Wednesday, July 16, 2008
It's A Comment Conundrum
I got a comment, asking where my comments were. Had I restricted them? I've gotten emails in the past from my sister, letting me know they had disappeared. Again. So here's the deal:
I never do anything to comments. I don't do word verification. I don't restrict them to registered users. I rarely even edit them, and have only removed two in two years. So okay, that's not quite 'never' but rarely do I mess with them at all. I do read every single one of them, but it's not like I get 100 comments on a post either. I chose Haloscan, after my daughter, Sarah told me about it. It has nice editing and tracking features, i.e., a lot of control, should questionable comments ever begin to come my way. I'm also able to leave a comment for the commentor, right below theirs, rather than ten comments down as is the case with Blogger comments. Sometimes Blogger appears and Haloscan disappears, which isn't supposed to happen. When you sign on with Haloscan, Blogger comments are supposed to disappear so as to not confuse commentors, but again, that isn't always the case either. Sometimes it just has to be those little pesky wood nymphs, don't you think? There is never a practical explanation, so maybe that explains it.
Awhile back I considered doing some posts that didn't allow comments, the few that were too deep - a splaying of my mental gymnastics, or posts that were lame and would never justify leaving a comment. It was too much work to bother with it, going back and forth, trying to decide when to enable, and when to disable, so comments are always enabled, they are never restricted, and rarely removed. Removed only if the comment is hateful or pornographic and that's about it. So - if you want to leave a hateful, porno comment - you can do so and I'll go in and remove it as soon as I'm aware of it.
When you can't see my comments, something has gone wonky. I went into Haloscan and told it to save all the settings that should have already been saved, then I did the same with Blogger. Then I noticed that if I pay $12 a year Haloscan will upgrade my account to 'premium' and those ads that come up at the top will disappear. I've gotten a few emails or comments that some are offended by what is being advertised, so it seemed worth the $12 to pay to get rid of them, $1 per month seemed a good buy for that. As soon as I gave the $12 through PayPal, the Haloscan comments reappeared. With no ads displayed.
Not that I'm saying it'll stay that way. Past behavior is supposedly the best predictor of future behavior, so I have my doubts. However, when they are there, there shouldn't be anything offensive at the top. Just like most of the rest of life, throwing around even a little bit of money usually gets results. We'll see if they stick.
P.S. My mom will be pleased with the use of 'conundrum' I do believe. She made all six of us kids look up words in the dictionary every summer for years and years. Webster's definition of conundrum: 'a puzzle'. It describes comments exactly!
I never do anything to comments. I don't do word verification. I don't restrict them to registered users. I rarely even edit them, and have only removed two in two years. So okay, that's not quite 'never' but rarely do I mess with them at all. I do read every single one of them, but it's not like I get 100 comments on a post either. I chose Haloscan, after my daughter, Sarah told me about it. It has nice editing and tracking features, i.e., a lot of control, should questionable comments ever begin to come my way. I'm also able to leave a comment for the commentor, right below theirs, rather than ten comments down as is the case with Blogger comments. Sometimes Blogger appears and Haloscan disappears, which isn't supposed to happen. When you sign on with Haloscan, Blogger comments are supposed to disappear so as to not confuse commentors, but again, that isn't always the case either. Sometimes it just has to be those little pesky wood nymphs, don't you think? There is never a practical explanation, so maybe that explains it.
Awhile back I considered doing some posts that didn't allow comments, the few that were too deep - a splaying of my mental gymnastics, or posts that were lame and would never justify leaving a comment. It was too much work to bother with it, going back and forth, trying to decide when to enable, and when to disable, so comments are always enabled, they are never restricted, and rarely removed. Removed only if the comment is hateful or pornographic and that's about it. So - if you want to leave a hateful, porno comment - you can do so and I'll go in and remove it as soon as I'm aware of it.
When you can't see my comments, something has gone wonky. I went into Haloscan and told it to save all the settings that should have already been saved, then I did the same with Blogger. Then I noticed that if I pay $12 a year Haloscan will upgrade my account to 'premium' and those ads that come up at the top will disappear. I've gotten a few emails or comments that some are offended by what is being advertised, so it seemed worth the $12 to pay to get rid of them, $1 per month seemed a good buy for that. As soon as I gave the $12 through PayPal, the Haloscan comments reappeared. With no ads displayed.
Not that I'm saying it'll stay that way. Past behavior is supposedly the best predictor of future behavior, so I have my doubts. However, when they are there, there shouldn't be anything offensive at the top. Just like most of the rest of life, throwing around even a little bit of money usually gets results. We'll see if they stick.
P.S. My mom will be pleased with the use of 'conundrum' I do believe. She made all six of us kids look up words in the dictionary every summer for years and years. Webster's definition of conundrum: 'a puzzle'. It describes comments exactly!
Labels: Busy Buzz
<< Home