A word about comments.....

Lovely, lovely readers. Comments have always been a massive part of the success of this blog. I read every single one and (although I am behind as I type this) I try and respond to as many as physically possible, even if it's not always immediately.

My ongoing comments and discussions with you are the best part of running this blog.

The blogger host is known for having huge spam issues though - and I receive all sorts of spam about everything from enhancing body parts to spambots trying to phish your details. Spam easily outnumbers real commenters 10-1. So on a day where I have 50 comments - there are 500 spam. I wish I was exaggerating.

There is also the issue of these things:

I don't get a lot of trolls by any stretch of the imagination, but some of them are particularly vicious and frankly, I have neither the time nor the inclination to keep giving them a voice, something which anonymous commenting provides.

So you'll notice if you've tried to leave a comment on the previous post, or this one, that you now have to log in. Most of you already do this - usually via Google+, but now it is mandatory. You will only have to register once and if you are a lovely, treasured, regular commenter *waves to all of you* it will show how often you have commented and build a profile of you. It does not reveal any personal information on your comment, just a profile picture and username. You do, however, have to leave an email, which is only seen by me. So if you want to have an intense debate/argument about something I have written, that's absolutely fine and dandy. You just need to show your face. Electronically-speaking. If, however, you don't want me to know who you are, then you may have to rethink your strategy. Sorry not sorry.

If you read the blog from your PC, you can stay logged in. You can ask to be kept informed if anyone responds to your comment - you can vote a comment up or down - it's just better. It makes it much more interactive for all of you, and me, and I'm only sorry I didn't do this 5 years ago.

I hope you understand and support the reasons behind my decision, my goal is simply to interact in an easier way with all of you without dealing with spambots and trolls. Life is too short.

Trolls - and what actually matters.

Last night I was reading some comments below posts where I had been mentioned on other sites. There were a couple of not-so-nice comments which gave me about 5 minutes of 'How very dare they?' mini-rage. *flounce*

When I woke up this morning I had a long discussion with one of my best girlfriends about the funeral arrangements for Amica. Not to come over all melodramatic but there's nothing like a death to give you perspective.

So, my feelings on (and last discussion on this blog re) trolls:

To give you (trolls), however few of you, a platform on my blog - my space - where I spend hours, literally, trying to help people with their skin/health - in however a small way possible, seems to me to be disrespectful to the literally hundreds of people who very kindly contact me via all social channels (and in toilets) to let me know how much this blog has helped them. I have no intention of giving you more attention than them. This is my platform. And theirs. If you have constructive criticism I will always reply. If you just want to be negative about me, my appearance, my age - and especially my readers - there is no room for you here.

You are not important. To me. Or my readers. I hope you are important to someone else and treat them with the kindness, because I wish you nothing but kindness. But there is no room for you here. 

So, I will leave you instead with a picture of our beautiful friend - who will remind me daily of what is important.