I have been very fortunate in having very good commenters on my blogs. The top ones, in recent months, and in no particular order of importance, have been Vance Maverick, Clarissa, "Profacero," Thomas, Andrew Shields, and Sarang. Vance Maverick I know very little about, but he has also been known to comment on other, more high-profile blogs like Langauge Log and Crooked Timber, and probably others I do not read. Clarissa and Profacero, like me, are Hispanists. Thomas B, who lives and works in Denmark, runs a blog very similar to Stupid Motivational Tricks, and another parallel to Bemsha Swing. In fact, his blog Research as a Second Language was the inspiration for Stupid Motivational Tricks. Andrew, like me, went to [Graduate {actually he was undergraduate while I was grad}] School at Stanford. He work in Basel in Switzerland, and, like me, loves jazz and poetry. Sarang is a graduate student in physics who also knows a hell of a lot about 17th century British poetry. There is no connection, as far as I know, between any of these six individuals, aside from maybe answering each others' comments. Geographically, they represent a diverse group, if we consider where they live or where they hail from originally. Two have lived in Canada, for example. Only one of them have I seen in the flesh.
You, too, can be a part of this select group. If I've left you out here it is because of quantity, not quality. I haven't had a bad or spam comment on my blogs for quite some time.
Nothing, I believe, testifies to the quality of a blog than the kind of commenters who participate in it on a regular basis. I'd much rather get 3 interesting, profound comments than 25 inane statements of the "Oh, you are so brilliant" variety.
ResponderEliminarThis is a great blog, so it gets good commenters.
That's a neat summary of the little "imagined community" we've created here.
ResponderEliminar(Just for reference: I was an undergrad at Stanford, not a grad student. And as we discussed once by email a while back, we probably did meet, or at least I certainly sold you coffee!)
Yes. Now I remember. I had switched that detail in my mind.
ResponderEliminarHey, thanks. For what it's worth, I'm a Californian -- grew up in LA, live in San Francisco -- studied music and then linguistics as an undergrad, and computer science for the PhD. I work as a software developer. I know something of German and Italian poetry, as well as English, but no Spanish.
ResponderEliminarThe highest-profile blog I've been associated with was Edge of the American West, now defunct, where I was a commenter and for a while a poster as well. The first thing I wrote there was on Zukofsky, the second on Cage.
Your commenters are indeed good, but you deserve more!
Thanks -- such a strange group! But it goes with the territory I suppose. Perhaps one of the reasons you're so good at collecting commenters is that you're v. good at writing provocative posts!
ResponderEliminarIt is a good group, one I have admired from a distance. I do not believe I have ever commented, although I have linked to several of your posts.
ResponderEliminarI was gravely tempted to violate my oh-so-precious anonymity on your recent University Scholars post. I may have once been one of those.
Feel free to comment any time.
ResponderEliminar