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Dreamwidth now allows you to insert a link in the LJ post to its DW version, complete with number of comments posted on DW, but unfortunately it's not reciprocal. Alternately I could disable comments on one site and steer them to the other, to centralize discussion.
This isn't an issue with most of my posts, so I've put off doing anything about it, but occasionally I'll post something where a discussion emerges on one or both sites. I've found myself in replies referring people to a comment thread on the other site a few times recently.
Looking through my last few months of posts, and counting only those which have at least 10 comments on at least one site (though usually about half of them would be my replies), comments on Dreamwidth version edged out comments on LiveJournal by about a 5 to 4 margin (454 to 369). Though I'd guess that if I went through those same posts and tallied up number of commenters (anyone who's commented at least once), LiveJournal would come out ahead.
So should I do anything differently?
Should I centralize comments on DW and disable them on LJ?
Sure, works for me
15 (68.2%)
No, please don't - I prefer to comment on LJ
1 (4.5%)
But why? Two discussions are better than one!
2 (9.1%)
Text - such a primitive interface! I do my commenting via telepathy.
0 (0.0%)
I care more about convenient links to the crossposted entry -- can you get on that?
4 (18.2%)
If you're crossposting, what's your experience been with comments?
I centralize on one site, and have no regrets
9 (47.4%)
I centralize on one site, and I'm paying the price in less discussions
0 (0.0%)
I cross-link the DW post in the LJ entry, and it's been a positive experience
1 (5.3%)
I cross-link, but mainly for my own convenience - I'm not sure anyone else cares
4 (21.1%)
I don't cross-link or centralize. I do however recycle and watch my cholesterol.
5 (26.3%)
- Music:N.E.R.D., You Know What
Comments
It bugs me when people don't at the very least include a link to the other version of the post -- but, as you point out, that is awkward to do in reverse (you have to manually add the LJ link to the DWth post), so it's not a great solution.
I'm much less likely to comment on a post if I've seen that someone already brought up my point (or something close enough to my point), even if I might have expressed it differently and any resulting discussion if I had commented might have spun off in a different direction. So I could imagine that under some circumstances, consolidated comments might actually reduce the overall number of participants and diversity of perspectives. It's hard to assess, but I wouldn't be surprised if I was actually getting more participation in comments for at least certain kinds of posts, now that I'm cross-posting than before when I only had an LJ. But of course there are the tradeoffs that you mention.
If everyone's reading the same post, then if you had spoken up, any interested parties would have heard you, just as the first commenter was heard. If post is split up, there's no guarantee that you'd be on a different site than the first commenter, and there's no guarantee that anyone who spoke up would be heard by any of the potentially interested parties reading the post.