I recently had an email from someone who's read this blog for sometime, but hadn't commented before, as they weren't sure how. Like a lot of things in life, it can seem complicated or daunting until you try, but is easy once you know how ...
Step 1
Scroll down to the very end of the post, to where there are little icons for sharing the post, post tags etc and click on the word 'comments'.
Depending on your device, you might not have to do that and will go straight to the next step.
(That's a screenshot - you need to scroll down for the real thing.)
A comment pop up box will appear. If you've never commented before and don't have a Google profile it will look like this.
That let's you comment anonymously, which is fine although it helps me if you either add your name or nickname. Alternatively you can click on the little arrow after the word 'anonymous' to select a different profile. Selecting the bottom one will allow you to enter your name, which will then be shown on the blog before your comment. That's how most of my blog readers comment, but the choice is yours (I'll add examples myself, so you can see the differences)
Step 3
Type in whatever you want to say - I've added the words 'Type your comment here' in this example. 'Sign' with your name or nickname (unless you want to remain anonymous) and press the red 'publish' button.
Comments usually appear immediately, but sometimes due to spammers, I activate 'moderation' which means I have to approve them first.
That's you done – and me grateful that you took the time. Comments are hugely important to this blog - it wouldn't continue without them.
Feel free to have an experiment with this post. I promise I won't mind if there are sixteen all saying 'test', half completed comments, comments with names missing etc etc. I also promise that it is completely impossible for you to somehow mess up this blog by getting commenting wrong.
19 comments:
This is Patsy commenting using my Google account.
This is Patsy commenting using the name / url option and entering just my name.
This is Patsy commenting 'anonymously'.
This is Sharon, using an old Google account that I can't get rid of. We no longer have the 'A quick read' project . We shut it down years ago!
Hello everyone. Yes, I have read Patsy’s blog for some time and entering Patsy’s competition was the first time I had left a comment, it was so much easier than I thought it would be! Mine was the Tequila Sunrise story.
Thank you Patsy, I enjoy reading your blog, and all the comments, it is so friendly and informative.
Dee
I too never commented on blogs (absolutely not!) so Patsy's was the first one. Probably preoccupied with the bad press about nasty comments — which some doubtless do suffer from. Patsy carefully moderates when necessary, so not an issue. As she has said many times, comments are welcome as it makes the blog.
I am certainly getting the hang of this, now entering a reply..
Marguerite – congratulations on your ‘Victory’ poem. I also entered the Victory competition this year (I wouldn’t have known anything about it if I hadn’t seen it mentioned on your blog last year Patsy). To my delight my story was shortlisted and, what a lovely coincidence, was read out on the same day as your poem Marguerite.
Dee
Dee, that's lovely! Not sure if I should have done, but I've taped them all! It would have been nice to see them all in an anthology, eh? 😉 Maybe I'm expecting too much!
BTW, still not too sure about the @ sign other than it seems to be the protocol for... thought it was just a twitter thing, but obviously not?
@ Sharon – You prompted me to look to see if I could update my profile - and I could!
If you want to change yours, click on the B symbol by your name in the comments and then on 'edit profile' when that comes up. It doesn't matter if you don't want to though – we know it's you.
@ Dee - You've proper got the hang of it now!
@ Marguerite - We're fortunate to have very little of that kind of problem here. Writers are generally nice people and able to express themselves without being nasty.
It's always lovely to hear that the blog has helped people in some way.
@ Marguerite – Several social media platforms have the means to 'tag' people if the @ is used before their name. Here it doesn't actually do anything, I just use it to hopefully make it clear who I'm replying to, and for people to quickly spot an answer if they've asked a question.
An anthology, now that's a good suggestion Marguerite!
Dee
I was someone who took ages before I commented, partly because I wondered if I would get it all wrong! I’m so glad I finally did! I’ve learnt so much and I do try to pass on the small amounts of information I get. It’s great to have the support of others.
Sharon - Thank you for your updates on the PF word counts. I will keep googling the mag to see if any new permanent posts appear on it and add them here if so.
Welcome to the Comments section Dee - I had to ask for help at first too!
Kind regards to everyone, Sue
Thanks for this, Patsy! I'm in the same position with my blog. Also, there's no Feedburner now for blogspot blogs, so how do you manage with notifying your subscribers of your new posts?
Marian - I am pleased I am not the only one who took a while before commenting!
Sue - Thank you for the welcome
Dee
Welcome Dee, always love the diversity of comments on this blog, there is always something new to learn & Patsy is so helpful too. The best thing about sharing info here is that you learn you are not alone in the ups & downs of a writers life, its easy to imagine if you haven't heard anything back in a while that its you but it very well may be the time of the year, holiday season etc etc. It certainly helps me to keep going anyway.
@ Marian – I'm glad too!
@ Sue – I think a lot of us struggle a little with technology, especially those who didn't grow up with it.
@ Fay – There is a subscription link thing still, I think - but it doesn't work terribly well and some people have reported scary warning messages about it not being secure! I subscribe to my own blog. I thought it would be a useful way to check if scheduled posts had gone live OK. Sometimes I get an email, sometimes I don't. It's a pain. I wish there was a reliable way for people to subscribe and be notified of posts, if they'd like that.
To get around it, I try to post every Saturday morning, so people know to look then, which sort of works. If anyone has any ideas or suggestions I'd be delighted to hear them!
@ Dee - you definitely aren't, and I'm fairly certain there are people who've read this post and not commented for all sorts of reasons, including feeling a bit shy about doing so for the first time. Hopefully those who would like to do so will take the plunge and leave a message, even if it's just to say hello.
@ Sheelagh – I totally agree that the comments help remind us we're not alone in whatever we're experiencing. Often when people post on their own blogs or social media it's to announce good news. There's absolutely nothing wrong with that, but it can leave us with the feeling that everyone else is doing much better than we are.
Over the years I've heard from several writers who've made a few submissions, collected rejections (or worse never heard back) and given up assuming their work isn't good enough, or not right for that publication. Often they're wrong. It's just that all the magazines receive far more submissions than they can possibly use, and have to reject (or decide to ignore) the rest. Collecting rejections is normal for most of us – as I tell myself every time it happens to me.
Thank you Sheelagh.
Dee
@Patsy - thanks for the tips, Patsy. I added myself as a follower on my blog but never receive any notifications.
Hi Patsy x Keep up the good work x
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