Happy Delurker Day!

January 10th is (officially?) Delurker Day - for all the people who read other people's blogs and never comment...because comments are warm-fuzzies for us bloggers.

I know of about 5 people who read my blog regularly (thank you, by the way!), but I've had a bit of a rant in my brains for a while now about those who read blogs, and comment (or don't). It has to do with Lurking and Delurking.

I started this blog about a year ago, and would check the 3 blogs of people I knew. One day I realized that one of them had a "blogroll" (or a list of blogs s/he recommended), so I checked each of those blogs out, and found some really cool ones. And I checked those blogrolls, and found some more really cool blogs. What a great way to lose hours and hours, right? And I figured that since my blog was posted on the Internet, for all the world to see, everyone else realized that their blog was also posted on the Internet, for all the world to see...meaning that if the Blog Author did not make the blog private, s/he acknowledged that it was available for anyone with an Internet connection to view. Right? Right?? AND, not only that, but if the Blog Author decided not to moderate comments (meaning s/he has to approve each one before it is officially published), then s/he is making him/herself vulnerable to unsolicited comments left by unknown people.

So, one day, early on in my bloggy adventures, I was aimlessly wandering my way through one of the rabbit trails, and found a post that I wanted to comment to. Now, by this time, people (that I knew) had commented to my blog, and I had commented to their blogs, and other people's blogs, too. I thought commenting on blogs was, like, supposed to happen, right? Like, bloggers want people to comment to their blogs. Right? So, when I found the blog post I wanted to comment to, I went through the painless procedure of actually commenting on a blog authored by a person I did not know. It was innocuous, and encouraging, and simple, and related to the blog-at-hand, and I thought nothing more of it. I had even had conversations with other bloggers about lurkers that had posted comments to their sites...and they were equally impressed and surprised by the delurking.

Again, I didn't think anything of the fact that I had spontaneously delurked on an blog where I didn't know the author.

Until...

A couple of days later, I found a comment posted on my blog from that blogger. And it wasn't a very friendly one. It wasn't particularly nasty, it was just, basically, "Who are you and why the heck were you commenting on my blog?" I was hurt. I admit that I've always been a sensitive bird, but her snide comment really put me off commenting (and lurking) for quite a while. I feel like I missed out on a lot. :-(

What do you think?

I think I've matured in my blog exposure a bit in the last year, and while I know I've got more to learn, I think I understand lurking and delurking a lot better now, and I mostly think delurking is okay...as long as the comment is nice. But I have to admit that I'm still really really hesitant to delurk and post a comment on the blog of someone I don't know. But I L♥VE it when people I don't know leave me comments (as long as it's nice). Warm-fuzzies....mmmmmm.

So. That's my rant. My Delurking Day Rant. Maybe I'll have one for next year, too. You know, make it a tradition.

Anyone want to comment and tell me what you think about random comments from random people? Also, am I supposed to email back to everyone who comments on my blog?