Posts vs. comments. Where do you fall and why?
I'd say that on Tildes as on other platforms, you see a lot more posts responding to a topic than you see comments on existing posts.
I get it. Responding to a prompt with a thoughtful, top-level comment is expressive, can often be therapeutic and comes with the bonus of possible comments by others on your entry.
Comments on existing thoughts are less sexy and possibly less fulfilling because you're riffing off of another person's idea, but as a reader and a community member, seeing user to user interaction is the best part of a social network.
I'm a perennial commenter - at best because I love conversation, at worst, with the hope that I can digress from the mainline conversation.
Where do you fall?
*Edit: I've just learned the difference in terminology between a top level comment and a comment. Edited to avoid confusion.
As a prelude, I think your choice of words is unfamiliar to me. I’ve understood posts to be all of the items I scroll through on the Tildes home page, but those aren’t responding to anything as far as I see. I think you are making a distinction between top-level comments/posts and replies to those comments, so that’s what I’ll assume, but please correct me if I’m wrong.
Overall, I think similar platforms with topic-comment-reply also have a substantial majority of top-level comments. I would not claim that Tildes is unique except insofar as there are fewer users in general, and so fewer replies in general.
Personally, I prefer making top-level comments because I often come off as critiquing or adversarial in my responses. I still need to develop my ability to think of and ask genuine questions about someone else’s opinions instead of immediately developing my own opinions as a default response. Therefore, if I have a thought, I often consciously choose to write it as a top-level so as to keep it independent and not feel like I’m trying to tell someone else they’re wrong even when we do disagree.
I tend to find that my comments are mostly top-level as well, though often they begin life as draft replies. Once they grow beyond a response to another user's comment, incorporating other thoughts about the OP or whatever else might happen to increase the scope of relevance, I tend to redraft it as a top-level comment and post that way.
Interesting - is the choice to redraft comments as a top-level comment with the goal of maintaining the integrity of the thread? What if you and the other commenter want to digress from OP's comment?
I think it's more that I get to a point where the scope of my reply feels more relevant as a top-level comment to the OP, rather than a reply to a comment, if that makes sense? If there's OP
awith commentb, I often get to a stage where it feels like my reply starts to feel like it's more aboutathan aboutb, so I change where it goes to with any relevant edits.I guess I could post two comments, one in reply to
band one toa, but there's some part of my brain that doesn't like the idea of that.Yeah, fair enough. On Reddit, threads can get so long that (in my mind) posting related information on top level (high rates) comments improves the likelihood of engagement. I'm not writing a post that just disappears into the ether.
Tildes is a different story, though I think that some of the same rules apply. If there are too many unanswered top level comments that cover most of the topic's possible answers, adding depth or context to existing comments is preferred for me.
In the end, I want to see that notification icon pop up lol
Yeah, my terminology is probably a little made-up rather than conventional here. I'm not aware of the lexicon for this sort of thing.
Do you get the feedback or responses you're after by primarily posting top level comments?
I feel like I do both.
The thing with commenting is that sometimes it feels futile when there are already tens of comments, even moreso on Reddit where it can get into thousands and at one point you're just wondering "why am I doing this?" when commenting. On Tildes, it often feels great because the engagement is good accross the whole post. I've seen posts on Tildes where the top comment had no replies and some 2-3 comments down had tens. It's fun! I feel that my time is never wasted when I type a comment.
As for posting, I like to do it when I have a good question to ask. I've done it a couple times, maybe 3-4 times a year and I'm always happy with the engagement. At the same time, the only internet I visit is Youtube and I never feel like sharing a Youtube video is a good thing. So if I don't have a good question to ask as a post, I just don't do it.
For me I usually comment, be it top level or not. I only post a new topic if I have a good idea for one, or I need help with something from others. I worry about posting stuff thinking “what if this is dumb?” Or “what if they’ll think I’m dumb?” Basically I’m too self-conscious so I mainly comment.
Yeah, same. Case in point - I didn't think I'd get told that 'that doesn't happen on Tildes' or that 'your terminology is confusing' in this very post, but everybody has a different way of weighing in -- even if it makes you feel dumb.
Personally, I get a little adversarial with the worst offenders. Some Redditors love to begin a reply with "No." Followed by a declarative statement to what is a very subjective post and it kills me. It's the sort of smug reactionary comment that just grinds my gears.
I hope that the next time the urge to post comes over you, that you choose to piss in the wind and see what happens ;)
Thank you for the encouragement. I ended up posting something after I read your comment here yesterday.
