[...] count impact a reader’s decision on subscribing to that blog? Why would I need to stick an iReply badge on my blog to promote the awareness that your comments are very welcome and appreciated here, and [...]

[...] and I was having a discussion on Skype the other day about the iReply movement post here on RA Project. We were both trying to see all the sides to the argument and Vivien made [...]

inspirationbit says…

“One day someone would come up with another movement “You read – iPost” and every blogger who posts regularly should place that badge on his/her blog?”

I believe that would be NaBloPoMo.. Someone’s already done it.. though it only lasts for one month. However people keep the badges for ages..

[...] trend. Simonne posted a very nice post yesterday, announcing an interesting project called “iReply.” I have a 2 page detailed response ready to go up for that post, though I am going to wait a [...]

I’m with you Vivien, I would not put another badge on my blog, although I also removed the no-follow tag and I react to comments. I can see your point: don’t display the badge on a blog and there will be no other material evidence to tell that it adhered to this movement. Time and the next actions of the three pioneers of iReply will make it big or let it loose. We shall see.

Simonne, you’re my savior otherwise I was starting to believe that I’m an outcast here pointing out to things that nobody else sees.

Ronald, that was exactly the point I was trying to make – a badge is not necessary for blogs who already managed to build a loyal community and interacts with its readers, and a badge alone cannot be an indication of a blog encouraging comments and appreciating its readers.

There are way too many badges growing like mushrooms in a blogiverse. If I refuse to place a badge on my blog it doesn’t mean that I don’t respond to my readers comments or that my blog is not worth reading just because I don’t have a badge “the best damn blog in the blogiverse”.

As Vivien stated above, the reader should be able to gauge from the comments whether a blog author responds to his/her readers or not. The badge “shouldn’t” be necessary in these particular cases, but showing the badge seems to be a promise to the reader.

Vivien does bring up a good point that community doesn’t automatically happen just because a badge is displayed. This post was posted by Simonne under the category of “Great Examples” of “Reader Appreciation.” Hopefully in the future RA Project can highlight other great examples of individual bloggers who do a great job at promoting reader appreciation with or without a badge.

Wow! I’m impressed! I was busy all day long, and now when I checked to see if there are some new comments here, I find myself reading a whole novel

First of all, thanks everybody for your input.

Secondly, I’m glad that Vivien raised those questions. Indeed, this movement does not seem to actually do anything. However, as Bes said, it can help to create awareness for the fact that commenters are interested in follow-ups of threads they participated it. I think that it may resonate also with new bloggers. Thinking back to when I started blogging, I can tell you that for the first 3-4 months I did not care about my commenters at all. Unlike Andy (thanks, Andy for joining our discussion), I started blogging exclusively to see if I can get some money out of it, so comments were only collaterals in my opinion. All I cared about were traffic, good keywords and SEO. Vivien’s blog, InspirationBit, had a big contribution to my change – I was impressed to see the community she managed to build there, so I started to pay more attention to my readers. Shortly after that, I installed Feedburner and when I saw I had 14 readers, I could not believe my eyes. I would have never thought that somebody would subscribe to read my crazy stuff on regular basis. Maybe if I encountered an iRead movement last year, I would have changed my style earlier.

Thank you, Andy.

Good to see the iReply movement gaining traction with this blog post! Soon we’ll be seeing forum threads on every post…this is actually kind of what I expected several years ago when I first heard of the blogging concept.

Thanks for taking time to answer my questions, Mike. Good luck with the iReply project

“1) What kind of image would this movement get if more bloggers start placing that badge on their blogs but fail to respond in a sensible way to their readers comments?”

That can’t be helped just in the same way that the do-follow movement is tarnished by people simply searching out do-follow blogs merely for the sake of receiving a back link. Not everyone is going to embrace a concept properly and that’s unfortunate, but you can’t force them to. You can only suggest and hope that they consider the benefits of doing something as simple as appreciating their readers.

“2) How would it affect readers perception of a blog that doesn’t have this badge but in fact it’s a role model for other blogs to appreciate the readers and encourage the interaction?”

