100 Comments: The Assessment

So there you are, 100 Comments in 100-ish Hours. Heh. And without the assistance of Antonio, EJ, Lynne, nOva, Prime and Sean, it would have…

by j. brotherlove

So there you are, 100 Comments in 100-ish Hours. Heh. And without the assistance of Antonio, EJ, Lynne, nOva, Prime and Sean, it would have taken me even longer to complete. So, big-ups to them for indulging a crazy man’s idiosyncrasies.

Man-o-Manischewitz — what was I thinking? It’s a good thing thebrotherlove didn’t know about J2’s even crazier 100 Comments project in September before I started; I may have reconsidered the idea. His assessment of the experience rings all too familiar:

“Actually commenting on one hundred different pages is harder than you might expect. Much! Not only do you have to find blogs with the ability to leave comments, but also find something to say. That isn’t always easy. It is even harder when some pages are full of really long posts and you are trying to hurry.”

As if that wasn’t bad enough, there were several more obstacles I hadn’t foreseen:

1. Life
   As soon as I started the project, Loverboy called me with a crisis. The woman who is leasing the house where he lives decided to sell at the last minute so we are suddenly thrown into an apartment-looking situation which, besides being unpleasant in its own right, ate up valuable surf-and-comment time. Ugh.
2. The Setup
   After the first 24 hours or so I realized that my 100 words restraint was too contrived. The goal with that rule in the first place was to ensure I wrote a worthwhile comment (plus, I like the number 100). However, a “good” comment does not have to be any certain length. I spent more time trying to “flesh out” the comment to get to 100 words. Also, my documentation was involved so there was a lot of copying and pasting when I would’ve rather just concentrated on finding blogs.
3. Blog Circles
   My goal was to find webspaces I hadn’t visited before (or rarely visit) which meant that blogs I felt were already popular were off limits. But while surfing, I would end up in a loop of sites with similar “blogrolls”; especially toward the end. Breaking out of a “blog circle” to get to an unrelated blog was sometimes difficult.
4. Current Events
   Out of the millions of blogs online, most tend to link and discuss the same things. I only have so much to say about Schwarzenegger and digging through archives burns up time.
5. No Comments
   Some really great weblogs do not have commenting enabled which is not a bad thing. It just didn’t help with this project. In hindsight, I should’ve made a separate list of those blogs; I tended to like them.

In conclusion, it was worth it. I got to visit a lot of interesting sites I wouldn’t have found otherwise. Some were “interesting” for less-than admirable reasons. However, I was disappointed that I didn’t find more blogs by people over 30. But according to the Perseus Blog Survey (whose data integrity I don’t wholeheartedly trust), there are only 5.9% of us.

Also, I wasn’t aware of the awkward CMS solutions out there. If I don’t see another JavaScript error it will be too soon. I am further convinced that Movable Type and Typepad are the best solutions for weblog management. I guess you use what you know and what works for your situation.

Now excuse me while I check on my regular reads. It’s been a minute.

*raises hand, jumping up and down* I’m over 30!!
Wait a minute…did I just admit that?? :X

I’m over 30. SSSSIKE!!!!!!!
I play too much.

anyhoo, I do not envy you man, but I am really impressed. Not too many people interest me outside of my core group as of now. I hope I am one of the regulars you were referring to, Mister.

If 100 wasn’t enough, I keep contemplating how to do 1000. Talk about needing help. Glad I was part of your project.

i’m over 30. even over 40. and i crave comments…:)

Ah shucks, add me to part of that 5.9% who was just a few days late.