Care to comment?

Edited to Add: Robin over at Pensieve has a nice post about this Blogger backlash with a good list of other folks writing about it. Just spreading the Linky Love - ironically, of course.

So, as usual, folks are getting the Hate On over Blogger and the newest complaint regarding Blogger is baffling me completely. Folks are mad, nay furious, because they cannot link directly to their sites in the comments section. I did not realize this was a recent change and I was not aware that Blogger had even allowed direct linkage before - it was definitely news to me so I misunderstood it at first. Besides, just last spring, I had to turn off non-registered comments when I found myself to have acquired my first troll. I hated doing that because it did require folks to register with Blogger in order to comment. However, at the time I did not have the patience to deal with a troll or to begin moderating my comments.

So, it appears folks are suggesting Haloscan as a solution. I used Haloscan in the past and did have a great experience with it. They went through a period of time where it was exploding in mid-air, so I switched back to Blogger comments. I do not necessarily regret it because Haloscan does not keep your comments forever - if that is important to you, I cannot recommend Haloscan. Also, switching to Haloscan will blow away your previous entries' comments as well. It is just something to consider if you are going to switch.

I am not going to sit here and pretend that Blogger is perfect, but it is usable and free, to boot. I feel compelled to defend a free product that for the most part, works quite well. I have used Typepad and Wordpress for other blogs and I do not understand why folks rave about them being so superior to Blogger. Frankly, I have used Wordpress for two different blogs and both experiences were frustrating. I am still struggling with it on my food blog which is frustrating because I would rather be writing posts, then screwing around with the settings and such. And Typepad? It was okay when I used it a few years ago, but I could not justify paying for it. However, I will admit that I just want to write a blog. All I desire is to write meaningless crap about my life. I am not into site design and adding widgets and fancy stuff into this place. I realize that makes my blog fairly boring and probably contributes to my low readership. I also know that just the fact that I do not have my own URL has automatically relegated me to a lower status in some social circles. So, it is not like I count myself as serious or anything like that. But I am having fun over here and that is my #1 criteria for blogging - I need to find it fun or I cannot justify this hobby.

So, I still do not understand what the fuss is about - I have a Blogger profile set up for my FoodieBytes Wordpress blog and in that profile I have set up linkage back to the FoodieBytes site. As such, we are seeing traffic going to the FoodieBytes so it is apparent this setup works. Would it be more convenient if folks could link directly to the site from my comment? Of course, but I know lots of sites that require registration and it has not prevented me from commenting. For example, I do not see anyone bringing the Hate On at Alphamom because they require comment registration.

Since I am not willing to switch back to Haloscan and yet again, lose all my past comments, I am going to just open comments again to unregistered users. It seems that way you can enter a "nickname". If you do not wish to register with Blogger, you can use the nickname field to enter your name and url. Oh sure, we will not be able to link directly to you, but holy crap folks! It takes 2 seconds to select text and paste it into a URL field. If someone is willing to take the time to comment on my site, I am willing to take the time to cut n' paste to check out their site. That would only be fair.