The WordPress Plugin That Made Me Do a Little Dance
You are in one of two camps:
1. You’re part of the Back to School, Back to Blogging Challenge over at Kludgy Mom and you are just all over the widget and plugin thing this week. You saw a post title about a plugin and thought, I cannot wait to go read that!
2. You’re among the handful of friends, family and loyal readers who pop by Wonder, Friend now and then to wonder with me. You saw a post title about a plugin and you’re now wondering why you’re still reading. If you’re not a blogger and never anticipate being a blogger, you can move along guilt free. This is not going to be interesting. At all. But before you go, why not read this post or this post? Or this one?
So, now that we’re finished sorting Wonder, Friend readers into Blog-Writer-and-Reader and Blog-Reader-Only camps, we can get down to business.
Regular readers and friends of mine know that technology is not my thing. I blog because I love to write, not because I love the technology behind blogging. The kicker here is that in order to make blogging work for me, I need to learn a few more things about the man behind the curtain. So to speak.
If you’re a new blogger, this information may come as a shock to you. You could have knocked me over with a feather when I discovered that, as smart as WordPress is, the platform will not hold your hand and do everything for you. You have to help yourself a bit.
I’m exaggerating a bit, of course, about the shock. Anything you want to do well, whether it is writing, cooking, parenting or, yes, blogging, requires that you put a little effort into the activity. You have to educate yourself in order to improve.
There are two factors working against me when it comes to expanding my blog-related knowledge:
1. I have live-in tech support, with whom I sleep.
2. This is very secondary, but I have a terrible time following directions when it comes to technical stuff. The directions might as well be in Swahili.
So this little B2SB2B Event is pushing me out of my comfort zone in a big way. I am very excited to report, however, that I installed a plugin – and made it work – all by myself. While the plugin itself probably does not meet the exact specifications of our assigment (to find a cool, little known plugin), it is very exciting for me.
One of my big issues with blogging is staying in touch with readers. When you comment on my blog, I am a happy girl. I love hearing from readers, and I love starting a dialogue. At first, I emailed every person who commented. But sometimes I also replied on the blog. Or sometimes I visited that person’s blog and commented there. My communications got kind of jumbled, to say the least.
I then decided that I would only reply on my blog, within the comment thread. The issue here? You have to keep coming back to find out if I replied to you. Annoying.
So a couple weeks ago, I started asking around for ideas. Liz over at A Belle, A Bean and a Chicago Dog said she’d heard of this particular plugin; and then Mama Kat blogged about her 10 favorite WordPress plugins, and mentioned the same one. In fact, what I’m about to tell you about installing and setting up this plugin can all be found on Mama Kat’s blog, as well. You should read her anyway – she’s funny.
Are you ready? This plugin allows you to reply to comments within your comment thread and simultaneously send the reply via email. That way, your readers don’t have to keep checking your blog to see if you replied to them. I love it.
Ta-da!
Here’s how you, too, can add this feature to your blog:
:: Go to Plugins (on your Dashboard) and select Add New.
:: Enter “WordPress Thread Comment” in the search box.
:: Click Install.
The trick to making it work is to go into your WordPress Dashboard after installing and look for the Settings section (near the bottom of the left-hand column). Find WP Thread Comment in that list and click on it. Now you’ll get a screen with all kind of plugin-related details. About 2/3 of the way down, there is a box that says, Email notify the parent commenter when his comment was replied. Check Anyone Replies.
If you reply to comments from your admin page (I do sometimes), you also need to check the box that says Reply in WordPress Admin Panel.
Have someone help you test it, and give it between 10 and 30 minutes to email the reply to you.
Enjoy!
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This post is part of the Back to School, Back to Blogging Event, in which I’m participating because I need to learn a few things about blogging!
Posting Failure (and Tri My Way Thursday Update)
Hmmm. I scheduled a post for the first time ever. Not only did it not post at the requested hour, it has now turned into gibberish and refuses to let me anywhere near the “post” button.
Internet Technology Thingy That Makes My Blog Work, we should talk. I do think if we spent a little time together, one-on-one, we could be friends. As it stands now, I’m kind of tired of the technical difficulties you throw my way. Oh, don’t start up with your “user error” bullshit* again. I realize I don’t know everything about you or how to make you happy, but this process takes two. I would appreciate it if you do your part.
Real people readers? Are you still here?
Thanks for hanging around. I’ll repost today’s previously scheduled programming soon. Who knows, maybe my Internet Technology Thingy That Makes My Blog Work knew the post was drively crap written late at night after two sangrias with some fun new friends (here’s where I give a shout out to Christina at A Closet Writer and Gigi at Kludgy Mom). Yes, you read that right – two sangrias and I’m done for. I’m officially old and lame.
A quick Tri My Way update. You may have seen that the gym landed on my head this week. This did nothing to dampen my spirits, although it thoroughly dampened the gym. This week, I also learned the following:
1. I don’t posses the inner strength and will power required to do much more than the bare minimum. I am seeking outside motivation and trying some new tricks. I have a little contest going on with The Churchill Family. We haven’t done our weekly check-in yet, but she’s winning. For sure.
