I just found out that WordPress ‘helpfully’ enabled a program which now tells me it has deleted over 500 comments to this blog WITHOUT TELLING ME OR GIVING ME THE CHANCE TO MODERATE THEM. Since that is the main way my clients contact me, it is not good. I have changed the settings so that I get all comments now, so if you have written to me here and I have not responded, it is because WordPress never showed me the comment, so please try again or email me at laughingdakinimusic at yahoo dot com.
If you have a WordPress blog and fear this is happening to you, it is indeed unless you changed the setting for ‘akismet’.
Best wishes–Donnalee
Thanks all.
Laughing Dakini Tarot : Readings by Donnalee of Laughing Dakini Tarot 
Thank you for letting us know.
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Oh no, that sucks!
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Completely. I was shocked and really angry. I saw someone else’s blog that said akismet had blocked half a million comments to their site, and I thought, ‘NOBODY BETTER BE DOING THAT ON MINE!” but it was. The wordpress chat person was helpful, so it might be worth checking in with them if you can’t find the right controls on your own and want to see what is going on with your site’s comments in that regard.
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I’ll definitely have to look into that.
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Good idea.
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I think that especially with folks who might not want to give full names or other information like some of my clients, it is terrible to cut them off without me even knowing who tried to get in touch. I feel so bad that anyone would think that I ignored them or didn’t bother to get back to them or felt they were spam.
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Oh for sure.
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Thanks for the heads-up!
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Well spotted and I bet there’s a few out there who are thankful for you sharing.
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Thanks. I think they just presume too much in not asking those with a paid account what we’d like.
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I’d noticed some comments were being badly treated, whilst a few others, clearly spam, were creeping in. Thanks for the heads up, I’ll look at my settings. It must be annoying if you rely on it for business.
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Yes, and my clients often use rather disposable email accounts here, with my knowledge and consent: they range from regular old folks, to those with multiple personalities, to famous folks, so especially when they leave feedback, I am open to using whatever ititials or name they feel comfortable with. That is why I moderate all comments, or *thought* I was moderating ALL comments!
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The best laid plans of mice and men…
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They gang everywhere, agley and who knows where else–
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🙂
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Thanks for the heads-up. Will check my comments folder and settings at once …
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Oh I just found one of your comments in my spam filter and rescued it- but yeah, it’s such a pain this happens all the time.
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That sucks. I don’t know anything about akismet or how to deal with such problems. Is there free help for free would users? Tips on how to tell if it’s on? Thanks.
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It apparently is automatically on, which bugs me. I went to this page https://en.support.wordpress.com/widgets/akismet-widget/ and it just says in an annoying creepy way that it stays on and that’s it, as if it’sgood for everyone so we shouldn’t question it. So I clicked on the contact us or get more help thing on the bottom of that page. I eventually had to get a chat function going–I don’t know how, other than on that page that says help at the bottom of the link I enclosed. Be warned that when I said in chat that I wanted it off, they acted very creepy, saying something that comes across like “but, infant, it helps you. Why would you not want that?” You have to be strong and make it clear that you want to choose. Then they show you where to find the choices, which are strict/on already and then less-strict, which gives you the comments to moderate. Good luck. I’m sorry I don’t have a direct link that may be better, but the one about contact them should help. Since I turned it off, I have gotten less spam, by the way.
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Reblogged this on Penney Vanderbilt and KC Jones: All About Railroads.
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Sounds like them lol. 😄
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