those of us that use photoblog, both to enjoy seeing our photos 'published' , and also to have them seen by others, will obviously have their blogs commented on by others.
Comments are clearly made for a number of reasons. Some photos, or sets of photos are so technically good, or wonderfully visceral, that we feel obliged to say so. Some comments are left ( let's not be shy about this) in order to draw a similar response.
What few commentors ever do is leave genuine remarks beyond 'Wonderful' that give their very honest opinion on the technical qualities of photographs, or of the story being told, or even why they feel exactly as they do about what they have seen ( tell me if I am wrong on this!)
.I suspect the reson for this is that they are afraid of the response they may get. Also few bloggers will seek to have their photos commented on in such a way because they probably feel they they will be seen to be touting, or showing off.
My question is, should there be some kind of button we can click to show viewers that we are prepared to take their best shot, if they feel something has mightily missed what the photographer was seeking.
Wwhat do you think, about comments in general, or about my idea?

a while ago, I would write "critical comments welcome" at the end of each post. I think, as we get to know people, we know who is willing to receive critical comments. It takes time and thought to do that, and I agree with you that it is a gift.

There is this post in the suggestions thread that kind of touches on the same idea:

Post by Iagho

i think you generally overestimate people and the reason why they leave comments. here's some thought to why:

most people do not think anything more then "wonderful" or "so nice" (i'd very conservatively estimate them to be 85%).

most people of the rest are not able to express more then a 3 word statement (again, because they are not verbal, or - never to be forgotten on a global page like this - are not fluent in english), be it due to lack of brain cells or untrained communication skills. Remember that writing always was and still is quite an esoteric competence despite of all the humanist schooling efforts we've all been tortured by.

those few who are able and willing to express themselves might not have the time to do so. given the overwhelming plenitude of at least decent, even excellent photographs published here, you can get easily tired of writing your heart out.

giving a critical comment in our generally polite community is always a bigger risk then just being amazed. usually, if you find something bad or missing it's a detail; and then getting down to that detail is difficult to describe - again, you need a lot of verbal skills to do so.

on top of all this the big question is: why should i want to criticize other people's work? what do i gain from that for myself, other then a lot of effort which rarely ever is taken for what it is?

i'd say take comments as what they are - a first possibility to get in contact with each other.