Tuesday's Tip - Check your Spam Folder!

Have you ever had someone email you about possible family links or one of your blog posts only to never be heard from again? I suspect my responses are winding up in their Spam or Junk folders a lot of the time.

Almost all email tools have a Spam or Junk folder where your email provider attempts to route emails it thinks are spam. The problem is that legitimate emails can get routed here too. I check my Spam folder daily and find at least one or two legitimate emails a week. In the case of my Yahoo email, I can designate the legitimate email as "Not Spam" and it will be moved to my Inbox.

Blog posts can also be routed to a Spam folder. Blogger divides comments into Published, Awaiting Moderation and Spam. It's a good idea to check the Blogger Spam folder once in a while just to make sure you didn't miss a valid comment.

To check for spam comments on your blog, first go to your Design page. For my blog, a Design button is visible on the top right of my blog page, but your location may vary depending on your template. This is the page where you can customize your blog template and settings. Once you're there, select "Comments" from the list in the left-hand column and you should see a list of Published Comments. The left-hand column has selections for Published, Awaiting Moderation, and Spam. Click on Spam and from there you can review any comments in the Spam folder. Since I started moderating my comments, I haven't received any comments in the Spam folder, but I suppose it's still possible.

My most recent contact was someone requesting more information about a Creedon family that was in the Guion Miller rolls. I emailed back to tell him that I would scan the rest of the information and to watch for another email. I didn't hear back which should have been a clue. I went ahead and scanned and sent the information, but didn't hear back again. Did he receive it and not answer? Or did it wind up in his Spam folder? I'll probably never know!