Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Unable To Process Comments...?

It was so much fun reading all your responses to my recent post, "What are you wearing?" You know, it gives me a much better picture, and I can visualize all of you as people, rather than just avatars. You actually have bodies (clothed ones) below your necks, and comfy clothes. And it gives me a idea of where you are when you blog. It's wonderful to get a better idea of my blog friends! You're real people -- just like me...! And, there are several new and fabulous blogs that have come into the blogosphere recently. Last night I tried to visit many of them and post comments, however, I was unable to post comments on most of the blogs that have their comments boxes set up as "embedded below post". I think you folks may be losing a lot of comments. What happens is, people post their comments, and then the page flips to the top of the post. If the commenters do happen to scoll back down, they will see their comments did not post, and they might get a prompt that says,

"Your request could not be processed. Please try again."

However, if the commenters have flipped to the top of the page and do not scroll back down to see that their comments did not publish, they will leave your blog not knowing you did not receive their comments.

The solution to this problem is very easy. Instead of having your comments box set up in the format that is called "embedded below post", like this:


You can change it to the setup which is called "full page", like this.


If you want to change your comment settings, go into the dashboard, into "Settings" "Comments" and next to "Comment Form Placement" change it to "Full Page". You will find you will receive many more comments than you are receiving now.


Unless you have a really controversial blog -- which most of us don't -- it's always a good idea to make it as easy as possible for your readers to post comments. "Word verification" and "comment approval" -- unless absolutely necessary -- are not usually a good idea. It's like having a welcome mat at your front door that says, "Thank you for visiting, now please go away..." None of us wants that.

I hope to be able to visit you all, as soon as I am able to post comments.

Cheers,

18 comments:

lesthook said...

I think mine is pretty easy to post on but B-O-R-I-N-G. I just realized I haven't posted this year!

heartinsanfrancisco said...

I don't know if anyone has had trouble posting to my blog. I had to put in word verification because I kept getting "Anonymous" comments with links to sex sites in several languages. I still get some, which I delete, but at least the robotic ones are gone.

Jo said...

Lesthook, I just tried to post a comment on yours, and I got "Your request could not be processed. Please try again." So yours is one with that problem.

Susan, you have the "full page" type of comments, so there is no problem posting on yours. And, I think I have had a few of those links too, but I just delete them.

the walking man said...

Good advice Jo especially the word verification, which wouldn't be a personal problem for me if I could type better {;-]}

DJan said...

I get a fair number of comments on my blog every day, but I do sometimes have a problem posting on other people's blog. If I get that "please try again" I try again and it usually works. I use the comments at the bottom but I might try your method if anybody has a problem posting a comment on mine. So far, so good...

Country Girl said...

Good idea, Jo. I'm going to do this today. And about the WV? Every single time I take off my WV, I get hit by spammers. It gets on my nerves! It's usually the same one, too. Asian porn.

TC said...

Thank's Jo, I said I was going to do this before, now off to see the wizard, or the dashboard as it may be.
Totally unrelated, I am finding it impossible to post to a typepad blog for the last couple days?

Marcos Vinicius Gomes said...

Thanks for your clue, Jo. I red about this same theme in your blog some months later, and after that, I never more used 'keywords' in my blog. I suppose that worked out, although my blog is not so popular as your!

Kathy's Klothesline said...

I have encountered the same thing and if you have a good sized blogroll it is annoying to have to scroll back down to retry.....

Kathryn said...

When i removed "word verification" to try to make it easier, i began to get many more spam thingies. Didn't like it, so went back to the word verification. I had removed moderation from older posts & had problems with the spam for that too, so i added it back. I don't moderate comments unless they come in more than 14 days after i wrote the post.

I got tired of taking off the comments about viagra & "great sex" & other stuff. That's why i use word verification.

A human kind of human said...

I also do not like Comment Moderation or Word Verification on my blog, but with the recent spate of spam (even from porn sites) I do not have a choice.

Jo said...

Mark, me too...! *heh* I never get it right the first time.

DJan, yes, I think sometimes people don't know that their comment has not posted, sadly.

Kate, for some reason my blog rarely -- if ever -- gets spam. Strange, hey?

TC, gosh, I don't know what Typepad is. Is that a form of blog?

Marcos, yes, I find it frustrating when I visit someone, and it's almost impossible to post a comment.

Kathy, I know, it's frustrating, isn't it? And some people don't know about it.

Kathryn, on the odd occasion that I do get spam, I just delete it. I think a lot of folks have difficulties commenting because of the Blogger thing.

Anna, I just delete the spam. It's sort of annoying sometimes, but there is a function where you can remove it forever.

Anonymous said...

Hey! I got an 'award' on my blog from a reader, and I got to tag people and I tagged you, because, well I like you tons! (totally off topic I know, but I had to share!)

PinkPanthress said...

Thnx for the Info! :D

Cloudia said...

YES!
It needed to be said, and you did so in the nicest possible way, Jo.

I have mine set up so that any comment made to a post over so many days needs to be moderated. I catch a lot of spam trying to bury itself in old posts. New spam I see and remove! No problems so far - except advertising some idiot's product for a few hours!

WELCOME your commentors, guys!!!



Aloha, Friend!


Comfort Spiral

Mia said...

But it's so much easier with embedded comments. You read the post, type a comment and either click a link to another post or be on your way.

With the full page option you have to click the link to make a comment, let that page load, type your comment, let the page load again, click another link to return to the original post or blog, click another link to go to the next post.

That extra second is money in the bank.

Mia said...

I agree about moderation. Typing a wacky word verification is one thing but one blog I read wants e-mail and phone number before you can post a comment. I like the blog but I'm never going to comment there.

And not letting the comments post until the blogger approves them makes it impossible for us to argue with each other when they're not around.

Paula Slade said...

Good advice Jo!