When You Setup Commenting On Your Blog, Enter Email Addresses Properly

We've known for a while the frustration (and conversely, the mystery) caused by incorrectly entering your email address for your Blogger account. There are other ways to cause frustration (and mystery) also, when incorrectly entering an email address.

In Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken, we occasional see the bewildered question

Why do I get comments for another blog, in my email?

and the frustrated question

Why do I not get comments for my blog, in my email?

Both questions are, frequently, just two sides of the same problem.

In Settings - Comments, we see two very important options.

• Comment moderation: Email address.

  We will email you at this address when a non-member leaves a comment on your blog. Leave blank if you don't want to receive these emails.

• Comment Notification Email.

  You can enter up to ten email addresses, separated by commas. We will email these addresses when someone leaves a comment on your blog.

Both of these options let comments, posted by you or somebody else, generate email to the recipient, as specified.

Neither option is verified. If you enter your email address (or maybe your friend's email address), you (or maybe your friend) get the email resulting from the comments. If you enter a stranger's email address, the stranger gets the email (and you don't get the email).

If you aren't getting email, when you should, you can check (and correct) your mistake. If you're getting email for somebody else, that other person needs to check (and correct) his mistake. Who the other person is, you'll never know. You could contact the owner, by leaving a comment on his blog, right? Wrong.