About comments

Every blogger loves comments, because they remind us that we're not just shouting into the wind. Not that I need affirmation to continue doing this, oh no, not me. After all, I clearly have so much to say every day that I can't manage to fit it all into daily conversations but must let it spill onto the blog.

However, you may occasionally find that you simply must respond to something that I say. "Four tablespoons of olive oil per tablespoon of vinegar," you splutter, "Only a heathen would make a vinegrette that way!" Well, if you are not blog-savvy enough to comment, you may have nowhere to direct this excess emotion. I am here to help, with this handy how-to-comment post.

When you've read a post that has really got your dander up, click on the "# comments" link at the bottom. Then you'll be directed to a page where you can type in your comment in the right hand box. After you enter the magic no-spam random letters, you're left with only one more task: to "Choose your identity." If you already have an account, you hardly need these instructions, so I won't worry about you. However, if you don't have an account, you can either choose other and then type in whatever name you'd like to use, or you can choose anonymous and then you won't have to identify who you are. In that case I'll be up nights wondering who's stalking me, so don't choose that option.

That's it. You've now opened the door to a world where you can tell everyone exactly what you think. And clearly they want to know, or they wouldn't have put the comments link so handily right there, right?

(Inspiration for this post goes to a friend who emailed me to tell me that she was frustrated by how many questions she had to answer just to comment, and then later discovered she had accidentally signed up to be a blogger.)