If You've Left Me A Comment and I Haven't Responded, Here's Why...(blogger problems)

Update: I also just noticed a ton of comments in my dashboard under "awaiting moderation." I had no idea these comments were there. All comments are supposed to go directly to my gmail account, but for some reason, a lot of them are going to my "awaiting moderation" page and NOT to my gmail. I can publish them from the dashboard, but there's no way to reply to them from there. Does anyone else have comments in the awaiting moderation that they don't get emailed to them?

I've always had my comments go to awaiting moderation, otherwise I get too much spam, but they've always been delivered to my gmail account as well, until now.

Hi everyone! So, I noticed lately I haven't been getting as many comments as usual. I didn't think a lot of it as I know we're all very busy, especially this time of year. 

Then, thankfully, my friend Stacey politely asked if I got her comment the other day. I didn't and I told her I was beginning to wonder if I had upset her in some way because I checked back and I hadn't received a comment from her since January. She explained that she had left a comment on every post, but when she went back to check, they never posted. (And she assured my I hadn't upset her, thank goodness! I was really worried about that!)

I'm SO glad she brought this to my attention. At first I couldn't figure out what happened. I do have to approve every comment before it posts, so sometimes it takes awhile for it to post, but not usually more than an hour or so. My phone alerts me to each new comment, (as does my computer) so when a new one comes in, I can usually read it and post it pretty quickly, then go back and reply to it when I'm at home or as soon as I have time. 

Then I thought to check my spam folder. Oh. My. Goodness!!!!!!!! There were HUNDREDS of comments from lots of you in my spam folder! The only thing I can figure is that a few months ago, I kept getting a comment from this same company and it was obviously spam and there was no email address to reply to. Their comment came in as "no reply." 

I got tired of these constant comments from this same company, so instead of deleting them, I finally marked them as "spam." Well, I guess that made ALL my "no reply" comments go to my spam folder. 

I'm guessing if I mark one "no reply" comment as spam, it automatically marks ALL my "no reply" comments as spam? 

Most of you know if there's no email address attached to your comment, it makes you a "no reply" person. As in, there's "no way to reply" to your comment. (a lot of Google Plus people are "no reply" too. I think the default setting in Google Plus is to automatically make you a no-reply person, and you actually have to go into your settings to change it to include your email address) Anyway, normally this isn't a problem because I totally allow anonymous and "no reply" comments. 

If you're a no reply person, here's how it works...I'll receive your comment via email through my Gmail account, but there's no email listed to reply to you with, so I'll publish your comment, then I'll just reply to it within my own comments section. (you just have to check back in the comments section to see my reply) That's no big deal and I always welcome no reply and anonymous comments. I myself was a "no reply person" before I had a blog, so I totally understand. :) 

And of course if you're not a "no reply" and there IS an email associated with your comment, I'll receive it through my Gmail account, publish it, and just hit "reply" and respond to your comment via email.

Oh, and also, a while back, Blogger automatically added "word verification" to everyone's comment section where it asks you to "prove you're not a robot" and enter a series of numbers and letters before you can comment. I never added that, it was done automatically by Blogger, but you don't really have to do it. You can just leave your comment like you used to, and hit "publish" and it'll publish without you having to enter those mixed up letters and numbers. 

So anyway, I'm thinking that when I marked that one "no reply" comment as "spam" it ran with it and started marking ALL my no reply comments as spam? What's weird is that it also started marking a few others (including Stacey's) as spam and they're NOT "no reply" people or anonymous. So strange. 

I pulled up one of the no reply comments that was in my spam folder and marked it as "not spam." Then I went into my settings and it was still set to receive ALL comments, including anonymous and no reply. 

Hopefully it's fixed now and I'll start receiving all my comments again. I'm SO sorry if you've left me a comment and I haven't replied. Please know that I wasn't even aware you'd left me a comment because so many of them were going straight to spam. Ugh. I feel terrible that so many of you probably thought I was just being rude by not replying to you. 

My spam folder only showed me the comments that were in it for the last 30 days, so if you left a comment before that, I never saw it. 

If you asked a question and I didn't reply it's because I didn't get your comment. If you don't mind, just comment again or email me and I'll be more than happy to answer. :)

I know there are a lot of you who regularly comment but recently showed up in my spam folder, so if you don't mind, would you please leave a comment on this post so I can see if I receive it and it's working? As usual, I'll reply to all comments, so if you don't see a reply from me, I didn't get it and I'll keep working to fix it.

Comments are one of the best parts of blogging and I appreciate each and every one of them. I love the interaction we have and the relationships we've created. Hopefully those of you who have left comments recently, but haven't gotten a reply will see this and know that it wasn't intentional. 

I know several people thought I wasn't replying to their comments, but when they went back to the post, they saw my reply right under their comment in the comments section. So if I reply to your comment in the comment section, that means you don't have an email address attached and that's the only way I have of replying. :) 

Do you think I could have said the word "comment"  and "no reply" any more than I did in this post?! Lol!

If anyone has any tips for me on this issue, (or if you've had the same thing happen and were able to fix it) please let me know. I'll take all the blogger advice I can get. :) 

~Lisa