Another note about comments (and permissions)

I would like to repeat a note about comments that I made a few months ago.

Today I received notice of a comment from someone who wanted to circulate a couple of my posts to other people. Because of the way comments are set up -- see below -- I was unable to reply to this person.

The answer to the query, by the way, is yes, no problem. The GOB is published under a Creative Commons licence -- see the logo in the right-hand column, right at the bottom, for details. You are free to use the posts here for any non-commercial purpose, without contacting me, so long as you credit the source.

And here's a bit more about the peculiarities of the comments system.

This blog makes use of Blogger.com facilities, and I have tried to set the Blogger options so as to make it as easy as possible for people to post comments.

I would like you to be aware that the Blogger system is set up so that, whenever someone posts a comment, I get a copy of it by email. You can later delete your own comment from the blog, if you wish, and the public will not be able to read it, but I will still have had the email.

If you expect me to reply, or hope that I will, probably your best plan is to send an email to me direct, rather than post a comment. You can find my email address through my Blogger profile -- use the link at the top of the right-hand column on this page. I cannot send a reply to you if you simply post a comment -- in other words, although I get an email containing your comment, the 'reply' facility doesn't work because the system doesn't have your address.

The only exception (I am guessing here) is if you are already a registered Blogger.com user yourself; then the email containing your comment does seem to contain your email address for me to reply, if I want to.

Occasionally, if I feel it is sufficiently important, I have been able to trace an email address for a commenter via Google or some other device, but that is the long way round the houses; and it isn't always possible.