I Have a Comment . . .

When I was young and new to Blogland (three months or so ago), leaving comments on someone's blog was a sometimes frustrating skill I had not yet mastered. Still haven't completely as a matter of fact.

Sometimes I'd leave long, witty comments, extolling the wonders of someone's blog or asking insightful questions, and I'd never hear anything back. Now that's not to say I feel that everyone ought to answer my comments--far from it. In fact, that's why it took me so long to figure out what was wrong. On a couple occasions, I would go back to see what comments other bloggers had left, only to find mine wasn't even there. Had the blog author deleted it? Gee, now my feelings were a little bruised!

I finally realized the problem was me! I was somehow skipping over the step where you have to enter some indecipherable code in order to have your comment posted, presumably to keep robots from commenting on blogs. Yeah, like that's all robots have to do all day long. Hello! Do I LOOK like a robot?! Seriously, though, if there are any robots reading this who have a little time on their hands, hey! Come on over and clean my house, okay?

Typepad blogs are the worst! I don't know if you have the same problem, but that code box that comes up appears on my screen only when I scroll down. And half the time, I think I'm done, so I navigate away and on to the next blog, never realizing that I've missed a step and my profound thoughts are jettisoned off into Internet ether, never to be enjoyed by anyone but me. Bummer!

Then there's the problem of being able to read and reproduce the darn codes! I swear half the time I type the wrong letters and have to start over again with a new, equally undecipherable code. Blogger code is the worst for that problem since they stretch and pull the letters out of shape. And really--how does one tell the difference between a capital W and a lower case w? Drives me nuts! This blog commenting stuff is hard work!

And if you're reading this, scoffing at the notion that duplicating these darn codes is tough, just consider a recent news article. The other day, I read that someone somewhere has come up with the idea of using bloggers to reproduce and "translate" portions of indecipherable manuscripts. Now I'm not quite sure how that works since someone would have to know if what we're typing in is "right," so why they would need us to do the deciphering is beyond me, but if we suddenly have to start typing in code that begins with "it was a dark and stormy night," you'll know that the plan has been put into effect.

Anyway, I'm just saying--if your blog requires entry of a code to post a comment and you haven't seen one from me, you'll just have to use your imagination. Chances are I tried. I really did. But I probably finally gave up and went and fixed myself a drink.