As the 31-Day Commenting Challenge continues in full swing (over 120 participants at this point in time), I wonder if there aren't additional thoughts regarding commenting etiquette that have yet to be discussed.

Timeliness as it relates to comments, for example, may be an issue deserving attention.

To illustrate, I recently responded to a blog post and conversation that had taken place fifty days prior to the date I wrote my response. I prefaced my post by admitting that the post "may be late to the game." Miguel Guhlin expressed similar concern over his "tardiness" when he posted a comment related to the same aged conversation, just ten hours after I had posted about it. Whether his apology for tardiness related to my post or to the fifty-day-old conversation is irrelevant.


Conversely, there are times when people continue to comment on posts that have been tucked away in the archives for quite some time. For example, Anne Mirtschin wrote an excellent post detailing a number of things she has done in her classrooms this year in relation to cybersafety. Even though the post was written on March 27, it continues to receive comments from readers nearly six weeks later.

Similarly, a post I wrote on April 15 entitled Becoming A Better Teacher, has been sporadically commented upon since then (with the latest influx of comments coming in just a few days ago). Interestingly enough, these late comments have possibly added the most meaning to the conversation, as many of them were written by students instead of teachers.

• What are the time limits for conversation?
• Must I apologize for arriving late to a conversation - even if the conversation takes place on a medium as asynchronous as blogging?
  
• As a blogger, should I feel guilty if I don't respond to comments made to posts that have long since found a home in the archives?
• Should this idea be included in our Edublogger Etiquette discussion? If so, I would prefer to use your examples rather than mine.
• Which posts have you written (and long since archived) that still receive comments?
  

Image Source: Flickr user ani!