My big problem with comments is tracking them. I use co.mments.com which is nice. But I have to remember to track the comments and if I’m doing it from work I can’t use the service because it’s blocked. Wish I had a better way.

I think a lot of people in this space feel busier and busier… and I think that’s a bad thing in a lot of ways.

Okay… I think, cause what you said I’ve seen it a lot on other places, I think asking the question is better if you put in the perspective of “why are we commenting less, watching less, interacting less…?”

I don’t know but I think you do great vlogs - you are one of the best vloggers out there Clintus… so… just keep doing what you’re doing. And that includes asking the question you’re asking here.

First of all, sure ask a friend anything - they’re friends.

Second, it’s interesting that you posted this video. I started subscribing to your videos during vlog week; also, for the first time in a year or more, I caught up with videos in my feed, and, I always say, I’ll start commenting, so, well, this is sort of meta.

Third, I love comments, and I hardly ever ever get any on any of my videos any more and I feel sorry for myself, and, when I came to comment on this video, I thought, wow, he got 10 comments, maybe I should make a video about comments. But, then, I ask myself, how often to do I comment, and, well, I hardly ever ever comment anymore - partly because I watch via iTunes on TV and the system is not designed to support interaction - also, because, somewhere along the line I started figuring that I had enough people watching me that I could not post much, not interact much, etc., and everybody would keep commenting and watching … not realizing it was all about the interaction - the community, that’s what is fun, and that’s what it’s all about (I’ve come to realize for me, anyway).

I enjoy watching your videos because it reminds me of 2005 (100 video blog years ago), when people spent more time telling their own stories and watched other people’s stories and they interacted via comments, the video blogging list, and even the videos themselves were more connected - I see you participating a lot now in all these areas and it’s fun to watch. So, I’m totally watching and enjoying, and posting long rambling comments … Richard

Click to play this video.

I’m usually watching them in iTunes which doesn’t provide a way to comment easily. I also take a lot of podcasts with me and watch them on my iPod during my commute back and forth to work on the train. I rarely comment on videos now that I think about it. I know that on blogs, I have to enter my name, email, website and I wonder if my comment is important enough to take the time to do that. I’m more likely to comment on a site like Flickr which I’m ALWAYS logged into and ALWAYS checking out. I think it’s simply an “ease of use” issue.

Ya know what we need…

A universal system like Digg that people can “mark as watched” with a simple click of the mouse. I think I could handle that. I wouldn’t mind people knowing that I watch their videos, I would up for it.

Keep up the good work buddy!

Twitter may have changed things but I dont see too many commenting on peoples videos on Twitter. I see more announcements that people have created a video there. Those announcements, be them from Twitterfeed or a manual announcement, are in a way of asking people to watch their videos. Do I see anything wrong with you asking your friends to watch your newest video? No. Not really. I would question if it was needed? I kinda go with the train of thought that my friends will watch either when I first post the video or will eventually watch it if they are subscribed to me. I hope that they watch my stuff but if they dont then there really aint much I can do about it.

I wouldnt sweat it. There are people that are watching. Those that arent are missing some really great stuff

In response to whether you should email friends, I think if you want honest feedback you’ll need some sort of anonymous feedback form or survey. Otherwise friends will just be nice. Friends are good that way.

Personally speaking I don’t feel the need to comment often because I feel relatively connected to you in terms of Twitter, how often you post videos, and all the networks I see you on. So yes, I think the Twitter culture has had a huge impact on the videoblogging community. Less comments don’t necessarily equate to diminished connections. I remember the time when comments were all we had.

I also tend to go in phases/groups with my viewing and commenting. Although I have a very small list of vlogs that I watch constantly, I have a much larger list of vlogs that I often will go for several weeks or more before I go back and watch all the videos I’ve missed in that time. When I do go back and watch a few weeks worth of stuff, I probably wont comment on all of them (and sometimes don’t even comment on any … I really need and want to get better about that though.) I always feel bad about not commenting as often at these sites as they are vlogs I truly enjoy … life just seems to limit my real-time-vlog-attention-span pretty severely at times. Of course at the other extreme there are the vlogs that I only really see when they come up in twitter/etc. There are probably other ‘categories’ … but basically I often play catch up on vlogs (even ones I really enjoy) and thus fail to comment as much as I should.

I do think twitter and the like have changed the dynamic a bit, but comments are still the gold standard if you ask me.

I think you can email your friends and ask for feedback. I mean in the end - however narcissistic vlogging may seem - we all do this for our friends and the group of folks who watch us. I don’t see anything wrong with asking “what would help make you feel more engaged with my site”.

- Dave

As far as asking your friends for input, why wouldn’t you do that? They’re your friends, and they should be happy to be a resource. Again, it might not be immediate feedback, but if you’re calling folks friends of yours and vice versa, then part of that is being there to help each other out. At least, that’s how I feel about it.

Matthew