i have also made comments in the past that are similiar in content. mainly that this is not a blog, it’s his business and career (a fact that trent reminds all of us on a weekly basis). i agree he should take note of his reader’s input to improve his writing. perhaps someone is correct in that his obsessive use of the word “simply” is done deliberately to generate more hits. i am sure his wife, a teacher of children, reads his site daily. i am sure friends and family read his site frequently. i think i would have to give my “blog” friend a gentle heads up if i knew he didn’t usually read the comments. i don’t know–if i was a person like trent who carried a notebook at all times to jot ideas down, i would certainly check my comments section as possible resource material.

Personally, I’ve moved on from nitpicking his spelling errors. If Trent doesn’t feel it’s worth his time to spellcheck his work (which can be done with the click of an icon on the WordPress platform, or as he recommended a few days ago, with an online spellcheck) then it’s not worth my effort to tell him to use these tools. I do feel, however, that it’s worth my time to suggest ways of improving the style of his writing by not being so repetive in the words or phrases he uses to make his points. Also, the overuse of adjectives detracts from the overall message he’s attempting to present. I have my doubts that Trent speaks in the same manner as he writes, so why write in a way that’s unnatural? Blogs are all about conveying a natural, conversational voice. Or, at least that’s how I’ve interpretted them to be.

I hope that clarifies my position, and I’m sure others would agree, and even more have their own reasons for being “critical” of Trent. In my opinion, from an improvement standpoint, the people who “criticize” Trent are his most valuable tool as we’re the people who can help him improve. Coddling him and saying “Great article,” do little for his growth as a writer.

Besides, I absolutely think a blog writer should be held to a much higher standard than any of the commenters.

It’s all about the comments.

And I’ve sent a couple of emails to Trent and never had any acknowledged or replied to. If he gets the volume he claims & enjoys great on-line convos, you’d think he’d at least have an auto reply.

Many of us come for the comments – the posts themselves are sort of the price I have to pay to get to the actually informative or entertaining part.

Although repetitive posts like this are even worse because really, what can people say they haven’t said before?

What I really don’t understand is why a lot of you come to this site if you’re bugged by it so much.

It’s called growing up. People have been doing it for centuries.

What ever did we do before “blogging”