http://en.support.wordpress.com/comment-reply-via-email/

I've got a suggestion for the comment reply function.

First I want to tell you why...
The "problem" is the following: I've got many E-Mail followers who receive the articles per E-Mail. And in every article (in the E-Mail) there is a line above "send a reply by answering to this article" (or something like that).
But many of my readers (I think everybody) doesn't know that their answer will be send as a comment live on the web! And that's really a big problem. Because many readers think they write a personal E-Mail to me but not that they send a comment through this function...

So my suggested idea is this - and I think it's not too hard to implement it:
That there will be a simple option to deactivate the comment reply function! Because at the moment there's no option to deactivate it.

I think that this will save many problems and misunderstandings for many bloggers and readers!

Please consider it...

Best regards,
Julia

You can enable and disable comments on free hosted WordPress.com blogs on this page > Settings > Discussion
Discussion settings is where you set up defaults for comments.
http://en.support.wordpress.com/settings/discussion-settings/

You can also override the default settings and enable or disable future comments on any individual post or page.
http://en.support.wordpress.com/enable-disable-comments/

Note: By default, new blogs on WordPress.com will have the Discussion hidden. You can reveal it by clicking on Screen Options http://en.support.wordpress.com/screen-options/ on the top right corner of your Admin page, and checking the box that says Discussion so the module is included. http://en.support.wordpress.com/modules/#list-of-modules

http://en.support.wordpress.com/following-comments/

Check your Discussion Settings (Settings -> Discussion), and see how many 'levels' deep nesting of comments there is, I'd suggest making it the maximum (10). This is should be how many 'replies' each comment thread can have, and hopefully will fix the issue of not being able to reply'.

http://en.support.wordpress.com/comment-display-options/

If you do not see the blog here http://en.support.wordpress.com/my-blogs/ then
follow this guide > http://en.support.wordpress.com/my-blogs/#my-blogs-dashboard-visibility

I've been leaving replies for comments/questions on this blog. For some reason the author shows up as binxandduke, not thenewlyengaged as it did in the past. Anyone know why? Thx!

Emails that are generated BY WordPress to tell me about new comments come in a text format. No images, no Load images button. No Reply button - but I can reply via my own email server - and the on I tried didn't work - I got a message from WordPress saying they'd had a problem and to try it on the blog instead of by email.

I have tried all the subjects I can think of on Settings/ Discussions – to no avail. I have looked it up under every combination of words I can think of under Support and Forums. Nada.

It’s not my email problem - which displays both kinds – it’s somehow how they are being sent.

I would prefer to GET emails in the picture format WITH a Reply button.

Thank you!

Why did wordpress make this, earlier quite functional, page entirely useless?

I KNOW what I liked or commented on, what I want to see is what OTHER people said AFTER my comment or like on that post.

Is there some way to get the old one back?
and NO, I don't want to inundate my mail account with following everybodys comment threads, I want a page on wordpress where I can click over and see what's going on with my peeps.

That said, here are some examples of adding text using pseudo elements that you can play around with.

I see you replaced the "leave-reply" link text using this custom CSS:

.leave-reply {
	visibility: hidden;
}
.leave-reply:before {
	visibility: visible;
	content:"What'd you think? Leave a comment.";
}

Another way to do that would be to just add the first part like this:

.leave-reply:before {
	content: "What'd you think? ";
}

And if you wanted to do the same thing when some comments have already been left, you would also add this:

.comments-link:before {
	content: "What'd you think? ";
}

Or if you wanted to add "Leave your own." after the links that show the number of comment that have been left, you could add this:

.comments-link:after {
	content: " Leave your own.";
}

Can anyone help with this?

Is there any way for a reader of my blog to reply privately to me through the blog site, or is that something I need to manage through e-mail?

WordPress.com provides a secure contact form you can place on a page for exactly that purpose.

What follow are off-topic but I do think you may be interested.
You can set up email subscriptions by using this guide > http://en.support.wordpress.com/widgets/follow-blog-widget/

If you would like a follow button to appear on the bottom right hand corner of your site for those who do not have WordPress.com accounts see here >
http://en.blog.wordpress.com/2011/09/21/more-traffic-for-your-blog-with-the-follow-button/

thank you so much for your help. I tried all above options and eventually had to edit style sheet with

.page .entry-meta .comments {
display: none;
}

div#respond {
display: none;
}

This worked wonderfully. Since I have no idea about css, I hope this wont mess with my website?

div#respond {
display: none;
}

We can also override the default settings and enable or disable future comments on any individual post or page.
http://en.support.wordpress.com/enable-disable-comments/

Note 1: By default, new blogs on WordPress.com will have the Discussion hidden. You can reveal it by clicking on Screen Options http://en.support.wordpress.com/screen-options/ on the top right corner of your Admin page, and checking the box that says Discussion so the module is included. http://en.support.wordpress.com/modules/#list-of-modules

Note 2: To disable comments on already-published posts or pages, you can edit each post and uncheck the "Allow comments" setting. See http://en.support.wordpress.com/enable-disable-comments/#enabledisable-comments

.