Good points, Doran. As a well established writer, by your definition, I struggle with keeping up with comments too but to that, two very critical things I might do a little differently:

1. commenters' material inspires the hell out of me, and I quite often use that in new articles, which people see and love. Why? It demonstrates I am reading, attending, and respecting those comments. I LOVE using my readers' comments, because their stories often inspire me, prove a point, and deserve to be heard. I am not the fucking only star in the firmament.

2. Tonight I got a comment from a reader who said, in effect, that at least some of my posts have convinced her to stop waiting and start living. I dunno about you, but that is why I write. THAT is why I write. Other good people on here who write from the gut, let their shit stains out and laugh about and go out and live anyway are my inspiration. Many of those folks are my readers, which is why I honor them.

My stats took a nosedive most of last year. I never quit, my writing improved as it does when you grind out up to three articles a day about a lot of things, read and learn. My biggest issue is the growing list of drafts. I look at an old title from a month ago now and think WTF was I thinking? I am never ever shy of new material because my readers hand it to me regularly. They are my stars. Sure I have a pretty interesting life, but my material is ever updated and improved by OPM: Other People's Material. Sometimes if I travel I come home to 1K comments, and holy shit. It takes a while, but I do my level best to get to as many as I can. Sometimes someone gets a clap or a comment a year late. But I read it. My Readers. Matter. Period full stop. That's all she wrote. So my stats are up. Sure. Fine. But I gotta go comb comments for ideas. People tell me they feel famous. Wouldn't you read someone who lifted up your comments? That's what community does. That's what happens when we stop chasing the almighty stats and dollars and focus on the value, which is Steven's point,above. Good piece. Thanks.