Monday, May 16, 2022

Vanishing Thoughts

Since I started blogging more than a decade ago I've accumulated over a hundred blogs in my feed reader. Not all of them post on a regular bases, but on any given day somewhere between 30 and 35 of them have new content. Of those, I comment on a good portion. Or at least I try to. All of a sudden I'm having a problem leaving comments. Particularly in Blogger. 

I've been around the blog world long enough to know the commenting system. It starts by clicking on the Post a Comment button. My identity pops up next to the comment box, along with my avatar if that's what the blog owner has set up. I type my comment, jump through the hoops to prove I'm not a robot if that's necessary. When I click on the 'publish' button I used to have great success. Now, my comment often disappears into thin air.

When that happens I go back to my feed reader and mark the post as unread, so I can go back to it later and see if the comment showed up. Sometimes it does, but more often there's nothing from me. After trying two or three times on any given blog post I give up.

I turned to the Internet to see if there was a solution. The sites I consulted all said that the blogs that allowed embedded comments (where others can post responses) didn't have the problem. Based on my experience, that isn't correct. Some of the blogs I'm having problems with do have embedding. Others don't. The whole thing is frustrating, and annoys the heck out of me.

So the moral of the story is that if you don't hear from me on your blog, it's not because I haven't tried.

Five years ago today: In Any Language, It's Still Dinner

27 comments:

  1. I hear you Kathy it has been frustrating.

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  2. I've had this problem. I'm sure I posted about it. I can't find it. I can't remember how it got fixed.
    If you are using Chrome, try Firefox. Some of my chrome add-on's have caused problems in the past. Try turning them all off, then turn them back on one at a time.
    If you are commenting on a blogger post you don't have to click the "not a robot" box.
    If I think of something else I'll come back.

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    1. For several reasons, Firefox is my preferred browser. Good idea to undo and then redo the add ons. I did not know about skipping the check box for a fellow Blogger post.

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    2. Maybe the problem these days is comments winding up in spam and bloggers not checking the spam filter. https://draft.blogger.com/blog/comments/xxxxxxxx
      xxxxxxxx is your blog number. I almost always check it first. Click the down arrow in the middle and look for Awaiting moderation or Spam. Many comments are winding up in spam.

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    3. And I just saw Victors comment and your response.

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    4. I get an email when someone publishes a comment on the blog. If it's not showing up, that's my clue to search for it.

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    5. I don't get emails from everyone even thought a comment will post. I haven't figured out why I don't but it's consistently the same bloggers. But they do show up in comment spam. But I'll get a notification email and they'll still wind up in spam. You have to check EVERYWHERE!

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    6. "You have to check EVERYWHERE!".

      True. That's the moral of the story.

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  3. When your comment does not appear it is because it has gone into the spam folder of the owner of the Blog. It is worth everyone checking their spam folder often and "releasing" those comments captured there. They will then appear in the post in question.

    So there's nothing wrong at your end. It is at the other person's end that the problem occurs. In a way, this is a good thing, because there has been a lot of spam comments lately advertising various things. So it's good that Blogger captures them before they are published.

    God bless.

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    1. Victor, it's ironic that I had to rescue YOUR comment from Spam in order to publish it :-)

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  4. I prefer embedded comments, and I always click on the "not a robot" thing. It might perhaps have something to do with your google name - was it always Kathy G. or you used the name of your blog -'the second half of my life' to publish a comment. Anyway, the internet will offer you a solution.

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    1. Interesting thought about my Google name. For commenting purposes I think it's always been my first name/last initial, but I will try to figure out.

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  5. Blogger can be so frustrating sometimes! Most of my comments on other blogs will publish but there have been times where I've hit publish and they disappear!

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    1. Sometimes if I've put a lot of thought into a comment I will copy it before I hit publish. That way if it disappears I can paste and try again.

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  6. Oh, I totally hear you. For years I have struggled to leave messages on Blogger blogs. And if I could comment, it would disappear when I hit send. All of a sudden, there is a new comments box on some of the blogs and it makes it easy for me to choose to comment with my url. Yours is one of them so I can comment more often now. However, I truly believe this will change in the future.

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    1. The only thing that is predictable is that things will change.

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  7. I had quite a few disappear when they first switched over to this new commenting system, but for me it seems to have been rectified, hope you find that too. Blogger should not be making it more difficult for us to interact with and support each other, yet they change things frequently, without warning or instruction.

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  8. Mike is right. I ignore the "not a robot" box. You don't need to use it.

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  9. I just posted a comment on Andrew's blog, clicked publish it vanished. It is quite frustrating. I wonder if this comment will publish.

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  10. I'm hearing this a lot from Dear Readers and also experiencing it on some Blogs myself when I try to Comment. The vanishing part is 'new' becoz usually if the Comment doesn't show up immediately it just used to mean it had to be approved or read by the Blog Author first and would show up later. I've taken to what you do, go back and see if my Comment Posted, since I like to read the Comments of other Readers of Favorite Blogs anyway, it's how you discover the Community beyond just a Blog. I Hope Blogger fixes this problem soon, some Dear Readers have been sending me Private E-Mails, but it shouldn't have to be so hard and frustrating for the Community to interact.

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    1. I've been blogging enough to have seen issues come and issues go. Hopefully this is one that will go soon.

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  11. this was troubling for me because i write longer comments and when they just disappear it is hard to rethink and publish specially when not sure it will work this time .
    thank you for sharing this i knew through Victor that i should check the spam holder if i have missed someone .

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    1. After I've typed out my thoughts I copy them before hitting the publish button. If it looks like the comment didn't go through I can paste it back into the blog and try again.

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  12. A few people have said this. If I've not commented it's because life has got in the way of late, sorry!

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