Blogging about life in Minnesota, raising our six kids with Down syndrome while battling Breast Cancer.

Be the kind of woman that when your feet hit the floor in the morning the devil says, "Oh shit! She's up!"

Sunday, September 01, 2013

Fun tools

If you're reading here via a reader program, I have a new little tool on my left sidebar. It's a "Top Commenter" counter, and it's currently showing the top commenters for the last 90 days. FUN FUN!

There are a lot of people who comment via FB or twitter, but it is a lot more fun when we can carry on a conversation here on the blog. So, I'm going to change the widget and do something fun for the top commenter at the end of September! 

8 comments:

Unknown said...

It would be more fun if:
1. we could add our on link, rather than having only the Google Account option. We could check out other people's blogs! My Google acct, for example, is linked with Google+, which is kinda boring compared to the blog/FB link I'd use.
2. there were threaded comments.
3. there were notifications of replies to our posts.

4. All these are possible with a move to Wordpress (preferrably self hosted) or installing Disqus.

DandG said...

You do get a few differentt options for commenting, including using a wordpress account. Do none of them work for you? I do get notification of replies on blogspot.

Leah Spring said...

1) I am very resistant to change
2) I dislike wordpress (though it was several years ago that I tried it, it's probably much better now.
3) I don't think I can monetize with blogher with Wordpress.

Unknown said...

DandG, yes, there is an OpenID option, which is also used by WordPress.com. My blog, however, is a self hosted blog, and I don't have OpenID options with my host, so you'd never find it even if I used the WP account I use for commenting on WP blogs.

The problem with the Blogspot comment notification is, that depending on how you sign in, the option might not come up at all. If it does, it sends you all the comments left on the post, not the ones that are replies to you. After accidentally marking that on one of Leah's posts, I was spammed with 75 notification mails. I had no interest in 74 of those. I stop checking back on blogs after a day or two, so comment conversations on Blogspot, unless Disqus, or another well done comment plug-in is enabled, just don't happen to me. It's near impossible to follow who responds to who. Even Xanga 1.0 had better commenting system than Blogspot, not to mention LiveJournal that let us respond even from an email...

Also, the rate at which Blogspot eats comments annoys me.

Leah, if you go the self hosted route, with a domain, you can monetize it to your heart's content. Much better than Blogspot, and it also gives you a lot more freedom in what you want to do with your blog, content and layout. Just sayin'.

Becca said...

That's pretty cool! I'm curious about Hevel's comment regarding Blogspot eating comments...I've never had a problem! I have a more difficult time commenting on people's Wordpress blogs. I've never lost anything in Blogger, and I've been using it for over 6 years.

Leah Spring said...

Becca, I'm the same way. I never have problems commenting on blogspot blogs, but have a terrible time with wordpress or disqus. So you see Hevel, you are the problem. ;-) (said in humor, of course!) I will check out a few things, but the thought of moving stuff right now feels overwhelming and makes my stomach turn into knots.

Unknown said...

Very cool! I too have never lost a comment on Blogger, but I lose them all the time on WP and Disqus.

Kathie Brinkman said...

Oh yay, I have a chance of being a winner!