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12 reasons not to comment

Thanks to you, my dear readers, the PN China Blog English version has been the most-trafficked session on the PN China English site for the past six months.

However, while so many of you generously spend time browsing entries, only a small number of you have taken the extra step to leave comments. So far, I've gotten 53 comments for the 111 English-language entries and 96 comments for the 122 Chinese-language entries. That's not bad at all. And I don't read too much into the sheer number of comments.

Still, I tried to place myself in your shoes and came up with 12 possibilities for your silence. My responses to the reasons are in parentheses.
  • 1. "I'm too busy to write comments." (Understood.)

  • 2. "If other people don't comment, why should I?" (Because what you have to say is important!)
  • 3. "I don't want to reveal my name, e-mail or URL." (Don't worry. You can leave those fields blank!)
  • 4. "I don't want to draw attention to myself, especially since the plastics business community is relatively small and people can probably recognize me from what I say." (Oh well, people know you anyway...)
  • 5. "I don't like how the comments don't show up immediately and instead need to be approved by the site owner." (I delete five spam comments a day. I really don't think you'd appreciate seeing phishing-fraud links on our site.)
  • 6. "Although interested, I'm not particularly knowledgeable on the subjects." (You can raise questions then.)

  • 7. "The topics are interesting, but the way facts and opinions are presented doesn't spark discussion." (I'll definitely work on that and welcome more specific advice and suggestions.)
  • 8. "It takes more than a couple lines to weigh in on some complicated matters." (We set no limit in length of comments.)

  • 9. "I have strong, different opinions, but I don't feel like sharing." (It feels good to share.)

  • 10. "The topics are too broad, not focused on plastics." (I thought general business news and cultural background would benefit our readers as well, no?)

  • 11. "The postings are more news-oriented than opinion-oriented." (There should be plenty of thought-provoking issues reported as news, such as the Chinese bag ban.)

  • 12. "I'm not sure why I don't like to post comments." (Keep me posted if you figure out why later.)
  • Which of these reasons, if any, apply to you? Let me know. If there's anything else I didn't think of, also let me know. You can either post a comment here or e-mail me at nyingsun@crain.com.

    Keep in mind, a trade journal's mission is to serve the business community. You are the real experts, not me, in the field. My job is to share information, inspire discussions and make your voices heard.

    Cheers.

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    COMMENTS (6)
    Matt:

    Perhaps too often comments are perceived as negative even though they were intended to be constructive. For fear of saying anything that may cause someone to lose face, nothing is said at all.

    As someone who frequently visits China for business, I appreciate your insight into the business culture and practices.

    Keep up the good work - your silent audience awaits.

    george upton:

    A great assemblage of reasons why not. Another consideration is that most of us represent a company which may not want to be associated with our personal views. As you note, if that is not visible it may free up the comments.
    Thanks,
    George

    Arthur:

    Nina,

    Thank you for your wonderful job! Your information has been very useful to me. Coming from a China background myself, there are a lot of things you write about resonate with me. I think for me the reason is probably just that it never occured to me that I could post a comment to your news story. Maybe I was enjoying your report a lot and I agreed with what you said. But I will be sharing my opinion from now on.

    Nina:

    Yes indeed, George. I totally understand the concern over associating the organization one represents with one's personal opinions. I'd like to remind all readers, once again, that it's ok to just use your name or even a nickname.

    Nina:

    Thank you all for the kind words. I enjoy writing this blog!

    LnddMiles:

    Pretty cool post. I just stumbled upon your blog and wanted to say
    that I have really liked reading your blog posts. Anyway
    I’ll be subscribing to your blog and I hope you post again soon!

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