COMMENTS? WE LOVE COMMENTS

And, thanks to a little help from The Bloke In The Outer, all of my old comments (from before the conversion to Haloscan trackback and commentary late September) are now accessible again! Hooray! I knew there had to be a way...

I had switched over to Haloscan commenting mainly because the Blogger comment system does not allow trackback, and I wanted trackback. As a side benefit, Haloscan does not require commenters to sign in, as does Blogger commenting. That doesn't bother me (I have a Blogger account - duh), but it does put off other folks who may be reluctant to register with Blogger just for the privilege of decorating blogs with snappy comebacks. So, overall, Haloscan is (cue Martha Stewart voice) a good thing.

But I was not happy to see all the old comments disappear when I installed Haloscan. Now, after over a month, I have ’em back.

I will still want to prettify things up (the font size of the pre-Haloscan commentary is too damn big, for completely unknown reasons), but for now, no major worries. [Update: as of 8:00 am November 1, problem solved. Note to self: Writing HTML is a major pain in the ass. Try to avoid in future.]

Meanwhile, a word to all Friends of Blog D’Elisson:

Comments are a wonderful thing...oxygen to us bloggadocious folks. When you take the time to comment, it means you have read something that impelled you to pound a few keys. And that is what this whole bloggity thing is all about.

Traffic is nice - and thanks to Blog Explosion, blog traffic seems to be up everywhere - but hits are not what matters. Making a personal connection matters. Reading something that makes you laugh - or think - or grit your teeth - matters.

When you comment, I will almost always send you a response - by e-mail or by responding with another comment. (E-mail is better, since it means you don’t have to hunt all over the blogosphere for all the places where you left comments.) And I will almost always visit your blog, if you have one. Comments build the network that makes blogging so...networky? Ah - interconnected.

So: comment early and often! Just like voting in Chicago.

(And if you’re a spammer reading this, bugger off!)