Jakob Nielson, a top web guru, says: “In most online communities, 90% of users are lurkers who never contribute, 9% of users contribute a little, and 1% of users account for almost all the action”. If I look at this blog, the trend is somewhat similar. 90% of the visitors do not comment, they read the articles, they read the comments and they vote on opinion polls, for some reason they do not comment.

Let me speak to them directly. Ok guys! I’m talking to you. I’m talking to those who enjoy reading the arguments and discussions but do not comment. I’d like to know those reasons that keep you away from pouring your points of view in the comment section. And I’d like to see if I can do anything to address those reasons by any kind of improvements.

If you are a non-commenter, before we proceed any further, let’s take this poll.

Why don’t you post a comment?

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The way I see it, for a good Chelsea fan who is fan enough to follow the games, be updated and visit the blog to read article/comments, there should be a real good reason for not dropping in their tuppence. I’ve listed down some of the possible reasons that makes people not to comment. See in which category you fall under:

I don’t have time:

Most of you would say this, I guess. When someone has enuogh time to have a taxing day job and run a family at home and also run a blog, you should have enough time to post a comment. Admit it. To read an article and browse through the 50 odd comments, it should take 5 to 10 minutes. For dropping in a three liner should take you less than a minute. What are you saving those 60 seconds for?

I don’t see any point in my commenting:

What would you say when people say ‘is my single vote gonna make a difference in this election?’. In here, for starters, different views or different ways of saying it will mean more interesting discussions. It’s fun to develop your own persona in this community. See, we’ve all not met each other, we don’t know each other but we have some kind of perception of what the other person is, with what we write. Believe me, it’s fun to be known as an XYZ.

I don’t like confrontations with fellow-commenters:

You know what, confrontations can be fun. And the plus is, it will not end up in landing blows. It’s more like the Terry vs Ten Cate match. In the end you can say ‘we are emotional people who tend to get intense once in a while but respect each other immensely’. but I won’t like to the F-word here. And it’s upto you whether you want to further the conversation/argument or to ignore it. If you have the right logic, you might even have guys rallying around you to support you. You guys do that, don’t you?

I don’t see any value added by the comments:

If you think that you have time but also think that comments are waste of time, let me tell you that we are in 2008 where people take blog opinions very seriously. Whenever you read in papers that fans were happy or unhappy, they don’t just refer to the 40,000+ guys in the stadium, it includes all fans who follow Chelsea through all possible means. What makes you think players or managers (or even Roman Abramovich) are not reading what you write. The internet is a great leveller. Even if Roman types the words “Chelsea fan blog” in google search, he’s going to see the blue champions link and might even read. To make you a little more comfortable, Telegraph.co.uk has mentioned BlueChampions as a featured blog under the Chelsea club profile. When this is the kind of coverage blogs get, you should realise that your opinions count.

I don’t know what to comment:

I don’t believe this. When you read the articles or the comments, you must feeling something right? ‘good comment, bad comment, horrible article’ or whatever. We don’t expect an expert analysis or a research theory from you, just what you feel about the match, or a news story or a debate topic or the article or the comments. That’s it.

So guys, come out of your shell. Come up with your ideas and opinions. I want to see new commenters and and if possible, brand new point of views. My message to the existing regular commenters: You guys make my day, everyday. Keep up your good work ;-)