boxofdelights

Are you offended, disappointed, or hurt when I don't respond to your comments?

No, I'm not. Because (a) I know as well as anyone that for many of us Internet Girls, there is only so much communication-brain available on any given day, and you may well have used all that is available by the time you're done posting something; (b) also, you have things to do besides sit at the keyboard and respond to comments, even if you'd rather be doing that; and (c), the Curse of Chit-chat.

That is, if someone makes a comment that sparks further conversation, well and good (and I know I've seen you respond to comments when that happens). But when the post-and-comment make for, as it were, a complete conversational unit -- say, complaint-and-rueful-sympathy -- it makes for a natural stopping point. In RL, the conversation would meander in other directions from there; in comment threads, there's nowhere for it to go that doesn't lurch off into a desultory exchange of what the linguists call "phatic" communication. Somebody has to be the one to call a halt before that happens, and I've occasionally been downright grateful when someone else does it for me.