Worker Bees Blog

Among the many conversations I've been engaging in around the blogosphere in the aftermath of BlogHer, here is one that reminds me how far blog measurement and tracking tools still have to come.

This is how it usually goes for me:

1. I find a post about BlogHer or something else I track in my ego-feeds. I click on the link and see what it's about and may or may not decide to join in.

That's the simple part. Now what happens after that?

if I didn't care about the conversation at all, then that would be it. I'd leave my pearl of wisdom, be on my way and never give it another thought. Sometimes, I confess, I do that. but usually I'm fairly interested to know if the conversation continues, and let's be honest, whether my contribution to it had any impact on its continuing path.

I've already blogged that I set up a del.icio.us tag called 'Commented' to track where I comment. I do this because I believe there isn't a better tool for this around. Not as a Mac user. And not a tool that consistently works across blogging platforms. because the last thing I want is to have to use different methodologies to track the conversation depending on what blogging software is in use.

But this is so manual, so non-automated, so prone to human failing. First, I have to remember to tag the post to begin with. Second, I have to remember to go back to my 'Commented' tag and click through on the recent links to see where the conversation has gone.

I remember the first part pretty consistently. Remembering and taking the time to do the second part is a lot tougher.

I realize that some blog platforms allow readers to subscribe not just to the post feeds, but to comment feeds, and even comment feeds per individual posts. I rarely do this. I already track over 320 feeds in NetNewsWireLite, so yes, I resist the idea of adding all of these extra feeds, most of which will have a limited shelf life, to my reader. And again, since not every platform supports that, it would only work for certain posts, and by no stretch of the imagination even the majority.

So, that's just me and my selfish commenting tracking desires. But the bigger issue is simply the conversations themselves.

In the post I mention above. I comment, and someone expresses disappointment that I'm commenting on this post, rather than the "original post" in question.

OK, now I'm confused. I've commented on related posts to this posts, including several of the commenter's. if they don't provide a link to a specific post, how can I know which one they're talking about that I "should have" commented on and didn't. Well, given, again, the reliance on the manual, human effort to create links every time we want to reference something again, I can't.

But...here's my idea, I'm finally getting to it...why isn't there some utility that could show me the network around this post? And something that didn't rely solely on human linking, but on intersections between the participants or topics being discussed. Say, show me all posts that include references to this blogger, the blogger he started out talking about, the commenter, even me or BlogHer, in various combinations.

Some of it seems like simple search combinations to me. But then there's one little hitch. There's not really a search tool, blog or otherwise, that captures and measures comments.

I read some blogs that get dozens and dozens of comments on every post. But if that blogger doesn't link out, or get linked to, their influence, their position as a conversation-generator, remains unmeasured.

So, that's it. I want some kind of tool...a tool for tracking, monitoring, alerting, measuring...that takes into account comments, that gives a more three-dimensional view of a topic, blogger or blog post, that does not rely solely on human, manual effort to link correctly and link every single time.

Is that so wrong?