In terms of adversarial comments, I’m not very good at arguing online. I think the absence of tone and body language skews my perception of it and I let it get to me too much. A lot of social media thrives on negative reactions (outrage in particular), so I try to keep an emotional distance when things get heated up. I will admit though, that the last time someone had an opposing argument to my thoughts on Tildes, it was respectful and I learned something new. So sometimes it’s useful to disagree, if done respectfully and with some emotional detachment (at least for me).
Glad that you found my comment helpful.
I'm similar -- arguing online can get the blood boiling and (I think) it's important to step back when you feel a reaction to the situation in your body.
That said, online banter is a safe place to practice making assertive claims. Whether I'm right, wrong or both, I love the chance to be bold in this space.
It's validating that I have it in me to keep a level head when the heat is on, and that I know when to back out because the intensity of the discussion is no longer serving those involved.
No.
Redditors are perfect and there is no smugness when the response is objectively correct.
(I hope you read this with the intended light-heartedness)
Oh, I read it that way all right. I also want to comment you on your use of the word "No". The full break afterwards is peak Reddit. You should go into acting. ;)
Care to provide an example of this happening? I don't think this is very common, at least not in my experience.
Sure - there was a post yesterday about small moments of joy where, as I remember it, most of the post comments lived on their own without reflection from anyone else.
In those cases while it’s nice to see a reply, it’s not a must. My thought process is “I hope OP gains something from reading my comment”. Sorry, I’m not the person who asked for the example, but I remember the thread as I did post a reply.
Oh that's funny. I immediately also thought of that topic in relation to this question.
I think it's a good example of how I personally decide whether to post my own top-level comment directly to a topic vs replying to someone else's existing comment (I do actively try to leave replies on tildes).
In that one, I posted a top-level comment because I was able to consolidate my thoughts more easily than had I replied to other comment(s). To share my thoughts as replies, I could have commented on one bullet in a comment here, another bullet in a different comment, and yet another bullet in yet another comment. No problem with that but it would have been very fractured and all over the place, and which existing comments do I even reply to? so, the idea of replying to comments instead of reflecting more simply on the original topic felt overwhelming.
Flip side is, well, something like this I guess. I could have posted this as my own top-level comment. But, my thoughts felt at home as a reply here instead, plus your comment about that thread gave more context to what i was already thinking about.
I dunno if that makes sense, end of ramble :)
Hah, it makes total sense. Honestly, sometimes the choice to post a top level comment is one decided by how much time you have, too.
Not sure if you find this, but I'm far more likely to scan the comments and reply individually when I have a break from life and want to spend time on my phone.
I don't think much about it. I'm not really looking for anything, I just see stuff that catches my interest and compose some thoughts when I got em. I do try to be fun to read - you're giving me some time so I wanna give you something that's worth some time. If folks are on about something, I'll try to fit in what I've got where it seems appropriate, where it fits in the context of the conversation. I just go where I go and say what I say and leave the rest to fate. If it's a bunch of top level comments then that's what it is. Just the way my cookie be crumbling.
It is what it is - likely the best way to approach today's internet.
Also, I've only heard "Cookie Crumbling" from Tom Waits and myself. Did you hear it from either of those sources? Lol
"That's the way the cookie crumbles" is something I heard somewhere, at some point, is the best I got on that one
Highly depends on the sort of post I am commenting in. If the OP (original poster, that's you ;) ) asks a question which I am answering, I am more likely to post a top-level comment. Simply because otherwise the OP might not see my answer. Sometimes though, someone already has posted part of the answer and I just have some additional information. In that case I might reply to that person and the ping the OP.
If the post is more a generic discussion or it is a link post it really depends. Do I have something specific to say that doesn't fit in already existing discussions? Top-level comment. Do I just have something to contribute to the conversation? Reply to the relevant comment.
I do both but am not sure if I lean particularly one way or the other! To me it seems a bit natural with the way Tildes' design decision of placing the comment box for a top-level comment at the very bottom of the page, to encourage reading what has already been posted. If at the end I feel I actually have something to say that hasn't been said - or in cases of those "what have you been playing/listening to/etc." threads - bam, top-level comment. And if I don't, well, maybe I just don't. If I encounter a comment that I feel I can either contribute to or say something more than just a cursory vote, I'll comment. Even if that comment could have had enough meat in it to be its own top-level comment, I really don't mind riffing off someone else's.