If Comments Are Welcome, Why Can't I Post One?

Blogspot can be deceptive. I've told readers I like comments. Readers can scroll down and see a comment form. On many posts it's empty, but on some posts they can see conversations showing that some people have commented--however perfunctorily--and I've "liked" their comments. Then when readers try to post a comment...I'm not sure what they're seeing, because different computers may be showing different things, but several readers have said that the blog seems to be in "no-reply mode."

I tried installing Disqus. Even the people who'd posted basically "I was here" through Blogspot didn't seem to want to sign up for Disqus. I have a free Disqus account and have noticed no problems, but I suppose it is one more thing to log in to.

Right. The problem many people seem to have getting comments onto the Blogspot is that Google is trying to attract traffic to Google +. The people whose comments are showing here are the ones who are commenting via Google +.

I don't particularly like scrolling through that mess of pictures either, although back when I was trying to be a good e-friend I did. The good news is that you don't actually have to hang out on Google + to get the benefits of having a free account there--including, but not limited to, being able to reply directly to posts on this web site.

Here is what you need to do:

1. This web site will work best if you open it using Google Chrome. Two thirds of our readers are already using Chrome (the computer keeps track of these things). About one quarter manage to read this site using Internet Explorer, which I remember as a tedious process when I used Explorer-only public-access computers; you can even use Google + in the newer versions of Explorer, but if you try comparing both, does it ever work better with Chrome. The site also limps along for people using Firefox, Safari, and Opera; I've tried to open it with Firefox, not an improvement, and with Opera...well...if you're really determined to work with a computer like my Sickly Snail...but I recommend using Chrome, if your computer has enough working memory left to run Chrome.

2. If you have Gmail, Blogger/Blogspot, Youtube, Google Maps, Google Translate, or other Google-hosted app or features, you'll probably be prompted to set up a Google + account. May already have been. So do that already.

3. If you're new to Chrome, go to plus.google.com and follow instructions.

4. You don't have to post anything on Google + to follow people and comment...although people are likely to follow you back and see more of your stuff if you post or link to your Google + page.

5. Google + used to have a function that helped people find their e-friends. I'm not sure whether it still has. To find me, paste into the browser bar: https://plus.google.com/+PriscillaKingGCVa .

6. Click on "follow" or "add to circles." The system automatically sets up circles called "friends" and "acquaintances." Personally I don't think it's any of the Internet's business whether people may or may not be my friends or acquaintances in real life, whether I have any reason to believe that their screen names reflect their real-world genders or whatever, so I set up a circle I call "following." It consists of, like duh, people I'm following on Google + (not that all of them post there; not that I open Google + every day).

7. Google + works by generating a "home page," when you log in, that will show a few recent posts from people you actually follow mixed in with a lot of sponsored posts from commercial sites. (Some celebrities sponsor posts on Google +; they'll be automatically added to the automatically generated circles called "arts" and "music" and so on. The celebrities themselves may or may not actually use Google +; their publicists may be doing it all for them. Some of them post nice pictures anyway.) If you have a lot of time and computer memory to spare, by all means explore what Google + automatically offers you. If you don't, however, go directly to "following" or whatever you call the circle of people you choose to follow. If you are (so far) doing this to follow this web site alone, how flattering, you can go directly to my page. Once you've discovered old school friends and favorite musicians on Google +, you can go directly to their pages too. Isn't this fun? You'll see what each person you follow has posted, and also what each one has plussed (shared from the person's reading), on the person's page. To save opening each individual page, you can group people together in one circle and go directly to the circle's page.

8. At some point you'll probably discover a spammer, hater, scammer, etc., even on Google +. The site tends to attract nice people, but where nice people go, pests try to follow. You might discover someone you consider a spammer--a TV poisonality or news service you despise--on the home page. You can "mute" or "block" this person; instructions for choosing which to do, and doing it, are here. (I just muted a site called "Men's Fitness." Why? To test how the new system worked, and because, as a woman, I'm not interested in looking at ads for a men's fitness site. No hard feelings. When you mute a fellow Googler from the home page, you can still exchange direct messages with that person, if for some reason you want to; if you're muting a friend, as it might be because you're at odds with him in real life and he's filling your social media pages with garbage, you can find and un-mute him later. When you block the person, you won't see them, and they won't see you, ever again; I did that with a Christian-phobic TV blighter.)

If the person is really obnoxious, you can "report abuse" and, in theory, get the person banned from Google +. I've not done this and don't know how it would work. If, for example, you're a nice normal Tea Party and you somehow manage to attract one or more of the lousy creeps from that awful "Unite the Right" parody of Tea Parties, and they're posting filth about how your sister is a "mud person" and your Lord and Savior is an "enemy of America," you'd want to "report abuse."

9. Now Google Chrome thinks it knows who you are, and thinks you're an okay person, so you should be able to post comments on all Blogger/Blogspot blogs that accept comments, without necessarily opening Google +. Comments are still being processed by Google + and will show up with little plus buttons, which also work directly from the blog site, without necessarily opening Google +.

Enjoy! Now, can this post have an Amazon link? Why not? This "book" is available only on Kindle, which I don't like, but yes, there is such a book as...