Esotropiart

I'm thinking to write a script that would allow visitors (namely you) to check a box "Email me all responses" when posting a comment. If an email address is provided, all future comments on that particular blog entry only will be sent to this email address. Throughout the process, no emails will be given out. Email addresses appear nowhere on my site, and no email addresses would be sent out with these comment subscriptions. There would be two subscription options. The first would simply email a short notice that someone else has posted a comment to the blog entry in question - a comment made chronologically later than the subscribing comment was made. A link to the blog entry would be provided in the email for convenient browsing. The second subscription type (another check box) would send a more verbose email including the text of the blog entry followed by the various comments in order they were posted. By default, neither of these behaviors would take place unless a box is intentionally checked and a valid email address provided. Another possibility that might give paranoid people a little more peace of mind is for me to create a preferred visitor membership [free, of course]. Only people who log in with a username and password would have such subscription options (and any future features I add for members only). Only people "approved by me" would have access to these advanced site features, so there would be no risk of email abuse. If someone abused this privilege and put someone else's email address in the comment form, I would cancel their "membership", and they would no longer be able to subscribe to comments or enter an email address.

The only reason I haven't written this script already, besides being lazy, is that I am worried what people would think about privacy concerns. In reality, the only way spam or unwanted email could result is if someone posted a comment with a false email address and they check one of the subscription boxes. Then perhaps someone who had never visited my site would get these comment subscription emails. But, of course, at the bottom of the email would be a unsubscribe link anyway, so if this happened, the person would just have to click the link to be removed. If it happened numerous times, I could block particular email addresses from being entered, or I could even create a blacklist of email addresses and immediately add any unsubscribed email addresses. Plus, I would limit the subscription service to something like 30 days, so visitors wouldn't get email notifications a year later if someone posts a commet on an old blog entry.

Anyway, I might end up creating this feature just for fun and learning experience, but I am interested to see what my 5 occasional visitors would think about such a "service". Why have such a thing, you ask? Well, don't you think it's annoying to wonder whether or not anyone responded to your comment on someone else' blog? Isn't it annoying to have to visit a blog, find a particular past post and click on the read comments link to see if any comments later than your own exist? I don't even purposefully remember where and when I post comments, let alone visit again to see the responses. So I usually don't see the feedback if it exists. These issues would be immediately solved, and no one would have to visit my blog just to see if there are any responses or follow-up on your comments. You would immediately know via email. Let me know what you think and if you would like such a feature. It is one of dozens that I intend to add one of these years. A bit of positive feedback might expedite its development.