It wasn’t so much that there was external drama. It was more that commenting became unsustainable. To reciprocate comments on every blog from which I was receiving comments as well as leave comments for other blogs that I also wanted to read started to mean reading and commenting on upwards of 200 blogs per day. I couldn’t figure out how to choose which ones to eliminate without worrying that I would hurt someone’s feelings. Loathe to do that, to single any one blog out, I went mostly quiet on the commenting front. My own comments have gone down dramatically as a consequence, but my site visits/ page views has not decreased. The blogosphere – particularly in the mommy blog genre – is a real community. It’s important to me that everyone feel welcome and included. I didn’t want to be a part of making anyone feel shut out. That said, my lack of commenting probably doesn’t make new people feel welcome. I need to figure out some sort of balance.