In a post from the dim dark past (June 28, 2003) Chris Sheil wrote
Although Iâm only very new to this medium, it is obvious that the dynamism of blogosphere is incredible. Most blog-hosts seem to feel a need to add at least one fresh post to their site each day to retain their readership. If the issue upon which they post is hot, comments will come a-flying, links will come a-pinging and, before you know it, the debate will become a control freakâs nightmare. In the case of a hot issue, it is simply not possible to have an influence at every point where the matter begins breaking. The difficulty of contributing is then compounded by the press of fresh posts, which usually means comment windows close in a day or three or four, as the posts slip into the archives.
I’ve been frustrated by this, especially as I’m finding that time pressure (aka having a life) is slowing down my responses and my posting more generally. So I’m going to try a new approach, for a while, of which this post is an instance, responding to news stories and other blogs on a scale of weeks rather than hours. Perhaps this will produce more considered responses, perhaps not.
In another attempt to reduce pressure for immediacy, I removed my hit counter when I shifted to MT. On the other hand, I now get email alerts of new comments, so I don’t know how much this has done to reduce the compulsive aspect of blogging.
John Quiggin 
Blogging is the new Instant Messenger in terms of its appeal to the obsessive-compulsive types like me. The internet has ruined my life.
I understand that point of view.
I much prefer to see opinions in blogland than read op-ed pieces in Newspapers.
A more leisurely response to issues should bring more considered responses.
Will reality bear out the hypothesis?
I was actually planning to put together a considered response to the managerialism piece, contrasting it with how concepts of professionalism have changed and how the lesser constraint from operational bottlenecks gives more power to the more generic and managerial marketing and accounting/finance roles as we get technically more advanced. But to say anything more than that cryptic mind dump sentence would take a longish essay, which I won’t even have a chance to write let alone revise until Sunday, and it might be too stale by then.
Post your response by all means, PML. I’ll push the post up the page a bit.
I think we’ve all got to start following PrQ’s lead on this and re-post and respond to older stuff rather than going for the instant hit all the time. I have to say, the ’10 most recent comments’ feature some blogs use, in my experience, really helps keep threads alive – in fact I intend to bump it up to 20 most recent to seehow that goes. I’m also experimenting with the idea of ‘guest columnists’ so people can follow up an idea at a bit more length. Blogs seems to me poised to go to another stage that helps address some of these problems if someone can hit on the right way forward.
Well, you can always turn off the email notification of comments. I do. I can hardly imagine wanting to be individually notified every single time someone comments on a post.
Can someone point me to code for the 10 most recent comments feature? The only reason I get email notification is so I can keep track of comments without having to manually check the blog, and this would obviously be a better way.
My feeling about the immediacy issue is that because blogging responds to the zeitgeist, in the lead up to and during the Iraq war the immediacy and urgency was meaningful and useful, whereas now that reality has settled back into ordinary rhythms for most of us, blogging too has changed its ‘feel’. i don’t think it’s something for bloggers to get too angsty about. i don’t reckon it’s lack of inspiration, rather it just shows how responsive the form is to the information processing needs of bloggers and their readers, which were heightened during a time of great (ahem) alertness as you’d expect during wartime.
now that we all have some breathing room perhaps as you say people can take the time to think about things and respond at their own pace.
(i know the above isn’t very well expressed as i’m still a bit ill, but hopefully you get the jist!)
After much fiddling, I’ve managed to implement a version of the 10 most recent comments feature. Look on the righthand sidebar.