Monday, January 08, 2007

Commenting on Commenting ... Sort of

I guess it was back in 1994 that I first went online. At first, my access was via a teacher network and, therefore, limited. When I did get in, it was using a browser (and I use that word lightly) that did not support graphics. I had my first email account with that teacher network. Heady stuff: but access through them was neither reliable nor comprehensive, so I soon found my first, true Internet Service Provider and began browsing, first with Netscape and then with an early version of Internet Explorer.


In those days, my ISP limited me to one email account. Web-based accounts weren't terribly available then, but I didn't really need more than one account until other family members decided that they wanted to get online too. It was a problem, and I'm not too sure how we solved it. Maybe I really had two email accounts? Eventually, I switched providers for an outfit who would provide five accounts, and that served did us quite well, and if that wasn't enough, I later got my own web site, which provided me with up to 50 accounts.


Later on I tried web-based email accounts with hotmail and yahoo and another outfit. I could never quite commit to web-based email, however, until Google's gmail came along. They supply tons of space, so that you never have to toss a letter if you don't want to, and they are very reliable.


Gmail is so good at trapping that dreaded s**m that I almost welcome it. I think of the money and time that the miscreants are spending on me to absolutely no avail. It goes into a separate folder, which I can clean out manually or let Google empty after thirty days. I prefer to do it myself on a daily basis, but I after checking for months and finding no mistakes, I seldom bother to do more than cast a most fleeting glance at the s**mbox before I tell gmail to delete it all. On rare occasions, I confess that the odd, unsolicited email makes it past their filters into my Inbox, but it occurs very infrequently.


It's not just gmail that works well now; those other alternatives that I mentioned are great too. One could consider them to be disposable accounts. If you didn't like the mail you were getting (if the junk were to get through), you could easily delete the account and get a different one.


You see, I am wishing that y'all would all file an email address with Blogger. That would make it easy to reply to comments. Sometimes, I get questions, and I begin to write a reply, only to find out that no email address has been provided. The email-ripping-people can't easily get your addresses from Blogger because they seem to be protected from bots in some way. So, the address that I publicize on Blogger actually gets much less s**m than the address that I have tried to keep more secret. Go figure.


However, human nature being what it is, most people will keep hiding their email address in their attempts to drive me completely crazy. I really don't have far to go, y'know? :) So, I think that I'll actually begin to do what some of you already do; if a comment requires follow-up (ie. a question) I shall try to answer it in my comment section if an email address isn't provided. I think it rather cumbersome and almost the only thing that I really don't like about Blogger, but that seems to be what people prefer, so who am little ole me to buck the trend any longer?


With that in mind, I have made some follow-up comments to each of my previous four posts. It's not always necessary to comment back (thank goodness) but for now I'll give it a try when it seems to be appropriate. Meanwhile, if you're interested in gmail, you need an invitation to get a free account. It so happens that if you write to me, I can provide you with one, and you'll be onto a better form of email in no time flat. My email address is not hard to find; just look at the top of the sidebar. Will ya?

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

I have several email accounts including one with yahoo and one with gmail. I too find gmail very good at blocking spam and also find that yahoo has gotten much better at this. I must admit I also get a little thrill when I see how much and how many spam emails are just tossed into a wastebasket like file. :-)
I too like to answer questions in my comments through email. I often wonder if I answer in the comment section if the visitor asking ever checks to see if there is a response. Email is so much better.

Anonymous said...

Sounds like a very good plan. Commenting back through e-mail is always best, however I've noticed that if I don't reply to a comment one of my commenters will do the job for me! That can go askew sometimes, and the blog develops a 'chat-room' dynamic. It is difficult, to know what is best in taking care of our commenters.

Gina said...

I used to reply a lot to comments in the comment section, but I find that lately, I just don't have the time. That sounds bad, doesn't it?

I love almost everything about gmail!

methatiam said...

I have all comments sent to my inbox and from there I can reply directly to whomever I wish to respond – to …. anyway, it works well with both of the people that visit me.

Ah, it’s so lonely floating in cyberspace……..

Anonymous said...

I love gmail. I also use gchat at work. It's a very handy tool when you are working on a project with someone in another office.

Anonymous said...

I do believe I have an active account, as you have replied in the past. I'm still getting comments via the hotmail account even though I switched to the "new blogger" whis is gmail-based.

I must echo your comments on how handy it would be to be able to reply in email form to some comments. I find some to be worthy of a private reply and replying publically, sometimes, seems inappropriate.

Anonymous said...

I have an email on my account here. I think I will check to see if it is available for viewing. I think it is a great ideal to let other bloggers know so you can make futher comments to them.

Anonymous said...

I get all comments on my blogs sent to one of my email addresses, and then the person's email address is on the email (unless of course it's an anonymous comment) whether or not their email is generally publicised by Blogger. So even though I don't give out my email address online (I too like gmail but have had huge problems with spam in the past on other accounts) I've had replies to comments in email, occasionally.

But if I'm really interested in a reply to something I comment on, I check back to the comments thread. That's where most people seem to write the answers, with the advantage that anyone else reading the thread can see the answer too, not just the person asking the question.

Anvilcloud said...

Hi All

I get comments sent to my email account too, but it doesn't much help when hardly anyone has enabled their email with Blogger. As I said, Gmail (and others I'm sure) are excellent at filtering out you know what. Anyway, what is is.

AC

Valerie - Still Riding Forward said...

I have an email link on my profile page, Anvil. Will that do?

Hugs and I see you are out doing yourself having fun with photos again.

So glad you had a good holiday.

Granny said...

My email address should be showing with my comment (on your end). If it doesn't, let me know. Some of my friends who have switched over to Beta are now showing up as "anonymous" which is not their fault but very annoying.

Not you - you're still okay.

To reply, I have to search out their email address and replace "anonymous" in the reply. With some it's easy, with others not so much and I end up replying in their comment boxes.