How To Post A Comment To This Blog

I'm hearing from a number of my readers that posting a comment to this blog is confusing. 

I concur. 

Writing the actual comment is not the problem. Oh, heck no. That's the fun part. And it's easy, too - there is a big, fat comment box and all you have to do is click on it and type away.

It's the words right under the comment box that create the problem: "Comment as:" See them down there in my photo?

To the right of those words is a drop down menu. When you drop it down, it says "Select profile" and lists several different social networking platforms which you may or may not have joined.

At the bottom of that list are two other options: "Name/URL" and "Anonymous."

This is how it looks from my view; hopefully, your view is similar and we are on the same page. 

Heh. Pun intended.

What do all these options mean and how is the innocent commenter-wannabe supposed to know which one to pick?

Let me break it down for you:

If you are already a registered user of Blogger, LiveJournal, WordPress, TypePad, AIM or Open ID, you can use your login information on any one of those platforms to identify yourself. Just click on the name of the network you use, enter your login and password data, and your comment will identify you by your user name on that account.

If you have a stand-alone website, you can choose the "Name/URL" feature. When you hit that option, you will be prompted to enter your name and the URL to your very own website, and the information will show up in your comment.

{Note that both of these options allow the person leaving the comment to create a link back to their own blog or website. It's a nice feature that helps bloggy people find like-minded souls and make interesting connections.}

But if you don't have a blog or website to promote or you just find this all annoying and overly complicated, choose "Anonymous." With this option, you may simply write your comment, hit "Publish," and be done. And if you want me to know who you are, just sign your name to the end of your comment, as if you were writing me a plain ol' paper-and-pencil note in real life.

Let me know if this walk-through has solved your problems - I'm looking forward to seeing your comments!