisure-travelling without his Canon, and loves to interact with other like-minded people with diverse interests.

Ken's three day work week (part time commitment) as a consulting engineer allows him to follow his photography interests, and to plan trips to an ever increasing list of countries and places of scenic beauty and cultural diversity.