A long way back I decided that I needed to share my opinion on this new thing that was popping up on blogs everywhere called comment plugging. It involved a script in the blog software that would put the name of the person who posted a comment, as a hyperlink to wherever they wanted (usually their website, since it's what was asked for), at the bottom of the entry.
The very first time I saw this it was at Lost Dreaming (jen.eloquensa.net). When I saw her doing it and saw no one else in any of my blog hopping that had anything like it. I thought it was sweet: a nice little thank you for taking the time to comment on what she had written. Then I moved on and thought nothing more of it.
Fast forward to about a month ago when I started some serious blog hopping again on a rainy day when there was nothing better to do. All of a sudden every single blog I wound up at had comment plugs. It was convenient for me because I could just click on all the links and open them in a background page, then close the ones that sucked or were by people I wasn't attracted to. Yes I know, I'm a horrible person for admitting that but it's true. I'm more likely to stay longer than 30 seconds if I think they're attractive. Unless of course they're articulate and funny, then I just assume they're attractive.
Only it wasn't long before this comment plugging nonsense started to bother me. You would get entries about absolutely nothing with 30+ comments about absolutely nothing. Now let's move past the fact that I'm bitter that these people are getting all these comments. I'm afraid to see what would happen if I started comment plugging. All of a sudden I get people on my site who don't actually care about what I have to say because why does it matter when they get a SWEET LINK TO THEIR SITE?! See where I'm going with this?
It's entirely possible that I was just being bitter. Not being the kind of person who would comment on anyone's site unless it was an entry by someone hot about their hot cousin who farts a lot, I felt I was being cheated out of potential hits. Why couldn't they blog about something interesting so that I too could rape them with comments so that I could up my hits too? Is there no justice in the world?!
Unsure of how I was allowed to feel about this I asked an internet guru about her opinion on the subject. Said internet guru, who will remain unnamed for fear of her laying a huge smackdown on me for quoting her in a crappy opinion piece that I tried to pass off as a decent editorial, solidified my belief on comment plugging:
most people who consistantly plug commenters do it to get repeat visits, and most people who comment on those sorts of blogs do it for the plugs. I think my blog demonstrates that you don't need to continually plug people to get return visitors. If you can provide quality writings or something worth talking about, the visitors will come for the discussion, not the free plug.
So there you have it. For those of you who had discussion with me in person on the subject, rest assured knowing that comment plugs won't show up here. I may not have quality writing, but I'm not going to sink to the level of comment plugging to get more hits. Instead I'll do what any other boy in my position would do: write a really large "OMG CHAD FOX IS SO SEXY" and see what happens then.
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