Friday 1 April 2011

Public Service Announcement

I spend a lot of my time replying to comments where the commenter is "no-reply".  Now, I am by no means an expert at Blogging, but I have picked up a few things that I thought were common knowledge, but aren't.  I'm going to share them.  For some of you this will be a lesson in the art of sucking eggs, if so... just skip!  Or better still, leave me a comment telling me something I don't know as I'm sure there's loads I don't know about blogging.

1. - You can reply to your comments in your email account.  Go to the email account you used to sign up for Blogger (can't remember what it is?  No problem - go to Dashboard, Edit profile and it'll tell you) - ta dah!  All your comments emailed to you.  Click reply and you're off on a conversation.

2. - Some of these people are no-reply.  You can't email them back.  I generally try to track down their blog and leave a comment telling them but I can't seem to get round the whole of Blogland!  It's so easy to fix and it's Blogger's fault for not explaining it properly.

Go to your Dashboard.

Click "Edit Profile".

The third tick box down is "Show my email".  This DOES NOT mean your email will be shown on your blog, it means that when you leave a comment, that person can reply in their emails.  Make sure this box is ticked.  Scroll down, under identity, the second box down should hold your email address.  This is where the comments are sent to.  No email in the box?  Just add it.  Wrong email?  Change it.

Done.  Sorted, now people can email you back when you comment and you can win giveaways!

3.  Word verification box thing.  So not necessary.  I had it on for ages, I took it off a month ago as I get fed up filling them in, and have had exactly 2 spam emails since.  I moderate comments so they never made it on the blog.  Consider taking it off. 

4. Comments - , go for the "opens in a pop up box" option as it makes it easier to get back to your blog and keep reading.  When I have to click to comment and it loads a new page, then I word verify, then it takes me back to the top of that same page and I have to scroll to the bottom to get back to "home" then I have to find my place again.... too long winded and it puts me off.

I do try to email everyone back when they comment, unless it's just a "nice project" or something and I've got a lot of emails to respond to.  I notice that some people never reply to me when I comment on their blogs and I think I've discovered why.  They respond in their own comments.  Am I the only one that thinks this is a bit arrogant?  I mean, I have over 300 blogs in my reader and I'm constantly visiting other blogs and commenting, I can't remember where I've been to go back and check if they're replied, nor do I have the time.  I don't have a problem with people not responding, but I do wonder if they ever get into conversations or make bloggy-friends.  What are your thoughts on this?

13 comments:

Nancy Lee said...

I am deeply grateful for your expertise and setting me straight on the whole no reply thing. I really enjoying our little chats -- made possible through the fixes.

Donene said...

Thanks for the info and I agree with your last comment about going to the person's blog to comment. I wonder how many return comments I have out there that I never saw. Thanks for visiting and as always your very nice comments!

Angie said...

Here! Here! Well said!

Kandi said...

Yeah, thanks for mentioning this, I've been blogging almost a year and didn't realise until you told me!
Kandi x

Anonymous said...

Just have fun with blogging and don't let it get to you,
;-).
As for me, I wish I had the time to respond to every single comment individually, but for now I don't (unless the comment/question requires a private/personal response) and that's why I leave responses on my blog's comment box.

Another reason is that at times others may want to know the answer to what has already been asked previously by someone else, so by having the response right there under the same blog post everyone benefits.

Just my two cents ;-).

Allie said...

You know, most of the no-reply comments I get are from folks who use other blogging platforms. Blogger doesn't make it easy for them to leave a comment without creating a blogger profile.

I don't like seeing responses to my comments on the blog itself either - much pleasanter to respond in an email. I don't have time to go back to a blog to see if there's a response!

Sandra :) said...

Auntie Sandra signing in! Nancy and I have decided we're your internet aunties, due to our advanced age ... ROTFL!!

I don't reply to all of my comments - I'm not sure when (or if!) it became de rigeur to do so, and I don't always have time or see a need to do so. Sometimes further discussion is great (and leads to great friendships, woooooohooooooooo!!) but lots of times times a reply just doesn't seem necessary. I hope this doesn't make me the pariah of bloggers, LOL!

Pootle said...

Great post Wendy.

I like being able to reply personally when someone comments on my blog. Granted I dont do it all the time but I do try to as much as I can. There have been instances where Ive replied on my own blog as a new comment but thats when the person has a no reply on their set up and also dont have their blog address listed when you click on their name (not sure if that means they dont have a blog or whether its just not shown.) Anyway, ban Noreply@, thats my view!!

emilysnan said...

hiya wendy , i totally agree with you about blog comment "manners " after all it is a social network ? any hoo i m visiting fromcreative girls and i am folowing you too xhop you willstop by mine soon and if you comment i will get back to you ...lol
xmaggiex

Karen said...

Thanks for the explanation. I found this out, too, but only a few months ago. I'm one of those that has always replied to comments with another comment, because many folks in the past have followed the comments on their own. But, I've recently started responding via email as you explained so well. I like it better that way, too.

Anonymous said...

I didn't know I was a no-reply blogger until just recently. I had seen the explanations about it on other blogs but I thought it only referred to those who blogged using blogspot. I have gone in and changed my settings in wordpress but I'm not sure if that will show up for people to reply to me via e-mail.

And just for me personally, I wouldn't expect anyone to reply to one of my comments via e-mail. If I ask a question on someone's blog then I expect I should have to go back to their blog to receive the answer. Same thing goes if someone asks me a question on my blog, I reply on my blog. Firstly, so that others can have the answer too and secondly, so that other bloggers know I will reply if they ask a question. If a reader wishes to make contact with me via e-mail, I have the information on how to do that available. And I do welcome those e-mails. I also try to visit the blogs of readers who comment and make return comments on posts that I find interesting but if I were to start e-mailing each commenter individually, it could soon eat into my time for all the other things I have going on outside of blogland.

Jillayne said...

I agree wholeheartedly! I try to answer every comment with an email - I don't have time to revisit blogs to look through the comments for a reply to something I said so I wouldn't respond to comments left on my blog in that way.
When life is busy and things back up it can take a bit to answer them all though!

cookieandclaire said...

New follower here - so glad I read this and the follow up one! New to the whole blogging thing in general. This was very informative! I am going to reconfigure some things that you mentioned. Come by www.cookieandclaire.blogspot.com if you have time!