Commenting 101
From e-mail I get from readers I'm guessing a lot of you are old hands at eating meals at good restaurants but new to blogs. Here's one from Patti, for instance, who writes:
Been actually reading the blog. Interesting - I like it. Didn't quite understand the approval thing or the URL in order to post a comment.
Good questions. The URL first. ...
(By the way, you have to click on the underlined "Commenting 101" below to read the rest of this post.)
In all the comments I've gotten, no one has ever put in his or her URL, or Web address. Why did the people who designed this blog software put in that blank? I guess because they thought I'd have lots of extra time on my hands to browse other people's Web sites.
The e-mail address thing makes more sense. I might get interested in something you said and want to know more (as when Ann posted a comment about the SeaSide restaurant, which I'd never heard of.) But still, I think it may scare people off. I wish they'd get rid of it.
So let me say it again: You don't have to put in an e-mail address. Just leave it blank. You definitely don't have to put in your URL in the unlikely event you have one. And you don't even have to put in your real name or any name. Just comment.
As for the site owner approving the comment before it's posted, I hate to tell you, but that's me. I read over a comment to make sure it a) isn't computer-generated spam, b) doesn't contain obscenities, c) doesn't involve personal attacks on other posters or my very nice colleagues. (I'm fair game.) I don't edit it for spelling or grammar. Then I post it as quickly as I can.
Comments
But...I add my URL to my comments to you *every time* including this time. Doesn't it come up?
(You're absolutely right. It does. Sorry. I get focused on reading the comments and I don't expect a URL so I didn't look. My bad!
OK, everyone else who has put in a URL that I didn't notice please raise your hand.
Elizabeth)
Posted by: Kathy | May 22, 2007 1:36 PM
I thought the URL related to the specific blog you were posting a comment to?!?!
Posted by: mdrvrmuncher | May 23, 2007 9:44 PM