It’s not about the badge at all. I really don’t care if people use it. Perhaps I haven’t stressed that enough. As Mark said, some people like the visual goodies and that’s simply why we created the badge. In fact a few ladies liked it so much that they asked me to create versions with pink in them, so obliged. If however a blog is already a role model for other blogs to follow that’s fantastic and they already ARE following the concept of what iReply is all about and are most likely reaping the rewards. Things like a loyal readership, new friends and so on. Feel free to point them out to me. I’m all about giving love to blogs and their authors that really deserve it I do it every day and even have a separate blog dedicated to it.

“3) Do you actually believe that bloggers who currently don’t respond to every comment on their blogs would stick that badge on their blogs and change overnight?”

Of course not. We’re not that delusional. Absolutely nothing changes overnight and some things never do, but I believe there’s no harm in trying to shine a little positive light on and muster a bit of awareness for a worthy cause. I don’t think what we’re asking people to consider is all that difficult, but in the end it’s up to them to decide what’s best for their blog. Of course it requires more “work” but things that are truly worthwhile usually do. Though I personally don’t consider it work at all to reply to comments I receive. It’s the best part of blogging. I love the interaction. I’m a pretty shy and quiet guy offline, so blogging allows me step outside of my shell and be someone a little more open and bold.

I think what this movement was lacking is some “lively discussion” around it. So I’m really glad it finally received that. Another thing this movement is lacking is the edge, at least the edginess of the Do Follow movement, and that’s what I was hoping to convey in my comments.

I was not attacking the movement, not at all. I was only trying to make it more effective by talking about its shortfalls.

Mike, if you’ve ever visited my blog you would see that I respond to every comment on my blog and I encourage the interaction and participation from my readers. And no, I don’t like when my comments on other blogs remain unanswered. But I don’t sweat about it, I simply stop commenting there and sometimes even stop visiting them. You’ve answered it all by replying: “I absolutely believe you can notice if a blogger is interactive and embraces their community by fostering discussions they create on their site. I don’t think it’s that hard to recognize if you spend a little time reading more than a few posts.”

Bes, that’s the kind of answer I was looking for. I did understand about the awareness this movement brings. My question is how successful it’s going to be? Do you really believe that placing this badge on one’s blog would change that blogger’s nature to reply to his/her blog’s readers comments and appreciate them?

Brown Baron, you’ve given a great example of Liz Strauss – we definitely need to see the same level of interaction from other bloggers.

Mark, I’m glad that you appreciated my input. Of course you did, otherwise you wouldn’t be talking about reader’s appreciation.

Here’s what I worry about and would hope to make others aware of:

1) What kind of image would this movement get if more bloggers start placing that badge on their blogs but fail to respond in a sensible way to their readers comments?

2) How would it affect readers perception of a blog that doesn’t have this badge but in fact it’s a role model for other blogs to appreciate the readers and encourage the interaction?

3) Do you actually believe that bloggers who currently don’t respond to every comment on their blogs would stick that badge on their blogs and change overnight?

I concur with what Ronald said about it: “I think this requires a lot more work than the U Comment, I Follow movement, but it is a very worthwhile effort.” It indeed requires more work to make bloggers follow this movement.

Wow, it’s great to see such a lively discussion about iReply!

@Simonne: Thank you so much for spreading the word! It’s bloggers like yourself that make blogging an enjoyable and informative experience. That, of course, is what iReply is all about.

@Snoskred: Good to see you here! Thanks for chiming in.

@Ronald: You get it, my friend. Thanks for the support!

@Bes: You took the words out of my mouth…er…off my keyboard? It is about bringing awareness. One might even say it’s a simple reminder to blogger’s who tend to operate in a vacuum.

@Vivien: Hi there! My buddy Mike explained it well when he said it’s about ALL bloggers. Granted, some people are set in their ways. Some may be focused solely on making money or generating content and links to garner high rankings (and who doesn’t want that!). But I feel people who are new to the blogosphere are just as susceptible as veteran bloggers are to starting out (or ending up) with an online diary of sorts. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but from the responses Mike, Baron, and myself have received, clearly there are those of us who take a different approach. By definition, anyone who embraces what this movement is all about, then they’re already member of iReply.

