Tuesday, August 8, 2006

Replying to comments

I love the comment feature of blogs! There are so many benefits!

1. Allows sharing of opinions about each other's quilts and quilting in general.
2. Allows for passing along tips, sources for supplies, etc.
3. Provides a way to meet new quilters almost daily because of comments they leave on the blog
4. Getting to know new quilty friends better.
5. Getting messages about my own work that make me feel good.

I'm sure there are others, but those are the ones that occur to me right off the top of my head.

It's frustrating when someone asks a question in a comment, and I eagerly send a reply, only to have it returned a short time later as undeliverable because that person hasn't shared their email address. I never know how to respond to comments when that happens. Should I go to their blog and answer the question they posted on mine? Or would that be confusing because it doesn't relate to their post? Should I answer it with another comment? What if they don't come back to read additional comments? Should I answer it in the next post? Wouldn't that be confusing for people who don't read comments? It's a dilemma.

I encourage everyone who asks questions in their comments to change their profile to display their email address. That way a blogger can reply to the comment quickly and directly to them via email. Are you uncomfortable posting your email address in something that is as public as a blog? The answer to that is to open an additional email box with a new address. If you can't get a second email address through your web provider then get one through a free website like hotmail or yahoo. Then if you start getting lots of spam and other unwanted email you can shut it down right away.

When I started my blog one of the first persons to comment suggested I display my email address so we could communicate better when one of us commented on the other's blog. I did that by going to my profile and clicking "yes" on display email address. I was afraid I might start getting lots of emails I didn't want to, but so far that's not happened (knock on wood!) I think my internet provider is pretty good with screening out unwanted comments. It sure makes it easy to "talk" back and forth with the people whose blogs are set up that way.

Just a thought for today . . . and now I'd better go back to work. Can hardly wait to get back home and back to quilting!

16 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oh Patti, Thank you so much for addressing this challenge. I want so badly to respond to those that leave a comment on my blog but so often I can't. It makes me sad cuz I don't want someone to think I'm ignoring them.

Anonymous said...

Amen, I used to reply so many times only to realize that it says "noreplycomment". ARGG!! It's so frustrating.

Anonymous said...

I've made a similiar comment/request on my blog and I know Amy has recently too. I wonder if it would be too much to ask Judy to make it a requirement for the blog ring for everyone to have an email address associated with their blog so comments can be addressed via email - what do you think? Should we ask her?

Anonymous said...

Ohh yes, this is a dilemma of my own - I find myself wanting to privately email somebody and can't!

I hope this post encourages others to start listing their emails. I'll be glad to send free gmail invites if they wish. :)

Anonymous said...

One of first and best advise I got was to open and use yahoo e-mail on my site. Who is Judy? Oh is that the stash site group. How does that work?

Anonymous said...

Hey, this is a great thing to talk about. I was so nervous to put my email out there(hell, I wouldn't even use my name at first), but I'm so glad I did. Sometimes, I've talked with quilters about things 'off the record' that no one else would be interested in. I'm glad I added mine.
Melanie

Anonymous said...

Preaching to the choir, Patti. I agree with Mary, Judy, Amy, Cher anyone who has said that it would be nice to address/answer the comments privately if possible.

Of course, it is one's perogative to NOT use a "throwaway" account but sometimes I think they must not want an answer bad enough or they would't block it???

I've got one account set up only for blogs, another for online ordering and the c*** you get with that and my personal one. Works for me!!

Anonymous said...

Until this morning, I thought my address was available. It is possible that settings could have been inadvertently changed. Also being relatively new to blogging, I'm still trying to learn the proper etiquette of replying to comments and questions. I love the sharing and I am communicating with people I would have never found otherwise.

Anonymous said...

I agree! It's hard to figure out how to answer a question when your email bounces back. Thanks. /paula

Anonymous said...

I agree with everyone else. I'm still new to blogging, but I'm off to check my blogger account to make sure my email address is showing up properly.

Anonymous said...

I agree. It's so frustrating when someone asks a question and you want to reply and can't because you have no email address.

Anonymous said...

I guess since I'm getting emails from everyone I ask a question of, I think I'm okay.
But it is hard replying when you can't do an email.
I'm still learning how to do this blog thing, so I'm always open to advice and suggestions.

Anonymous said...

I agree! But you knew that, huh? I think the "type this random string of letters" thing also helps with the spam...

Anonymous said...

Thanks for telling how to unblock ourselves! I've wanted to make the email addy available, and went into the profile several times...but just couldn't find the right box to "set my address free", lol.

Anonymous said...

Amen Patti !
I love comments, I love to reply to comments and even though some days my blog has over 1,000 hits, I have never gotten a slew of emails (or comments for that matter) to the email address I have listed. Its never been a problem at all for me to have my email address listed.
Its been so much fun "meeting" new people and learning so much.
I just love the comment function of blogging.

Anonymous said...

Patti, thanks for that great post. I just wanted to add a tip I have learned from other bloggers. If you are worried about automated email spam finding your email displayed on your own blog, you can always write it out this way" you AT whateverprovider DOT net". That way, your email can't be easily picked up by spammers, etc., but, anyone who wants to contact you can go to the trouble to do so. You can display it anywhere on your blog that way...