nearly wordless wednesday

Piper and I went for a short, soggy walk

and brought home

Comptonia.

~~~~~

markmaking february

Every path between the barns, the house, and the paddocks is solid ice.

The temperature is ranging from single digits to low 30s.

We've had snow, sleet, and sun.

More snow predicted this week.

Hello, February.

Here is the Daily Markmaking so far:

 February 1

 February 2

February 3

February is the month when I remind myself to weigh the low-level anxiety of carrying daily water buckets over icy paths against the delightful absence of mosquitoes and biting flies. Even ice looks pretty great when you compare it to mosquitoes.

February is also when my thoughts turn to the gardens. When I have to rein myself in before I even open a seed catalog.

Seriously.

I've been piling catalogs up as they arrive and there are at least eight of them now.

Haven't opened a single one.

But it won't be long now.

~~~~~

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.

~~~

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.

~~~

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.
~~~~~

wordless wednesday

~~~~~

a bit of blog befuddlement

Many thanks to everyone who left a comment about commenting.

I've been wandering around backstage in my own blog, trying to find the source of the problem. I've learned a couple of things, but nothing related to the issue.

So far the only possible clue is that comments may not be posting from phones - 

two readers have now mentioned that.

~~~

I'm relieved to know that there are no ads appearing on Comptonia!

~~~

About the ads that have recently been showing up on the Feedly page, here is an example using my own blog post list. I hope the screenshot will be legible - as always, left-click to embiggen.

To be clear: I'm not seeing these ads on the actual blogs - just prominently displayed on the Feedly list of posts for each blog.

One of these things is not like the others...

 

Here's another example.

Ads disguised as blog posts:

Well, that's enough about the mysteries of the internet for one day.

Onward to something I understand: today's Daily Markmaking.

A detail of the base of the massive red oak on the Upper West Side,
surrounded by stones and snow.

I hope your week is off to a grand start!

~~~~~~~