Before we begin, here's a quick definition of what I consider to be comments: I consider "comments" to be the little snippets of text(comments) from multiple people which appear at the bottom of a post on blogs. I can read them and respond to them, you can read them and respond to them, and so can everyone else who happens to read the blog. Anyway, here goes:
First of all, lets talk about things that might look like great ways to post comments on my blog that actually are not ways to comment on my blog.
This little box that shows up at the right hand side on the screen can be a bit confusing:
Contrary to popular belief, this box is actually not for posting comments on the blog. When you fill out this handy dandy little form, you are actually sending a message straight to me. It's basically a way for readers to email me, except for that I don't have to give out my email address to the internet. I still get the message in my email. This is great if you want to write a message or have questions specifically for me, as no one else can see the message except for me once you have sent it. I can also reply specifically to you, without answering to the world as well.
This little box which is also on the right hand side a little further down is also not for comments:
If you put your email in here, then whenever I post something new on my blog, it will pop up in your email, and you don't have to continually come to my blog to check if I've posted anything(but you should still come back and leave comments because I love to hear from you :) How cool is that?!
Alright, now lets move on to how you actually comment on a post. I will use my most recent post, "Honorary Consul Visit: Fresno", as an example for now.
Here's what the post looks like:
Alright, now take a look at that little orange phrase, "No comments" at the bottom. It is right below the dotted line below the text of the post. If there are already comments on the post, it will say "two comments" or "three comments" instead of "no comments". Click on it! Even if you don't want to post a comment, if you just want to read the comments that are already there, this is the button to click.
When you click on "No comments", a form like this will pop up:
Now you can type whatever you want to say in the white box that says "Enter your comment". Once you have written you comment, you can click on that little gray box that says "Google Account" to change how you post your comment. If you click on that grey box, a menu like this will pop up:
Basically all that this means is that if you have an account with any of these sites already, you can log into them so that you will be identified in the comment that you post. If you don't have any accounts, you can either choose "Name/URL" or "Anonymous". You can always say who you are in your message in the little "Enter your comment" box as well, if you are unsure how this all works.
And then once you have written your comment, go ahead and click the blue "Publish" button! I will get an email alerting me that you have commented, and I will probably be so excited that I will just have to come back to my blog and reply to your comment. If you want to test out comments, feel free to comment on this post and I will be sure to reply to you and let you know that your comment has been received.
Also, if you try to comment and it seems like it is not working, please do let me know so that I can either help you out or try to fix the problem. If you have any more questions or any of this is unclear, let me know and I will try to answer your questions/clarify because you are probably not the only one who is confused.
Thank you so much for reading through such a long and likely very boring post, but I hope you now know how to post comments, and I look forward to seeing you in the comments very soon!
