.: On Tokyo Time :.

Noah from Okdork.com asks: Why do people leave comments?

Makes me wonder who actually reads them… Is it only the blog owner and fellow commenters or does a wider audience read the comments?

I read blogs in an RSS reader and therefore never see comments. Is this representative for 10% of the readers? 80%?

The worst comments are the “great post dude”, “very insightful” and others that do not add any value. I think that’s one of the main reasons why I don’t read comments. Added value is too sparse.

In fact I get aggravated by pointless comments because I feel like someone is wasting my time. Same goes for the IE blog where there is usually a 2 line introduction of who writes the given post. I often find myself thinking “get out of my way and give me the content”. Feed reading is about sucking up as much information as possible in the most efficient way to me. Maybe because I’m subscribed to about 100 feeds.

So how does this fit in with “My readers are smarter than me”? (Picked up via Scoble but originally from Dan Gillmor I think.) Well, it probably doesn’t. But I don’t feel like I’m missing out too much. Or do I? Some bloggers update their posts with hints to insightful comments or even include quotes. This is much appreciated!

[Update] I was first writing this post in Noah’s comments. I think it adds more value to the conversation as a standalone entity. I made it its own blog entry where it becomes referable. The conversation (the essence of blogging) can happen on 2 levels: Within the comments on one blog or spanning multiple blogs and posts. Both come with a lot of noise but I prefer the second one.

I got a letter from Budget [1] with a check in it. Again! This time $5. How nice of them!

The check also says: “Cashing this check automatically activates a membership in the Elite Excursions program.” Smells fishy. Let’s see…

The small print reads: “Unless you call XXX to cancel during this one-month period, all privileges will be automatically continued at the $19.99 monthly membership fee for the first twelve months after your initial trial period. Your membership will be automatically continued at the $20.99 monthly membership fee for the next twelve months, and continued at the then-current monthly membership fee for each month thereafter. For your convenience, we’ll bill the card you have on file with Budget, without you having to do anything further.”

Aha. I wonder how many people are stupid enough and fall for it. You end up paying $239.88 for the $5 you get within a year.

Thanks Budget, but if you call me stupid I’ll take my business elsewhere!

[1] At least I think it’s Budget. Their logo is on the envelope and mentioned several times in the text. But it seems to be sent by Elite Excursions.

Update: A quick search for “Elite Excursions” reveals others complaining about the same scheme one year ago already. I wonder if this deal works for Budget!?!