following up

evening chores last night

Two follow-up notes on the blogging questions...

I have found no pattern in commenters who are being blocked, so I searched the Help page on Blogger where several bloggers had asked why some readers are unable to leave comments on their blogs.

Here is the reply, specifically relating to Embedded comments, which is what I use. It's the only Blogger option where comments appears on the same page as the post, and where Replies to the Comments are permitted:

This option (embedded) uses third-party cookies to connect users to comments. Many people disable third-party cookies on their browsers, and that is the usual cause of this problem. Because of the nature of the internet, this is out of your hands, because it is a choice that users make in their browser settings.

So, there you (maybe) have it. Personally, I have not bothered to disable third-party cookies on my browser, and I don't know what the pros and cons are for doing so. And I'm certainly not suggesting that anyone change their browser settings. But if someone who has had trouble commenting on Comptonia decides to experiment and finds out that this really was the problem, I'd love to hear about it. Maybe even in a comment!

And if anyone discovers other options for bridging the commenting chasm, please share, any time. If I've learned one thing, it's that this problem affects many of us.

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Re: the Feedly sponsored ads, I looked at my Adblock Plus settings to see if I could change something. Yes! At some point - probably years ago - I apparently chose to allow what are called "Acceptable Ads:"

Acceptable Ads are nonintrusive ads. They are the middle ground between ad blocking and supporting online content because they generate revenue for website owners.

On some websites - for example, international news sites - I allow ads because the "real" content is valuable to me and I'd rather allow ads than pay to subscribe to a dozen online newspapers. I think the "Acceptable Ads" setting may be how the Feedly ads slipped through, although it's very strange that I have never seen them before this month.

Now I've made all ads "unacceptable" and my feedly lists have returned to all-blogs-all-the-time. So far, so good! I will manually turn off my ad blocker on certain sites; I already do that on some sites anyway.

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Thanks very much for all the input on these conundrums.

We shall now return to our regularly scheduled blogging content.

Bud says, "Does that include breakfast?"

Yes, Bud. Yes it does.
I'm on my way.
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