For the past while, almost everyone who has left a comment on my blog has been identified as either “Someone” or “Anonymous”. This bothered me because each and every one of you is important to me. I want to know who you are and I want to be able to address you by name when I reply.

It took me longer than it should have to figure out what the problem was, but I think (I hope) that it’s now been resolved. It appears that something in my settings had been inadvertently changed and commenters were no longer being asked to identify themselves by name and email address. Without that information, WordPress simply calls you “Someone” or “Anonymous”.

There are several valid reasons for asking commenters to identify themselves and leave their email addresses. The biggest concern is that requiring less information makes it extremely easy for spam bots to leave comments and almost impossible to filter them out. This can become a nightmare for a blogger.

I know that some of you might be hesitant about leaving your email addresses and given the number of cyber security issues that one hears about these days, I can hardly blame you. I want to assure you, however, that your email address will not be shared with anyone other than myself and that you will not receive any unsolicited emails. If you’re uncomfortable giving your full name, please feel free to use your first name only or even a nickname if you prefer.