I think when I started my blog, I was doing it more for myself, because certainly no one was reading it. It was more a way of writing down things I’d done, changes I’d made, techniques I’d tried, etc., and I chose the electronic format because it’s so present in our lives these days. Eventually, though, blogging became part of being in a community to me. It’s how I update my friends in my knitting groups what’s going on; it’s how I share with the knitting world at large the discoveries I’ve made or lessons I’ve learning. I’m certainly more conscious of what I’m writing and strive to make it as complete and correct (I don’t know that I could ever get perfection) as possible. There are days when I don’t feel like I have anything to say that would be worth anyone’s while to read, and those are the days I don’t post. Instead, I save up what I’d like to say until there’s enough to make a coherent post.

I have mixed feelings about commenting. On the one hand, I like to comment on others’ blogs to try to communicate with them and build community in that respect. But on the other hand, I don’t feel it’s useful for me to comment when I don’t have anything to add to the discussion (similar to the “me too”s you mentioned). And then there are the “superblogs” — Yarn Harlot, etc. — that get so many comments that mine would just be piling on. I know Stephanie Pearl-McPhee says she reads all her comments, but if she gets several hundred for a particular post, and she posts just about every day, it doesn’t seem like my comment will be missed if it’s not there.

You make a great point. Your goals for your blog (or knitting or any pursuit for that matter) will affect this perfectionism phenomenon. Sadly, I think I default most of my pursuits, hobby or not, to the “I have to be the best and do it to the Nth degree” category.

This questions you posed got me thinking: Is a post with no comments a failure? I think the answer is no ultimately, but I’m going to give that one some more thought.