If you have a blog, no doubt you've gotten comments from people whose return email shows as "noreply-comment (at) blogger (dot) com". I know we get a little frustrated about not being able to answer someone who takes the time to leave us comments, and we wonder whether they realize they may not be getting replies from us because we can't write back. I have several nice people who leave me comments--or ask questions--and I can't respond to them. And if you're one of them--if you've left me comments or questions and wonder why I don't respond--I'm sorry. I'm not being snotty; I just don't have a way of getting back to you short of leaving a comment on your blog, and that always seems like an awkward way to answer a question. If you do have a question and you don't want to change your your email/comments settings, please just click on my profile and then click on "email me"--you can email me directly that way and I think it will give me your email address so I can write back.
Lately I've run across another problem. I've been trying to communicate with another blogger who has a Yahoo email account--as I do--and whose blog host is Blogspot--as is mine. I left a comment with questions on one of her older posts that was the subject of my questions and I never heard back from her. Later, she commented on one of my posts and I emailed back. Still later, she commented again, and it was apparent she had never gotten either my comment on her blog or my email reply. Have you ever had something like that happen? Here are a couple possibilities I came up with on why this would occur:
1. She doesn't have her blog set up so that comments are also emailed to her.
I know this is one of the options in the Blogspot set up, but I can't think of a reason why a person wouldn't want the comments also sent to their email. I know I have sometimes gotten comments on old posts, and if I didn't get them sent to my email, I'm not sure how I would ever know anyone had commented. When I set up my blog, I didn't want the comments going into my "regular" email account, so I just set up a different email account that I only use for this purpose. Simple, free, and it helps me stay somewhat organized!
2. She has her Yahoo mail account set so that bulk mail is automatically deleted.
This is one of the options I used to use in mine before I had a blog. In my "regular" email account, most of what Yahoo considered "bulk" mail was spam. But since I've changed both of my mail boxes from the "automatically delete" setting to the setting that deletes bulk mail after ten days (or something like that), I've noticed that I do get a fair number of "valid" emails going into that folder--and I would have missed them all if I didn't have my mailbox set up so I can check those.
I think the internet is wonderful, and I've made many good friends through this technology. Today I spent time trying to catch up on the blogs on my list--something I had fallen behind on. I may not have left you a comment if I dropped by, but I did get caught up, so the chances are that if you read and comment on my blog, I stopped in to visit yours. Your blogs inspire me and refresh my creative spirit--without this resource and all of my bloggy buds out there--and even a few FWOBs (Friends WithOut Blogs!) who email me directly on occasion--life would be a lot more boring. Thank you for taking the time to stop in and "see" me and leave me a comment when you're so inclined. I enjoy hearing from you!
So many of us have written posts like this one - some of us several times - and it still doesn't seem to make any difference. So very frustrating! I do know that many people don't realize they are no mail - but don't you think they should start to wonder when they leave comment after comment with questions and no one at all answers them back?
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand, there is a blogger who posted a message saying she didn't understand people saying they'd made so many friends blogging, because she hadn't made any at all and people didn't visit her blog even though she left comments. She still would have been clueless except for the fact that I said I certainly would have responded if she'd left a comment on my blog. In her reply she said she had left a comment and told me which post. So I went to check it out - and her profile showed no email address and no blog! She'd opened a blogger account so she could leave comments and her blog is with a different vendor. This led me to emailing her telling her the problem and explaining how to fix it. She made a bunch of changes - added her blog address to blogger, changed away from "no reply" which she didn't know she'd marked, and a couple other things. That was a little over a month ago. She now has made friends, has lots of people reading and commenting on her blog, and is as happy as can be. And she had absolutely no idea how her set up was preventing the very thing she wanted!
Hi! I set up my blog to get comments emailed to me and I still don't get them all. Every once in awhile I try and check comments to see who wrote. It's a pain and I'm not sure how to fix it. I checked my set up to make sure that it's working and it says it is but......
ReplyDeleteI still don't get everything.
dawn
Thank You Kim for this post. If you hadn't been around to help with my blog, this OLD person wouldn't be getting any emails either. We all need and angel like Kim.
ReplyDeleteKim, I love your blog and I feel I've come to know you as a friend although you don't know me much, so I'll check that box when I leave a comment. Anytime you want to challenge us again with a project, I'm up for it.
ReplyDeleteCarol Lewis
Glendale, AZ
Hi Kim! Thank you very much for the nice post about blogging difficulties. I have read posts in the past with frustrated bloggers who came across as more sassy. This was a nice, friendly way to deal with the subject. I still don't even pretend to understand all the set-ups, but hope I am set up right. When you aren't computer savvy, it is complicated. You think you have it set up properly only to find out you don't, and sometimes even with instruction, some still don't understand how to fix it.
ReplyDeleteThank you for taking the time to address it. Remember experienced bloggers, you were once a newbie too!
Yup to all that, and then add in the added bonus of the spam blocker that my ISP uses suddenly blocking and deleting any notification emails that originate from blogger.com . We've had a great time with that this past week, along with the blogger emails not getting here, I'm thinking that there are others that didn't complete the journey either. We've got a fairly large online presence with a business website and a couple of forums that we own, and email seemed to have dwindled a little in the past couple of days.
ReplyDeleteI think that's all I've got to say.
No Wait! I like cheesecake.
Now I'm done.
Hi Kim,
ReplyDeleteI am one of your FWOBs (I love the acronym) and it took me awhile to figure out how to set up so that people could email me back- I know its working now because I do get comments back from most of the people who I have sent comments. I appreciate the time that bloggers take to respond so I am glad I finally fiqured it out with a little help from other people. Initially I didn't realize where I needed to put my email info nor did I understand that it wouldn't show on the comments but still could be accessed by the blogger. I only started to look at blogs late last summer and my son who is a computer tech type set up my profile so that I could comment. My son is great at setting things up but not so good at telling me the things I needed to know to make it work so that I could have a two way conversation(sometimes he makes assumptions that I will just know what to do.) Thanks for writing about this topic -
I have made new friends (even as a FWOB :-) and it makes it lots of fun to go and visit other quilters . You have a wonderful blog and I always enjoy visiting to see what you are up to in Northern California.
Regards from a Western Canadian Quilter,
great post Kim!
ReplyDelete