In its simplest form, late commenting is simply responding to a comment late. When is replying to a comment late? The answer is more relative than absolute. Based on your own preference, the preference of your readers and among several other things, the expectations you have from your readers and vice versa, you can easily find out when responding to a comment late.

I have been revolving around this topic for several years, and I am thankful to Ronald for bringing up this question which inspired me to write this post. When is it too late to leave a comment, both as a response and also as an initiation of a conversation of some sort. To help us find out the answer, let us look at the idea of when late responses are good, when they are bad, and my own personal examples to show how to treat this question.

Are late responses always good in all situations?

In one word: no. Late responses are not always good in all situations. For some situations, timely responses can be of the essence. Most typical blogs where newer posts push older posts away from the direct main public view, commenting on something after a long time may result in no one being interested in the comment.

For example, if a person asks you a desperate question on a blog or if you ask a blogger a question through a comment, replying to that comment after a month may not be helpful anymore to the original person who asked the question. Even though you may respond with useful information and the best of intentions, the person asking the question may have simply moved on. Also, some people may call late responses many bad things, including ways to attract links, or simply fulfilling the obligation to comment.

Are late responses always bad in all situations?

Again, in one word: no. If you wish to communicate with people and sometimes need time to think, you can respond late. Sometimes, a person may find a very old post and may respond to it after a long time. Does that make the comment any less useful than other comments? Well, the comment itself may not be useless but its value in the eyes of the blogger or the original participants of that post may have changed.

For example, a person may comment on a 6 month old post of yours, or you may feel inclined to post a comment on a site where that has been no activity for more than 6 months. Does that mean you are doing something bad? Well, some people may think that you are, because of the concept of time in the blogging world. More and more people are focusing on immediate nature of responses and actions instead of the actual responses and actions themselves, which is why many times it can be confusing to realize whether time is more important, or the message, or both in different degrees.

A personal example: I appreciate comments and commentors regardless of the time frame

I personally value each and every comment regardless of their time frame. If I ask someone a question and they respond back after a month, sure, I may not need the answer anymore, but I will still value their response if I know why they responded. Similarly, if a person asks me a question on my site through a comment, I try to respond right away, unless I have to research the answer and then respond. I usually try to let the person in question know via e-mail or some other method that I am going to respond to their comment, but that it may take a while. Sometimes, other things get in the way of my comment response times.

For example, I was moving recently and thus had to reply to many comments and ask many people questions after about 10 or so days of their original comments. I needed time to think as I do not respond and talk to people simply because of obligation. For me, responding to people late late can be better than never responding.

Take for example my post about preferring the smell of gasoline at certain gas stations. Originally written on May 23rd, 2006, the post gained Brianna’s attention, who started commenting on it more than a year later, this month. For me, her comment is a comment; time did not affect my value of it at all. I am somehow more pleased that the older my writing gets, the more tests it can withstand and pass and still gain more and more value as time passes.

Similarly, as a new commentor to my site, Chrissy responded to my almost 2 year old post titled “Falling asleep because of medication.” My personal preference is that everything I write should at least be heard by someone, and thus I am happy that Chrissy responded to an older post. That is how I look at it. However, I go through my own phases of wondering when I should feel guilty, bad or something else because of responding to a comment late, whether or not I respond late to comments on purpose.

The verdict? Comment response times depend on you and what you want to achieve

There is no right or wrong rule to whether or not comments should be posted within 5 minutes, or if they should be posted within 2 years. Many business and news blogs where there are many rotating articles and posts every few hours or even minutes, posting a comment on an old thread may not generate any interest for the people participating on the blog. Similarly, many personal blogs may not prefer having comments on posts that are old.

Along the same limes, some people will prefer comments on anything, whether old or new. Also, some people may prefer your comment responses to their comments even if it is late, as long as you are doing something. I prefer opinions and input on almost everything, whether it is publicly via comments, or privately via chats, emails or even text messaging or phone calls, among other things. Among many other things, I value the understanding, the response and the message, and thus even old comments or new comments to old posts are very, very valuable to me.

Depending on how you value your blog, how your blog values comments and why comments are important to you, you can figure out for yourself whether or not late comments are valuable to you and your specific situations.

Bes spends his time cruising the streets of Berkeley for squirrels and reason. He also enjoys analyzing appreciation techniques and spreading the concept of reader appreciation further. View other posts by Bes.