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!”
Similar Posts:
- Integration Page Updated [en] (2006)
- Tumblr to Capture Comments? [en] (2008)
- Please Don't Be Rude, coComment. I Loved You. [en] (2008)
- DailyMotion Problems [en] (2006)
- Power Laws, Popularity, Authority, A-Lists and the Rest… [en] (2006)
- Growing the coCo-family [en] (2006)
- Feeds For Tags! [en] (2006)
- I'm Working for coComment [en] (2006)
- Visibility is in Feedback Loops [en] (2006)
- Bad Sector in Memory [en] (2006)
i agree with you. i dont know about anybody else’s life, but this will change mine. and times of eternal beta, why not release now and work out the quirks as you go. good stuff
Ceci est un commentaire destiné à tester cocomment
Stephanie, I just put this on my blog: my connection at LIFT was awful and could hardly connect at all. Staying connected long enough to get this up was a feat! I’ve been away from a connection for a few days now. I’ll fix it properly when I’m home!
OK Gia, all cool! Thanks for dropping by with a note 🙂
euh. i’m definitely n-ot? a geek, seeing the mess that my simple link did just up there. sorry.
i really did the 1 2 3 4 as they said on the home page ?
Oh, it’s OK, Anne Dominique: just need to clean up your HTML a bit.
euh. i'm definitely n-ot? a geek, seeing the mess that my simple link did just up there. sorry.
i really did the 1 2 3 4 as they said on the home page ?
Oh, it's OK, Anne Dominique: just need to clean up your HTML a bit.
hello Steph, je vois pas de cocomment box sur ton blog ?
Un peu busy là , et il faut que je réfléchisse où le mettre… mais ça va venir. En attendant suis les liens en haut à droite.
Je teste, je teste. 🙂
Doit on (et comment ?) indiquer son propre weblog dans coComment ? Dans le nuage des blogs récemment commentés, certains ne semblent pas “référencés” ?
In line with my new “give a little, give a little more” philosophy, I am going to try and comment on one linked blog each time I post a comment to a comment stream somewhere (in this case, gapingvoid). And this is the first example. Anyhow, I’m interested in your comments on coComment, and was interested to see what was going on at the side of your blog in relation to this – my own experience sadly different and I am struggling to get it to work / see what it is all about. Seems a great idea in theory though and I hope it will take off.
…. and then I forget to go and click on my coComment! button before posting….
That’s where you need the greasemonkey script, Patrick.
http://www.solutionwatch.com/313/comment-tracking-with-cocomment/
That's where you need the greasemonkey script, Patrick.
http://www.solutionwatch.com/313/comment-tracking-with-cocomment/
Pascal: voilà , la cocomment box y est. C’est génial qu’on puisse choisir entre montrer ses propres commentaires ou toutes les discussions auxquelles on participe. On peut même cacher un blog si on veut!
Im just dabbling in it now since I make comments on blogs all over asia and the middle east. I hope that this will make everything much much easier.
I begin to love on this little blue “CO” button on my firefox. I believe it’s a useful tool to advance the Internet comment quality, especially for the comment poster who share their comment on their own blog. A little comment on it, a more widely blog URL supported ability would make it a better one. Comments even on blogger sometimes may not support while the blogger set the comment to be post on a new opening window. How about make an incompatible blog site submit page on coComment? And as I know, the system only collect the comments from coComment members up to NOW. That means more widely serve capability is urgent for their beta server. Well, after all, it’s absolute an amazing web2.0 service and pray for its being more and more successful.
Well, after all, it’s absolute an amazing web2.0 service and pray for its being more and more successful.
Bien Steph pour la box cocomment, tu sais que tu peux afficher ds la box les couleurs de ton blog ? bleu et rose c’est joli remarque, ca te vas bien…
Je me disais bien que ça devait possible, mais pas encore regardé ça. Il faut faire un peu de magie CSS, c’est ça?
pfff.
i want online tutos please.
I used to (occasionally) track my comments in an Excel Spreadsheet, but coComment is much better!!