Replying to Comments on Your Blog...

Don't worry. This is NOT another... Woe is me, I can't cope because you are a No Reply blogger... post. In fact, it's nothing to do with being a No Reply blogger. I'm just curious as to how you check for replies to comments you've left on other people's blogs and am showing you the options open to you, as regards replying to comments left on your own blog.

I comment on a lot of blog posts and like most people, I like to have those comments acknowledged. How do I know that a blogger has replied to my comment? Two ways...

• An email reply.
• A comment left under my comment on the original blog post.

Now, I'm not very good at going back to check to see if each blogger has left a reply to my comment. There are two reasons for this: I forget and lack of time. If I remembered to go back and check, how often would I need to check before (and if) a reply was left... daily, weekly? Everyone blogs with different frequencies.

Yes, I know I could subscribe by email to that post. Here's what that looks like on my blog.

Sometimes you can subscribe to just replies to the comment you've left, but more often than not, you are subscribing to every reply that's left and will therefore get an email for every reply, not just the blog owner's reply. There are occasions when I do want to read every comment left by every person who leaves a comment, but it's not usually on a sewing blog. It's usually on a blog where the comments become an extension of the blog post and there are a lot of opinions and different points of view given on the particular topic. On most craft / sewing blogs, I'm interested in the reply of the person who wrote the post. This, of course, is totally dependent on the topic of the post.

If I have asked a question, if there is a particular reason I absolutely have to hear the reply or if I know the blogger well and know they'll reply to me via a reply comment on their blog, I will subscribe. However, in the majority of cases, I don't subscribe to receive replies via email.

This means I miss out on reading many replies that are written as reply comments to me, on the blog post owner's blog.

My preference, is for bloggers to reply to my comments via email. Easy as (for me)... an email is delivered to my in box. This can sometimes lead to an exchange of emails, that most probably wouldn't occur with comments left on a blog.

Now, I am NOT telling you that you have to reply to comments left on your blog, via email, nor am I telling you it's the best way to go. It's your blog and it's up to you to choose how and if you wish to reply. I'm just telling you my experiences and showing you how to change your settings, if that's what you decide to do.

When I first began blogging, I didn't want anyone to know my email address. I was concerned about the influx of emails I might receive... from who knows who and what might these emails contain. I was also aware that people online are not necessarily who they say they are and therefore concerned about my privacy. And so, I replied to comments with a comment underneath, hoping these people would come back and read my replies. Who knows if they ever did.

It didn't take me long to get myself an email address, specifically for my blog and secondly, to alter my blog settings so I could reply to commenters via email. Were my concerns unfounded? We teach kids about Stranger Danger... the same applies online.  There is most definitely an unsavoury element online and we need to take care with how much information we give out. There is also a wonderful, friendly and helpful community within the online sewing / crafting fraternity.

Do you receive an email every time someone leaves a comment on your blog? If you do, you are all set up to reply via email, if you so wish. You can choose to reply via email, or you can still reply via commenting.

If you don't receive an email every time someone leaves a comment on your blog, it's easy to change the settings so you do... (Click on the photo to make it easier to see.)

Go to:

• Settings
• Mobile and email
• Comment notification email
• Type in the email address you wish to have notifications sent to
• Save

You'll now receive an email every time someone comments on your blog and you can easily reply to them via email, if you want. By enabling this setting on your blog, you are not showing anyone your email address. Lovely Person comments on your blog and Blogger sends it to you. Blogger is the go between. If you reply to Lovely Person via email, they can, of course, then see your email address, because it will go directly to Lovely Person and not via Blogger.

Whether your email address can be seen by the blog owner, when you leave a comment on another person's blog, is dependent on a different setting and is not covered in this post. (But I am happy to do another post if you'd like. It's all connected with being a No Reply blogger or not.) This post only covers comments left on your blog.

Before you enable Comment Notification, if you click on the question mark, the following dialogue from Blogger, will appear...

You can enter up to ten email addresses, separated by commas. We will email these addresses when someone leaves a comment on your blog

If you don't want to receive an email every time someone comments on your blog, just leave the Comment Notifications Email blank.

I have heard people say that receiving notifications clutters up their email. I add a rule to my email program, so that all of the comments left on my blog, are delivered to the one mailbox. It's a little hard to see, but if you click on the picture below, you'll see a folder with 16 unread blog comments. It's not hard to set up. If you'd like to know how, leave me a comment and I'll write a separate post. This one's already a bit wordy.

If you tentatively decide to turn on Comment Notification Email, you could, if you wished, reply to just some of the comments via email. Obviously you wouldn't reply to spammy comments this way. You'd delete them and delete the spammy comment on your blog. Most of them are No Reply bloggers anyway. You could, however, reply to me via email, when I leave a comment on your blog, if you just wanted to try it out. 

BUT, you can only reply via email, IF the person who commented isn't a No Reply blogger and that's a topic for another post. Although, I'm not sure if the Internet needs another No Reply blogger post.

Much as I prefer to receive my replies via email, don't let anyone pressure you into sending replies via email if you have concerns, or if you are not comfortable doing so. I've been lucky and have never had any negative comments left on my blog, nor have I had comments left by less than desirable people; not that I'm aware of (other than harmless, if annoying spammy comments which I delete and then ignore.) I also give out very little personal information about me and next to none about my family, either via blog posts or email.  If I were to inadvertently send an email to a questionable person, all they would have is my email address, which I could easily change if I needed to. As an adult, you need to make informed choices and choose the level of privacy that you are comfortable with.

If you are a child or teenager with a blog, then I think any replies should be on your blog and not via email, all of course under your parent's supervision.

I really would be interested to hear your thoughts on this topic... 

• comments on anything I've said
• anything I've overlooked
• any concerns

In leaving a reply, however, please remember that everyone is entitled to their opinion and that each person is entitled to set up their blog in the way that suits them.

This is the latest post in the Blogging Tips series, here on Threading My Way.

... Pam