Sunday, August 26, 2012

Announcing the Winner ... and Asking a Favor

The winner of my spur-of-the-moment fig jam giveaway is .... #24 Kelly Ann, of Kelly Ann's Quilts.  Since you're right up the road, I will bring your jam to you next week.  Congratulations, Kelly!!




Choosing the winner  wasn't as straight forward as it should have been.  My rules were simple ... leave a comment, and be sure that your comment includes your contact information.

It took FIVE tries for me to draw a winner that I could contact directly.  Selections 1, 2, and 4 chose comments from people who do not have their email visible in their blog profile, and who did not leave their email address in the body of their comment.  For each of these, the return address on their comment was the dreaded "noreply-comment @ blogger.com"  (Selection 3 chose Comment #6, which was my own comment ... it would be weird for me to win my own giveaway.)  

Out of 37 comments/entries in the jam giveaway, 13 turned out to be ineligible. This gave much better odds of winning to the folks who played by the rules. 


 
 
I am one of the many bloggers who is on a quest to politely ask everyone to PLEASE do whatever you can to wipe out "noreply-comment @ blogger.com".  Most of the folks I approach about this aren't even aware that they ARE noreply bloggers.  Others have the idea that hiding one's email will make them less of a target for email spam ... not true, from my experience.
 
It is frustrating beyond belief to receive a comment or a question from a reader, and to have no way to answer that person directly.  I am hesitant to answer comments publicly in the comment section ... I don't know the chance of the original commenter seeing my response, and I may want to give info in my response specifically intended for THAT commenter. 
 
Using the Old Blogger Interface, it's a simple matter to make one's email visible in one's blog profile.  (If you use the new Blogger interface, see below.)
 
Click on the Blogger B button to access your Blogger Dashboard.

 
 
Click 'Edit Profile' on the left side of the page.
 
 
 
In the Privacy section, check the box that says 'Show my email address".  Type your email address into the Identity section, if it's not already there.
 
 
 
Scroll to the bottom of the page, click the orange 'Save Profile' button, and your done!
 
 
 
For new Blogger interface users, there are no instructions on how to do this because Google has apparently removed this option in the switch to the new interface and Google+ profiles .  I spent a very frustrating half an hour in the new interface trying to figure it out.  My genius computer guy husband looked for it, too, and it's not there. 
 
As far as I can tell, the only way for a new Blogger interface user to make their email address visible would be to make a temporary switch to the old interface to make the change as outlined above ... then you can switch back.  To access the old interface, click the Gear icon at the top of the new Dashboard page, select Old Blogger Interface from the drop-down menu, and you're there.
 
 
 
Speaking of the new Blogger interface ... I'm going to hold out and use the old interface as long as I can.  Google is going to have to drag me kicking and screaming to the new interface when the time comes for them to eliminate the old one.  It's not that I don't like change ... I don't mind change most of the time ... I just that don't see any of the supposed benefits that Google/Blogger is talking about with the new interface ... this sounds like the subject of a rant for another day.
 
 
Anyway ... back to the original subject of this post ...
 
Congratulations, Kelly!!
 
I know you'll love your jam.
 


11 comments:

  1. Wow that was quite a post!

    Congratulations Kelly.

    I don't know why you just didn't give up and award the jam to me. You know my email address:-)

    Maybe next year?

    xo jane

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  2. Congratulations to Kelly~ I am with you- that is my biggest pet peeve! Well, that and having to enter that stupid double word verification to leave a comment!!! xo Diana

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  3. I figured I couuld tackle my hatred of the newest version of word verification in another post. It took me seven (yes, SEVEN) tries to successfully leave a comment on a blog the other day. If I hadn't REALLY wanted to tell the blogger how much I enjoyed what she wrote, I would have given up and gone on my way.

    If you're reading this and have word verification on your blog .... turn it off. If you don't know how to do it, let me know and I'll walk you through it ... I know how to do it in both of the Blogger interfaces.

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  4. Well, darn! I've been lacking in reading your posts (shame on me!) and I could have had a chance to enter your drawing. I've never had fig jam before and I would have loved to try it :/
    Maybe next time....
    Oh, and congratulations Kelly!!

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  5. I've gotten so weary of trying to get bloggers to enable their email, I've just about given up and figure they just flat don't want to connect. I'm SO glad when it's someone besides me trying to talk some sense into them. AND YOU DID A GREAT JOB, TOO!

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  6. Gosh I will have to check it out and see if this could be me. I am pretty sure that you have emailed me though. Congrats to the winner! I am enjoying my fresh figs every morning!~Hugs, Patti

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  7. Congratulations to the winner! I checked on my new blogger and finally found where the information is about the email, but right now after I did it, I can not tell you how I got there! I am pathetic with technology, but do stick with it. So, it is possible on the new blogger, which isn't so bad, except I don't know how to size the pictures like I used to with small, medium, and large. Now they are just one size, I guess. We always seems to have upgrades at school, so I have to teach myself how to make new things work. We should have more training, but as the oldest, I may be one of the few that would really need it.♥♫

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  8. WOOT WOOT....Thanks...can't wait to taste some jam...

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  9. Glad you found a winner! I hate it when someone asks me a question and they have no reply on their comment. I never leave an answer in my own comments as I don't believe most people go back do they?? Anyway...great post!! Hugs, Linda

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  10. Oh shoot I missed it. and I have a reply account.....haha. I meant to get here after I read your post on my phone. I can't wait to get enough figs to actually make jam.
    On the no reply thing some people are happy when I let them know they need to change it and others I repeatedly tell them in a comment and they choose to ignore me. Some do it because they want traffic to their sites....thats what one person told me:(

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  11. Thank you for this service announcement... it drives me nutz too... I feel bad when I can't answer a question or thank a kind commentor directly.

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