2. I didn’t want to count calories, but I am going to have to. I tend to get crazy obsessive once I start and spend half my day writing down my food intake. As I currently spend half my day on Twitter, I’m running out of hours left to care for my children. They are really particular about the whole food, clothing, love and attention deal. So in my continued efforts to be a real grown up, I am going to use my time more wisely. Writing down my daily caloric intake is now a non-optional activity.
3. I am really, really good at making excuses. I might turn it into a business. Excuses by Missy: You Don’t Wanna Go, I’ll Get You Out of It.
4. I still have a long road ahead to get my IT bands and knees in good working order. I need to slap my ego out of the way and accept that I’m not doing any triathlons in 2010. My husband so kindly pointed out that “at your age, you shouldn’t expect to see results so quickly.” I asked him how it feels to sleep alone. At his age.
So there you go. Summary: I ate well. But I also had two big slip-ups in the food department. I exercised and was very active. But I also talked myself out of going to the gym. Twice. One step forward, two steps back. This week’s goal: no back-stepping.
*Did you catch the movie reference? It’s not an exact quote, but it’s clearly borrowed from one of the most quotable movies ever. If you can tell me what it is, we will be good friends. How’s that for a motivating prize?!
read moreBlogHer, You Would Have Completed Me
I’m all out of the funny. If you want to roll on the floor, go visit Kludgy Mom. Gigi’s post kills me and I enthusiastically second her thoughts.
Me? I’m watching the Hallmark Channel hoping for a good cry. Golden Girls just came on and the theme song incited weeping. Pathetic. Let’s all roll our eyes and hate me for a second. Okay. Done. Now, let’s talk BlogHer.
I’m not going. I’ve been playing it real cool. In fact, until this week I haven’t even uttered the word, BlogHer. Yes, I’ve been secretly stalking out possibilities of scoring a ticket for sale. I’ve debated getting a flight to NYC and lurking around the conference, hoping for a scalper with a BlogHer ticket. Nothing says, Hey, she looks like a nice woman who probably has a really great blog! I want to meet her, for sure! more than lurking, univited, around the periphery of a NYC hotel.
The simple explanation for my non-attendance is that I’m new to blogging. Wonder, Friend is coming up on five months old. Holla! No? I thought I would try it out. I’ve always wanted to be able to shout, Holla!, and sound cool. I’m over that now.
Since I’m new to the game, BlogHer wasn’t even a blip on the radar until the tweets started flying around about a month ago. I mean, I’d heard of it. I’m not a shut-in or anything. But I thought it was only for real bloggers. Turns out, anyone can go. Anyone! Even me. Except, as has occasionally been the case in my life: I’m a day late and a dollar short.
(Lots of dollars short, actually. Are you aware that in addition to the plane ticket, the hotel, and the conference admission, there are a few other things I need in order to properly do BlogHer? This post by Mommypants, detailing the BlogHer necessities, is hysterical. Go read it. Funny, yes?)
So I missed it this year. No more playing it cool. I’m a small, tiny bit jealous of all the bloggers who will get to put faces with web sites. And then there’s the location. New York City, the hometown of my soul. The parties. The staying-in-a-hotel-without-the-kids. And, obviously, the chance to talk all things blog with people who are as weirdly attached to this forum as I am.
Aaagh. Yep. Jealous.
BlogHer, prepare yourself. This is one mama who is planning a blogging boondoggle next August.
This post is part of the Not Going To BlogHer Blog Hop, hosted by A New Breed of Mom. Link Up! Read Up!
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A small bit of housekeeping:
1. You can now subscribe to Wonder, Friend by email! This makes me inexplicably excited. If you’re anything like me, you sometimes forget to check your reader. You may have favorite blogs (ahem) that you love reading, but you get busy and forget to check for new posts. So go ahead, subscribe. Over there, on the right, near the top. The Feedburner thingy. Thank you!
2. If you do read Wonder, Friend on a regular basis, you have my heart. Really. When I started this I said I would write even if nobody was reading, and I meant that. I mean that still. I write this for me, but lately it’s occurred to me that I also write this for you. Thank you for reading! If you leave a comment, you’re on my list of suitable mates should my husband ever meet an untimely demise. I sincerely appreciate your comments. Here’s the housekeeping part - I am now responding to comments within the comment thread, not via email. It just makes things more consistent. I’m working on setting up a comment platform that will send you an email when I respond to your comment. If you have recommendations for a good comment platform, send them my way.
read moreStalker!
I have a stalker, and I’m happy about it. Yes, you read that correctly. I’m happy about it.
Gigi, over at Kludgy Mom, picked Wonder, Friend for her Surprise Stalker Saturday feature. Whoo-hooo! So to show our appreciation, go visit her. The girl’s funny and a little irreverent. My kind of blogger.
Thanks, Gigi!
read more
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