Wednesday, October 15, 2008

My apologies

Or: Further evidence that I am not as smart as I would like to think I am.

So. Several weeks ago a friend of mine asked me whether I got an email every time someone put a comment on the blog. I said, why no I don't. I wonder if that's even possible?

Having the inquiring mind that I do, I hied myself off to Blogger and found out that yes indeedy, I can in fact receive an email whenever someone leaves a comment. This has been wonderful in so many ways. I don't spend nearly so much time pitifully hitting refresh on blogger in the vain hope that someone has left me a comment, for example. Also, when I respond to what people write, their comments are right there, in black and white, to remind me of what they've said (yes, I do have a short attention span, apparently). Finally (and here's the point we're going to have to come back to) it meant that I didn't have to search out each commenter's email address in my email program or on their blog; I could just merrily hit reply and send off my well-thought-out words of wisdom.

Or so I thought.

Turns out, though, not so much. In fact, it turns out (if my informal polling of a few people today bears out across the board) that very few of you have been getting any of my responses to your comments ever since I so intelligently (note the tone of irony there) started responding to the comments I was getting through email. Have I mentioned that I am not always so smart? More evidence of this appears on a regular basis.

Mea culpa.

Thank you all for so patiently continuing to leave me thoughtful and funny and sympathetic comments, in spite of the fact that those same comments are, from your perspective, disappearing into a giant black hole. Please know that I did, in fact, respond to each and every one of them, but that I am not going to go back through my sent mail for the past several weeks to find and resend my messages. (I hope you understand.)

I am, however, going to start doing things a little differently around here chez Knitting Linguist. So you should start hearing from me again soon (unless you tell me that you prefer the Black Hole method, in which case, I'll read your comments merrily and save you the extra in-box input; just let me know).

Meanwhile, we're all staying home tonight to watch the debate (Older Daughter's request), whilst knitting on the second Cheryl sock (which does indeed mean that the first one is finished; pictures soon). And to celebrate having made it through the midpoint of the week. Do I hear mojito?

19 comments:

Mary Lou said...

One friend told me they had a drink everytime they heard the word maverick... and I have received all of your responses, for what it's worth.

Anne said...

I'm getting your responses too. Here, Older Daughter says nothing she hears tonight will change her mind about her candidate of choice; she is lobbying to watch the Project Runway season finale instead. Mojito? Hm. I'm about to move on to my autumnal beverages... as soon as that bottle of gin is finished (it might go bad before next summer).

Rachael said...

lol - I don't know if any of your responses to me got lost in a black hole, but now that you mention it I don't remember getting any responses to comments on your blog lately - but then again, I've been so busy I don't know that I've been terribly commenty.

At any rate, I'm glad you've got it all straightened out!

Bea said...

I find that the problem with the blogger comment thing is that everything comes from no-reply@blogger.com and I have to search out addresses anyway.

Still its nice to know there are comments there.

Anonymous said...

Not mea culpa; Bloggera culpa. I just checked: knittinglinguist.com isn't taken yet, should you want it.

Lynne said...

It seems strange to me that Blogger doesn't ask commenters for their email address like, Wordpress, for example. It's exciting to get the emails but frustrating to find many are from "noreply-comment@blogger.com".

However, receiving emails is better than having to check the blog a few times a day! :-) And Bloglines is better than having to visit every blog on my list to see if there's a new post!

Anonymous said...

I didn't get any response lately and before that I wondered on your unique method of responding. Maybe you should consider moving to Wordpress :)

Helen said...

Don't worry. That girl called No Reply at Blogger will be thrilled with all the extra mail she's been getting. I wonder if she's a friend of Ron Number?

Nana Sadie said...

Simple fix on each commenter's blogger id is to add THIER email addy - then the "no-reply" address goes away and your reply goes TO the person!
:)
I've been getting yours, as we determined last night.
((((hugs))))

Marianne said...

I love getting your emails and pretty sure I HAVE been getting them ;^)
The debate. Mercy. I will admit I nearly snorted myself into oblivion when they were asked about their running mates and those of their opponents...
Barack was incredibly... gracious.

Anonymous said...

I know black holes. My blog has been a black hole for a while...

(I am a victim of your black hole, which explains why I wasn't responding to any of your responses)

Ooh, sock knitting!

Anonymous said...

Don't worry about it :-) I don't reply to every comment you leave even if I do appreciate it. I wish more people had livejournal, because when they do, I can comment back in my blog and they get an e-mail about it.

Ahh -- the frustrations of technology.

Glad you're making progress on the sock knitting :-)
Sarah

the boogeyman's wife said...

the email comments can be very helpful. and sometimes not :) it's kind of annoying to me that blogger just links to a person's profile rather than their email (i did send a few replies to the black hole myself), even if they have it available. luckily it's easy enough to put an email in, unless it's a new commenter.

EGunn said...

Oh no! I've been getting responses - no black holes here. =)

You would think that blogger could do something to make comment answering easier. I use Haloscan and just paste in the comment text as I go. Of course, getting emails would make responding in a timely fashion easier, but it's better late than never, right?

Good luck with finding a technology (or maybe a not so technology...) solution!

Willow said...

How annoying, huh? All those replies, none of them getting through.

I think an entire week of being home in the evenings would be heavenly. I suppose it's just too much to ask for, though (especially since The Professor has a M/W 6pm class).

Anonymous said...

I'm not sure I've been getting replies lately, but you've been leaving comments at TwinSet, which is wonderful.

What is proper etiquette, anyway? If you are commenting on someone else's blog, should you also send them an email reply? I was thinking the communication via comments was pretty cool (though it is always sweet to get an email, too).

Ally Jay said...

Ahh technology thou art a fiend. If in doubt hire a five year old, they seem to be born knowing all this stuff.

Anonymous said...

No worries whatsoever! I figure that the comment is part of a discussion that is the blog post and not all comments need answers. Sometimes "out of channel" is nice, but it's not necessary. One day your blog will have so many readers that there's no way you could reply to all anyway. Also, since I am not a Google/Blogger (my identity is name/url in the "Leave your comment" dialogue), you don't have me e-mail in the message Blogger sends you. So...without going to our site and finding me that way, you wouldn't have an e-mail for me.

Anonymous said...

Now you're making me laugh...good intentions gone awry!