8.15.2005

How To Comment

This is for all the folks who are new to blogs. If you've used the comment function before, you can skip the rest of this.

So the first thing is to read the whole post (that means my essay). Do you have a reaction? Do you think it's right on? Do you want to quibble? Do you think it's dead wrong? Excellent. You have a comment to make.

At the bottom of each post, and there may be more than one post on any given Monday on my blog, there will be a line that says how many comments there are already. If you click on those words, you will see the comments. If there aren't any yet, when you click on "comments" it might say "Post a Comment." Click on that. Then you will see a box where you can write your comment.

Just write your comment, reflection, question, whatever into that box in plain English. Or Spanish or really easy French. You get kudos for humor, for thoughtfulness, for respectfulness, and for clarity and brevity. Not that I am a master of any of these, but still, I appreciate them all.

You do NOT have to register or have a blogger account or anything like that to comment. There are three circles under the comment box. If you were a blogger, you could click on that circle. If you are not, you can choose either of the other ones.

The easiest thing is probably to choose ANONYMOUS and then sign your name inside the comment box. Think of it as if you were writing me a letter. On my blog it is strongly recommened that you write your real name, or some portion of it, and use the same name every time.

If you click on OTHER, it will ask you for your name and website. If you had a website, you would probably not need these instructions, but if you have one, you can type it in. Otherwise, you can leave that box blank. It says it's optional, and it's true. I've tried it myself.

Another key feature is that if you click on PREVIEW, you can read over what you've written and see what it will look like to other folks. This can be very helpful, for correcting spelling (big points taken off for bad spelling on my blog) or an infelicitous turn of phrase. Or in case you realize you don't really want to say publicly whatever you just wrote.

And last, back at the bottom of each post, there is a little envelope icon with an arrow on it. If you click on that, you can forward a link to my blog to a friend of yours. This is okay with me, the more the merrier, I always say.

Thanks for coming to my blog and I hope to see you participating in the discussions very soon.

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2 Comments:

Blogger Johan Maurer said...

This item seemed to me to beg for a comment, so I am adding one. Here it is: I like the way your mind works! And I like the way you don't assume that people know things. Information is power, and providing access to information is a great way of sharing power and promoting equality and hospitality.

Johan

8/19/2005 1:16 AM  
Blogger Robin M. said...

I am honored.

More than one of my offline Friends said they had looked at my blog, but they thought they couldn't comment, because they weren't registered. I think Beppe's brother had the same problem.

I hoped maybe this would help.

8/19/2005 2:11 AM  

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