Today seems like an appropriate day to send out a heartfelt thank you to everyone who took the time to leave a comment on my blogiversary post (FYI, for my non-American readers, it’s our Thanksgiving holiday today).

I got so many lovely comments from you, and that reminded me that you guys are still out there enjoying my posts … even if you rarely take the time to comment.

And you know what, that’s OK.  I get it.  I’m right there with you as an infrequent commenter myself.

So honestly, if you’re not into leaving comments, don’t feel like you should.  I don’t want anyone to feel bad about not leaving comments.  Maybe just leave one once a year on my blogiversary post and that will be enough 😉

That being said, it does sound like quite a few of you find the comment process cumbersome, so I did want to touch on that for a minute.

WordPress really works hard to keep spam comments at bay.  I’m sure you can imagine just how many spam comments I get every day, and for the most part WordPress catches 99% of them (probable statistic) and puts them in a separate folder for me to review.  This is an awesome feature since it means I don’t have to go through and delete a gazillion spam comments one by one.

To help them accomplish that I have a setting in place that requires me to approve the first comment left by anyone.  When you try to leave a comment you’ll get a window that asks you to “log in or provide your name and email to leave a comment”.  Then you can fill in your name, email address and possible the name of your website (that one is optional).  You’ll also have to option to save your name, etc. for later.  If you do that, you’ll have to set up a password.  I recommend not doing that if you hate coming up with memorable passwords (or is that just me?).

After filling all of that out and submitting your comment, you should see something like this:

Your comment is awaiting moderation. This is a preview; your comment will be visible after it has been approved.

Once I have approved that first comment, future comments don’t need approval as long as  they are left with the exact same name and email address (and possibly a website name if one was filled in the first time).  If there is a typo anywhere, or if you put your name in as “Linda” one time, and “linda” another time, and then “LindaS” another time … well, those will all have to await new approval.

So if you ever leave a comment and it doesn’t show up right away, that might be why.  I try to approve legit comments quickly, but I don’t always get to it.

Of course, WordPress isn’t perfect.  There are also occasions when honest comments end up in that spam folder.  I’m not exactly sure why that happens.  Sometimes it’s because the comment includes a link, but other times I really can’t figure out why.  I am not nearly as good at checking the spam folder on a regular basis, but I do try to sift through it and retrieve the non-spam comments now and then.  So that can also explain a lag between the time you leave a comment and when it actually shows up.

Another thing to note, if the email address you use is associated with a WordPress account, you will have to know your password to leave a comment.  And let’s face it, how many of us can actually keep track of all of our passwords?  So that can be a problem too.

So yeah, commenting can be cumbersome.  I get it.  So don’t worry about it.

OK, so with that I’m off to enjoy the holiday with family.  If you’re in the U.S., I hope you’re having a wonderful Thanksgiving.  And if you’re not, thank you for following me from wherever you are.  I appreciate all of you!