Sorry, I don't have a regular post today as I spent most of the day yesterday at the hospital with Rebecca for a check-up, and I'll blog about children's hospitals tomorrow.
Today I'll discuss briefly a new tool in the comments section. This isn't a technical post about a TypePad service, which would be far beyond my abilities, but if this topic isn't for you, you might still want to skim the last part (after the photo of the ornamental peach blossoms).
And the photos of flowers? As I said, I spent a lot of time in a hospital and I needed a lift, and we've been doing more of this, and ... these photos wouldn't really be a good fit in any other post!
I've switched to TypePad Connect, which allows threaded commenting and email notification. I've seen it around for several months now, but assumed it was a specialized service, until I noticed it creeping all over the place, like here , here and here.
You don't need to be a TypePad subscriber to use this service. If you haven't registered for a free TypePad profile already, you can do it here, and read about the platforms it supports.
Now, I realize threaded commenting makes more sense in blogs where the topics feed real discussions. However, the email notification is a very clever feature, and is the reason why - after carrying on conversations via email regarding drying herbs, etc - I decided to connect my blog, and why I recommend it: when a commenter leaves a question, the reply goes directly to their email in-box as well as in the comments section of the blog. How many times have you, as a commenter, left a question on a post and never got around to returning there and searching among the comments to see whether there'd been a reply? Naturally, this service also allows the blog author to reply to the comment, for the edification of the commenter and other readers alike.
One word of caution to TypePad Connect members: once you sign up with TypePad Connect, all the comments you leave on all blogs accepting TypePad Connect will be displayed OUT OF CONTEXT in your public profile, accessible by clicking on your userpic next to your comment. There are many benefits, listed and described here, and you definitely want to read and consider them carefully.
Personally, once I realized this I quickly unchecked my "recent activity module": among my listed comments, in fact, there was a very cultural one about portraits of pregnant Madonnas in Renaissance art that made me look really cool, but also one left on this blog on the use of sanitary pads that, out of context, made me look like a moron (the context was how to avoid certain products in order to save planetary resources, in case you were wondering).
