@Darren Majority of the participants who did the comment self audit stated that “fear” was their biggest barrier. Fear of saying the wrong thing or they had little of value to add (because they were just starting out). Which amazed me because they all blog and contribute in Twitter — I’d assumed that if they blog then fear would have been overcome. Their blog and twitter gets back to personal, ownership, feeling safe — whereas on other people’s blog they can’t change the words.

Definitely there is a difference between this blog and the Edublogger; the biggest difference being the shear size of the audience.

Sad about the fact you don’t get a nice holiday

I’m intrigued by the commenting fear factor. I also wonder if it’s not a combination of laziness, or an unwillingness to commit. I think you should poll your readers:

Do they contribute to a blog?
Have they ever posted a comment to a blog?
Have they ever commented on your blog?
If they haven’t commented, why haven’t they?

It would also be interesting to see the results of the poll on this blog compared to the same poll on the Edublogger. I suspect your audience is slightly different.

I think our free to airs like the ABC (two channels) + SBS are brilliant with the sheer scope and quality of programs. And without meaning to provide a freebie for paid tv (they take my money so that’s enough) there are some gems on cable that would never see the light of day on free to air commercials.

All a matter of taste I reckon. At least I’ve stopped being guilty about watching tv!

Counting down the weeks ’til summer holidays? Yes I’ve definitely learned a lot.

Read Ken’s thoughts and its okay I know people worry about me (being too connected). The unfortunate reality in Australia is there is NOTHING on TV (PS very long winded response = apologies but so annoyed by crappy TV viewing).

Now I know you must think this is amazing with 6 free to air channels plus Pay TV (Foxtel) that there is nothing worth watching. But that is the reality. Foxtel is just continual reruns of the same shows and episodes (like Ground Hog Day but worse). So most nights I do make an attempt to watch TV but there is absolutely nothing worse wasting time to watch. I’m not that only one that feels this way — my hubby will often read a book or go on YouTube to find videos to watch.

And I don’t think anyone should be forced to watch Simpsons, Family Guy etc just for the sake of connecting with their children (one more episode of any of them and I may be forced to do something really bad!!!).

So that is my really long winded way of saying once I used to watch a lot of TV, now it is all mostly crap so I’ve just chosen to spend my time more productively. And when there are shows worth watching I watch them with the family. (We have American Idol nights, Star Trek, Star Gate, Movie nights).

I assumed the main reason why people don’t comment is the “time issue” however most participants of the Challenge have said their reluctance to comment is because of the “fear factor.”

My goal of the challenge was to make people appreciate (experience) that much of the learning from blogging comes from the interactions that happen as a result of commenting so they could build this into how they use it with their students.

I do sacrifice writing my own posts to comment on others but that is my choice. But that doesn’t make us either better or worse “blog citizens” we are just doing what we can when we can . PS the 5 in 5 for me was to see if I could become a more time efficient commenter (doesn’t look possible )

In following your progress in this 31-day challenge, I’m please to see that you’re still keeping up. I’m sure you’ve learned a lot and have grown significantly in the process of interaction with others.

That said, and in light of the 5 in 5, I’m wondering how much time you’ve spent in connection with this cause. The last thing I’m saying here is that the 31-day comment challenge isn’t worthwhile – I’m sure that it is – I’ve just become increasing aware of how much time we all spend doing this stuff (and at the expense of what else?). Along these lines, I can empathize well with Ken Rodoff’s thoughts here: http://tinyurl.com/6oz64e .

I’m also wondering if – in order for me to be a good blogging citizen – I must sacrifice writing my own posts so that I’m able to comment on the posts of others. If I don’t comment on other’s posts because I honestly don’t have the time (but I am able to scrape 5 minutes to write a post of my own), does that lower my status as a “good blogging citizen”?

On a different topic, THANK YOU again Sue, for all of your help. I think the level of service you offer to educators worldwide is tremendous and unparalleled. Again.

@Kate definitely been a long day Perhaps freedom of speech but still wonder if too many years working with policies has done this to me?