This blog is slowly growing up and getting more complex.  Today I have fixed the SMTP issue that meant I didn’t know when I had comments to approve and added a change that should send you an email when your comment has “cleared” moderation and then will send you an auto-reply when someone else comments on that blog post.  Two plugins and one email address was created to make this functional.

First, I installed and activated a plugin called Configure SMTP that moved the mail function out of PHP and onto the SMTP protocol that I know a bit more about.  This also allowed for much more granular mail settings, including using gmail as an SMTP relay.   In order to do this, a functional gmail account needs to be setup.  If you get an email from teamjuchems@gmail.com in the future, now you will know why 🙂

Second, the WP Comment Auto Responder plugin was downloaded and activated.  This should, theoretically, do a better job of keeping you in the loop as far as comments go and also email me when comments are posted.  Previously, I would only get emails when a comment was awaiting moderation.

Remember to add teamjuchems@gmail.com to your address book!  Getting these emails will be worth it, I promise 😀

–Nat