Monday, June 16, 2008

Comments Demystified

A while ago, PK wrote an excellent post about blogging, and in it she mentioned the importance of leaving comments on blogs.


Did you know that Blogger blogs (blogs that are named ___.blogspot.com) have a useful feature for comments? If you leave a comment, and you have a Google account, your comment and all subsequent ones will be e-mailed to you. You won't need to keep checking back to see how the conversation is going.

I am reasonably technically savvy and it took me several weeks of experimenting before I figured it all out. So I want to share what I learned with you. My apologies to all the bloggers I annoyed by leaving comments that said, "This is a test".


If you are already logged on to Google (the Google reader or Blogger, for example) then you visit a blog and type a comment, you'll see a box (circled below) near the bottom of the comments window. Click on the box to make the check mark appear. You'll get mail!




Now here comes the confusing part. Sometimes the box isn't there. That's because you are not logged on to Google. In that case, type in your Google username and password, but don't publish your comment yet. Instead, click PREVIEW.




That makes the Email checkbox appear so you can select it and have comments delivered to your inbox.




I hope you find this helpful.

5 comments:

Terpsichore said...

thanks...I knew about the box...but not how to make it appear if not already signed in...not very computer savvy I am afraid :-)

Michael said...

Thanks for the info, Hermione. I did know about this feature and find it very useful. Now that you have so helpfully spread the news I hope others will take advantage of it.

Michael

Unknown said...

Dear Hermione,

Thanks, I probably never would have figured that out. It took me ages to understand that I had to put my new Google email address in the username box to sign in, not what I thought was my actual username. The error message kept telling me my password was wrong so I would give up and comment as Anonymous. Please do more postings on the technology of blogs.

Anonymous said...

Yes, I think Blogspot is a good tool although I have considered moving over to my own domain. The trouble is just finding a webhosting service who will allow the content I have in my blog...

You have a great and very informative blog and I will check it out often.

Take care,
tina from Sweden

Hermione said...

Terpsichore - I used to think the box didn't appear because my dial-up connection was too slow and it was timing out.

Michael - I hope Wordpress comes up with something similar. I miss all the fun when I don't re-visit Devlin several times per post.

Jo - I was puzzled by that too at first.
I'd be happy to post about other features. Do you have any thing specific in mind?

tina - Thanks, tina. Do come again!