My Desperate Plea: Blogger Comment Advice Needed

*Update:  I'm beyond thankful for all of the suggestions I received from so many of you!  I think after looking at the options, my best course of action for now will be to reply directly through email to comments.  I will reply through my comment form only if it's a comment that doesn't need a specific answer or if the commenter is not attached to an email address.  As always, feel free to email me directly, as well.  If you're interested in a couple of good blogs that cover this topic a little more in-depth, feel free to check out The Blogger Tutor and Threading My Way.  

If you're a regular around this blog, you may have noticed a little bit of confusion on my part lately.

I've been slowly working to tidy up the place a little by making fancier tabs to organize the projects.  This will hopefully make it easier for you to find projects that were posted in the past.

I feel like this transition went pretty smoothly.



I even, finally, got onto the Google+ boat!  That link will take you to my Google+ page!  Or, you can find it over with my new, fancy social media buttons on the right side, there. I also feel like that jump went really well.  I'm having a lot of fun with Google+.  It seems to be way more "blogger friendly" than my FaceBook page.  Although, I'm still not sure the most efficient way to share other's posts with Google+...

So, where's all the confusion?  Oy!  It's the comments!!

I have gone from the usual "Blogger" setup for comments: It works well, I like that I can get an email update each time someone leaves a comment.  The problem is, when I reply to that comment on my blog, unless they check back to read it, they'll never see it!  Boo....

So, I noticed there was a quick and easy click of the mouse to switch my comments over to Google+. This seemed amazing until I received an email from a lovely reader explaining that she couldn't leave a comment because she hadn't set up her Google+, yet.  Sigh... She's not the only one!  I mean, I JUST signed up myself.  I definitely don't want make it so someone who wants to get in touch, can't!

I think at this point I went back to regular blogger comments, again.

Then, I realized I was getting these awesome emails from bloggers who I had left comments with.  They were using a plug-in called Disqus!  So I installed this plug-in and I felt satisfied with it... except all of my comments were appearing in my inbox as if I left them myself.  That was frustrating.  But at least it still looked okay on the blog... Then, I found out that it was too much of a process to be able to leave a comment.  People saw the Disqus plug-in and they'd rather not deal with it.  I don't blame them!  Time is precious!  Oh, and now that I've deleted Disqus... It looks like I'm leaving myself comments! hahah ohhh the joy of blogging.

So I've deleted that and I'm back to the regular blogger comments, again.  I don't want to appear as a "no-reply blogger" because I really do appreciate each and every comment that is left and I do respond.  But why would you go back to a post you've already read just to see if I've responded...?  Sigh...

I need help!  What do you use for a comment form?  Are you happy with it?  Are you able to sufficiently interact with your readers?  I've googled and googled and I need to rely on those who really know!!  (That's you!)

Thank you so much in advance!
Janice