Comments on Comments

After more than three years of blogging, I still haven’t figured out the best way to respond to comments. When you ask a question in the comments, do you keep coming back to that post to check for an answer?

Or is it better if I pull both question and answer into a new post?

Obviously there’s no one best way. Some questions are not directly solely to me but rather are parts of ongoing discussion, and in those cases of course it makes sense for me to respond in the comments as well.

Other times, my response to a question turns into a whole post in itself. And in still other instances, I might make a short response in the com box, but newer posts and comments push that reply down the page and the person who posted the question might never know I replied.

I’m glad many blogs are now providing the option of subscribing to comment notifications so that I can follow com box discussions I’m interested on other sites.

I replied to a few questions in my own comments last night: Michelle’s daughters had a question about the Martha books, Hannah was curious about how we make read-alouds work with noisy little ones around, and Mary Alice wondered about kids who gulp down books very quickly. Feel free to chime in on those last two topics if you’d like! (I mean, you’re welcome to chime in on the Martha subject too, but that’s one of the very rare questions for which only I could provide an answer. It was about whether the Martha-and-Lew wedding story is ever likely to be told.)