comment – Linda Cassidy Lewis

I know a bit more about why this login procedure was implemented for WordPress blogs. It doesn’t appear to be a solution to a problem that affected many WordPress bloggers, but nevertheless, we all have to deal with it. From reading the forums, this is likely to be a permanent decision—a feature, not a bug. I hope they’re wrong.

The whole mess irritated me to the point I considered moving my blog to Blogger. In fact, I got this close to actually creating one there, since I already have a Blogger profile. Then I read on the WP forum that people who have a WP/Gravatar profile are having trouble commenting on Blogspot blogs too, so I figured what’s the use? I might end up with a blog on Blogspot that I couldn’t even log in to.

After all, Blogger is owned by Google and, from what I heard, this whole commenting mess is a casualty of WordPress vs. Google.

Even some WP bloggers are having trouble commenting on other WP blogs, so I know it’s a hassle not many people are willing to go through to leave a comment on less than spectacular posts, which describes the majority of mine. I do have tips for you though.

As I said in my previous post, if you have used your email address at WordPress or Gravatar and try to comment on a WP blog, you’ll be asked to login first. If you can’t log in to WordPress or Gravatar, you have the option (at the top right of the comment box) to log in to your Facebook or Twitter account. If you can’t or don’t want to do either of those, you can leave the EMAIL line blank and comment with just your name. Yeah, I know. Half the point of commenting on blogs is to leave a link back to your own.

WARNING: Either make sure you’re logged in before you write your comment, or copy it before you click submit because if you get the error message, you’ll lose everything you typed when you try to login like the message tells you to.

If you come here to read my posts, and don’t want to jump through the hoops to comment, at least click the LIKE button before you go—though I don’t even know if that will work. OR if you’re really itching to respond to something in my posts, click on the link in the sidebar to my Facebook page where my blog posts are syndicated and leave a comment there.

Here’s hoping sanity prevails and this login silliness gets resolved. If not, I guess I’ll mostly be talking to myself.

Recently, WordPress decided to be “helpful”. They made a change intended to reduce comment spamming—or something. Unfortunately, this change has now made it difficult, if not impossible, for some people to comment on WordPress blogs. The support team is being rather uncommunicative, so I don’t know when this problem will be resolved.

Apparently, if you have EVER signed up for a WordPress account, or Gravatar account, or maybe even have done so little as left a comment on a WordPress blog before, when you try to leave a comment now you may get a message saying the email address you’re using is associated with a WordPress account, and you’re directed to log in to that account.

If you remember your account password and can log in, HOORAY! If you can’t log in to WordPress or Gravatar, you have the option (at the top right of the comment box) to log in to your Facebook or Twitter account. If you can’t or don’t want to do either of those, you can leave the EMAIL line blank and comment with just your name.

I’m sorry for this ~~inconvenience~~ colossal mess. It’s not my doing, so there’s no way I can undo it. I can only hope the WordPress powers-that-be ARE working to fix it. And pronto.