Tag: spreading

How Will CoComment Change Our Commenting Habits? [en]

I was [really excited to be able to talk about coComment yesterday](http://climbtothestars.org/archives/2006/02/04/cocomment-enfin-public/ “The very beginnings of coComment and my small part in the whole adventure.”) Saturday night, and I really think it’s a great service, but I never thought it would [pick up as fast as it did](http://www.cocomment.com/teamblog/?p=15). As I heard Robert saying at LIFT, the blogosphere is not about how many people read you, but about who does, and how things scale and can get out of hand once the masses get hold of them.

[CoComment](http://cocomment.com/) is already changing the way I [participate in comments](http://www.cocomment.com/comments/steph “See where and what I’ve been talking besides on my blogs.”) (conversations!) on other blogs. I feel more connected. I feel like it makes more sense to leave a comment on a blog I scarcely visit, because it’s not a message in a bottle anymore: I have an easy way to get back to it. CoComment makes my activity on other blogs visible, so it encourages me to be active (yeah, that’s how I am! I like the spotlights, didn’t they tell you?) and maybe more conversational.

On the other hand, this is what I see coming: more popularity for popular blogs or posts or commenters (coComment will amplify the [feedback loop effect](http://climbtothestars.org/archives/2006/02/05/visibility-is-in-feedback-loops/) for comments). Easy [celeb’ stalking](http://www.cocomment.com/comments/scobleizer “Want to see where Robert Scoble is commenting now?”). Maybe more self-consciousness about “where I comment” and “what I comment”? Comments by [top commenters](http://www.cocomment.com/ “Box on the left. I’m in there because I’m a bit obsessive and this is the beginning, but I’ll soon drop out, no fear.”) will have a different weight on your blog, and different consequences, because they’ll get a different visibility. A-lister X’s comment on a lowly blog may have gone unnoticed until now, but if they use coComment, it won’t anymore. Will we start signing out of coComment to retain privacy over a certain amounts of comments we make, and that we don’t want in the public eye?

I’m really happy to see coComment gaining so much popularity. I’m just a bit worried. Is this too much success/visibility to soon? I’ve seen people (gently) bitching around already about what a shame it was that coComment did not support all blog platforms, or that it only tracked comments by coCommenters. Laurent says he’s [pushing to open it up on Monday night](http://www.ballpark.ch/blog/english/514/follow-cocomment), but I wonder: is it really a good idea? What are the risks involved? What has the most potential for damage: frustrating people because they can’t yet be “part of it”, or not being able to manage the scaling, user feedback, and user expectations for a public service?

I know I’m a worry-bug, and Laurent and Nicolas are smart and know the insides of the service much better than I do — so I’ll just go and prepare my stuff for school and worry about useful things for my life just now (like, what am I going to teach this morning). All the same, guys: “Soyez prudents!”

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