- Site: manuelmoreale.com - By: - Date published: - Date read: [[2024-06-07]] - [Read Original](https://manuelmoreale.com/how-to-converse-online) - [Read on Omnivore](https://omnivore.app/me/https-manuelmoreale-com-page-r-ytyc-ipi-buhww-5-um-18ff16cdfff) - Tags: #Technology - Notes: **Note:** Below is the text from the article, with any ==highlights== done by me. None of the writing below is by me. # Article text The web is, at its core, a conversation tool. At least for the most part. You can have a conversation synchronously via chats and DMs, you can have a conversation semi-synchronously via posts on social media and forums, and you can have a conversation asynchronously using emails or blog posts. The vast majority of what’s happening on the web is a conversation of some sort. Over the past few weeks, this topic of online conversations managed to find its way over and over again in my brain. What’s the ideal workflow for a good online conversation? I’m currently typing these words and I’m talking to nobody. I don’t have an imaginary audience and I usually assume that nobody will read these words even though I know for a fact that some of you do. And yet, more often than not these posts I write end up being excellent conversation starters. But what’s the best way to have that conversation? I defaulted to email for pretty much all my interactions even though some people do ping me via Apple Messages every now and again. Is this arrangement ideal? Is email the best tool to have these conversations? I honestly don’t know. I do know that so far I haven’t found a better alternative. Is this workflow ideal? I write something, you read it on the site, in your RSS reader, or in your inbox, you send me an email, I reply to you and off we go? Those are a lot of steps and there’s substantial friction involved. You need to decide to send me an email, hunt for my email address, write something, and overcome the weirdness of sending an email to a stranger. It’s a lot. Wouldn’t it be a lot easier to leave a quick comment? Shouldn’t I have comments on my site? Well, no. Comments are easily one of the worst ways to have meaningful conversations online. I’m not saying it’s impossible to have a smart, thoughtful conversation in a comment section, I’m just saying it’s bloody hard. Comments are performative. You write knowing the other people will see your comment and so it’s not just a conversation between you and me. It’s a conversation between you, me, and the countless other people who will stumble on this page at any point in time. When it comes to conversations, the location matters. It matters in the real world and it matters in the digital world. Do you know how many people have sent me awful, nasty emails in the past 7 years, since I started this blog? Exactly zero. I’m aware that now that I said it someone will do it just to be the first but still, my point stands. Since an email is private people don’t usually bother because it takes time and effort and there’s no reward at the end. They won’t get to see my reaction, people won’t add a +1 to a like or a whatever to their comment. The private space of an email conversation matters, it matters a lot. Another thing that matters is intentions. I recently removed from this site the integration with webmention.io to receive webmentions from other sites. Why? Well, because as much as I like and approve the idea behind the concept of a webmention I also think that taking the time matters. Taking 20 seconds to send an email to say “Hey, I wrote something and I quoted something you wrote” has a lot more value in my world than configuring a server to automatically send a ping towards my server. I know most people won’t bother doing that and that’s fine. I honestly prefer to not know, I prefer to not receive all those automated pings and live in ignorance.