You make a very good point about the fifth reason; I had not thought of that.

And about that “disrespectful” part. Maybe I am going too far to use that word, because I can’t judge the motive of the author and shouldn’t try to. It just seems weird to me that in some cases there are blogs that offer the ability to comment but no responses are given (I’m talking about blogs other than this one, of course). It’s those instances that sort of bug me.

I also had not thought about the point you make about appearing to control the conversation. Very true and I will keep that in mind.

I can think of four reasons right off the bat where comments that might appear to “want” a reply don’t get one: The blogger’s out of town or off the net for a day, a week, whatever; The comment does in fact add to an ongoing conversation that the blogger doesn’t feel a need to control or steer at the moment; The blogger isn’t sure how to respond; or, of course, The blogger just doesn’t choose to respond. Actually, there’s a fifth: You’ve raised such good issues that the blogger will respond in a later post–and hasn’t had time yet.

Of those, only the fourth is disrespectful.

I try *not* to reply to every comment because it does tend to control the conversation…but that’s me.