To Comment or Not to Comment: Blogging to Confirm vs. Blogging to Learn
I think comments are vital, otherwise I might as well write in my moleskine journal. However, I absolutely agree with his concerns about confirmation bias in comments. Thinking about my flickr account, I get so many comments which say “nice”, then go and do the same elsewhere. Inevitable really, that users tend to gravitate towards likeminded people and confirm one anothers “rightness”.
I have learnt a lot about photography from flickr, but very little from comments. Part of that might be due to the visual nature of the medium, and the difficulty in expressing our (my) reactions in words. Perhaps the exchange about teaching will yield different results….