And about the logo: some people — like myself — are visual creatures. So having it posted to one’s blog (though not a requirement) is just a simple way of letting people know that you’ll pull a “virtual” chair out for them while they get to know you, and you them. And linking back, though appreciated, is definitely not a requirement either. No gimmicks, no hidden agendas — just three humble bloggers trying to motivate those we can to be a little more interactive. Besides, the logo is easier to see than the “x number of comments” one can find on posts.

By the way, I can relate to your post about “What Can Be Done In 15 Minutes?” I could definitely use more hours in the day. We really do appreciate your input!

Thanks for the mention Simonne!

@inspirationbit: Hi there. We never claimed that we created something new and we never said that a blogger needed to use the badge to prove he/she was an active participant with regard to comments.

We know that older/bigger bloggers get way too many comments to answer each and every one. The movement was created to encourage everyone, new and old bloggers alike, to try to join in their own blog’s comments to show their readers that they actually enjoy the discussion. It’s not impossible to do. Liz Strauss gets tons of comments all the time and she’s very active in the comments. We’re just suggesting, not imposing.

Thank you.

Bes: That’s absolutely what it’s all about. Appreciating your readers I LOVE replying to all the comments I receive on my blog. Sometimes I may get a little behind or miss one here and there but I do my best to reply to everyone. I enjoy meeting new people and even making a new friendships along the way. In fact I think the friendships are the biggest reward of blogging

That’s really why I originally wrote an article about the importance of being active in your own community. I couldn’t understand why some blog authors choose not to be when there are so many great people you have the opportunity to meet.

LOL…it’s about ALL bloggers but I highlighted new bloggers because I like to think they are more likely to read recommendations from their peers and consider them. I know I was when I first started taking blogging seriously. I learned plenty from reading other blogs. Obviously older bloggers are a little more set in their ways. If they’d like to consider being a little more active and acknowledging that they actually have readers then GREAT. We’re not trying to force anyone to do anything they don’t want to, we’re simply asking them to consider it for the sake of making the experience more interesting and enjoyable to their readers. Is that really a bad thing?

Different strokes for different folks though. Perhaps you enjoy reading and commenting on blogs where the author never replies to your comments. Obviously NO ONE can reply to every comment, but I sure enjoy having an author chime back in on the discussion if I make a comment relevant to what they’ve posted, especially if I reply with a follow up question to them.

I absolutely believe you can notice if a blogger is interactive and embraces their community by fostering discussions they create on their site. I don’t think it’s that hard to recognize if you spend a little time reading more than a few posts.

Hi again Vivien. If I understand it correctly, like I said above, this movement brings awareness to the table while actually practicing the idea.

For many bloggers, responding to comments is not an obvious thing; this badge should hopefully be a step in the direction of increasing awareness that this is in fact a problem. Responding to commentors is a great way to promote reader appreciation. This iReply movement is hopefully going to promote reader appreciation too.

So would anyone please answer the questions I posted above:”What does iReply bring new to table? Wouldn’t someone be able to notice if a certain blogger embraces interactivity on his/her blog merely by checking out the comments section?”
Thank you.

Mike, I think you should aim more at old bloggers than the new ones. New bloggers read a lot about appreciating their readers, interacting with them, so most new bloggers can’t wait for the comments to show up on their blogs and eagerly reply to them. The issue is more with the veteran-bloggers who are either getting too many comments to reply to all of them, or they’re too busy with other things like making friends with high profile sites only and counting their blogs revenue.

Yes, I feel the wind of appreciation blowing stronger everyday! Thanks for bringing it up Simonne. The comments above are a testament of this. Vivien, good questions! If any initiative raises a good issue to benefit readers, while benefiting itself, I think such an initiative is doing a good job. It’s a good thing that this movement is, as far as I can understand it, not intending to have everyone “all of sudden start interacting with their readers.”

Good job so far Mike!