I love it, as I think all blog writers do, when you comment on a post.  I love to read the thoughtful and humorous comments that people post and it helps me feel that I am not writing to some amorphous black hole in the blogosphere.  Thanks to those of you that comment take the time to comment on a post!  When I go back to Ohio and see my friends, they tell me that they like reading my blog and keeping up with my life.  But unless they comment on a post, I can’t tell that they are reading and I don’t have any idea what is going on in their lives.  Some people have said they would like to comment but can’t figure out how to do it.

So today I am going to give you some basic instructions on how to comment on a post.  I use Disqus to manage comments on my blog.  I’m not sure what Disqus is exactly, except it is a tool that manages the comments coming in and out of the blog.  When you post a comment, I get a notice about it.  And when I post a response, you get a notice back.

So in order to comment on a post you need to sign up with Disqus.  You can do that by clicking on the “start the discussion” comment box at the bottom of the post.  Then click on the D logo and click on “create an account.”  It is free to sign up – you just have to put in a user name, e-mail, and password.  Disqus won’t use your information for anything besides allowing you to post comments.  I find it easiest to sign up for stuff like this on my laptop, and then sign in on the device I use most frequently, like my iPad or iPhone.  Smartphones and iPads will remember your sign-in information and keep you logged in to Disqus.

Any blog, and there are a lot of them, that uses WordPress as its platform will probably also use Disqus, so signing up once allows you to comment on lots of other blogs.

I love to hear from people when I write a post.  I love to get a comment on a post: it makes me feel like I am in a conversation.  When I get the notice that there is a new comment, I look at it right away and try to respond within a day or two.  So sign-up on Disqus and let me hear from you.  Don’t be afraid to comment on a post.