Reading Every Comment

I have said many times, here and elsewhere, that I read every comment left on AVC. That is a true statement and remains true to this day. But I can also tell you that it is a struggle and gets more so every day.

Yesterday on my flight to the bay area I was able to go through a week of backlog of comments and get caught up on a bunch of conversations that were sitting in my inbox unread. I don't know if anyone noticed that I had not been that engaged in much of last week's conversations, but the truth is I had been mostly absent.

If nobody noticed or cared, that is a good thing in my book. The community here is large and engaged. They can have a great conversation without me. So that feels good. But I still feel that as the conversation starter it is just not right to be absent from the conversation. And so it bugs me when the unread comments pile up.

I have long made peace with not reading every email that is sent to me. I bet I don't read more than 25% of the emails sent to me these days. I still manage to read every email my wife and kids send to me. And I still manage to read most of the email my colleagues at USV send to me. And I still manage to read most of the email our portfolio companies send to me. Beyond that, it's a crap shoot. I've written about that and most folks know that's how I'm managing email nowadays.

But I don't want to go there with blog comments. I figure that if you take the time to leave a comment, I should take the time to read it. And so I try to get through as much of the prior day's conversation as possible before I start a new one. That's what broke down last week and required a plane ride across the country to get caught up.

I mention all of this because I want folks to know that I remain committed to reading a comment if you take the time to leave one and because I wonder if there has been a noticeable falloff in my engagement. I am feeling the struggle and I am curious if it is obvious.