Tuesday, August 9, 2011

How to Post Here

Dear Readers:

Many visitors (sometimes including myself!) have noted that it’s difficult to impossible to post comments here and on other blogs. The following came from a dedicated reader who passes along some helpful information. With thanks to Yahoobuckaroo's blog:

“As the Google Help site suggests, the commenting system within Blogger.com blogs has a number of issues.

“Blogger/Blogspot on how to fix when people can't comment.

“There's a known problem with Blogger/Blogspot blogs that some people experience a lot of trouble posting comments on them. The forums are FULL of complaints, though I haven't heard of an official fix from Google.

“Personally, I don't get any more errors posting on Blogger blogs than I do on Wordpress or any other kind. I suspect part of the problem is with how people's internet browsers are set--and I found a *fix* for that one too, but can't find it at the moment.

“One of the easiest solutions is to have pop-out comments, but it's not a solution in all cases--I gather it just solves the problem most of the time. And I did find one person who complained that in their Firefox browser the popout window is super teensy small and annoying.

“I just found two other solutions, which require the owner of the blog to make a fix. I'm going to post them here for any blog owners who want to play around with them, though I won't be adding any instructions/visuals ‘cause I'm off to bed soon (my exciting new bedtime of 3 AM instead of the horrid bedtime which had crept up on me of 8AM!)

“So without further ado, the two fixes I just Googled up, that seem to work for a lot of people:

"Number 1

"I had the same problem, even though I had the option checked for people to be able to leave comments. I went to my Layout Settings (Or Design--BT), then "Edit HTML," and clicked the "Revert widget templates to default" underneath the text box. That took care of my problem...hope it works for you too!

“I finally figured it out. Changing the settings like -emnj- made it so the posts I do now people can comment on, but I couldn't figure out how to get it to change on the previous ones. So what I did was click on the Edit icon for the post that no one could comment on. Then under the box I wrote in, there is a part that says ‘Post Options.’ It's right above the orange ‘Publish Post’ box. Click ‘Post Options’ and click ‘Allow Comments.’ Presto change-o: people can comment now.

“No. 2

“Is explained on this person's blog, with proper detailed instructions:”

http://glamiva.blogspot.com/2009/10/easiest-comment-box-code.html

Barrett speaking again:

I have made the template change so we'll see how that works. Or not. In the latter case, another option is to try posting as "Anonymous."

Thanks to the dozens of you who return to my Rant Page each month—with heartfelt wishes for better luck hereon!