Manage your TUAW commenter profile

We've had a few inquiries on our tip line and feedback form in the past few days about managing your TUAW commenter profile. Whenever you leave a comment on a TUAW post, an account is created for you using the name and email address that you use in the "New Readers" tab in the comment field.

You wil receive an email with a subject line that reads: "The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW): Please confirm your comment." The body of the email will ask you to "Please activate your comments by clicking the following URL." That request is followed by a fairly random looking URL such as "http://www.tuaw.com/confirm/ d3c2c40709244bdab990689e484f419c/".

Once you do that, you will receive another email with a subject line that says "Thanks for confirming your account on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)." Save that email message! It will contain your email address and a randomly generated password.

Read on for some FAQs and more commenter tips.

When you want to leave a comment on another post, you can use the "Returning" tab of the comment field. Use your email address and password and then leave your comment. It should automatically be posted without having to be confirmed via email.

Q: "What do I do if I can't remember my password?"

A: Simply use the "New Reader" tab, and enter your name and email address. When you receive the email asking you to activate your comment, it will include your password.

Q: "What if I want to change my password?"

A: That's a little trickier. You need to go to your profile URL, which is something like http://www.tuaw.com/profile/3003380/. You can find your profile URL by finding a comment that you have previously posted and clicking on your name, as shown below.

Clicking on that URL will take you to the "Profile Page" for that commenter, which will include a link that asks you to verify your identity. It will say "Are you (name)? If So, Login Here." Click on the link, and enter your password. Once you're logged in, there is a "Change Password" link (There's also a link to add a profile picture, but it isn't working at the moment.).

Q: "What if there's an offensive or spammy comment in the thread?"

A: Every comment has a 'Report' button that will bring the comment to an editor's attention. This feature should be used for spam/malware, profane/inappropriate comments, threadjacking to promote products, or other well out-of-bounds remarks. It should not be used as a generic "I don't agree with this commenter" pull cord. We know that discussions in the TUAW comments can sometimes get heated, but reporting someone just for strong or contrarian opinions isn't helpful.

We welcome feedback and suggestions about our comment system; however, please be aware that we share our comment-management infrastructure with the other Weblogs sites, so overall improvements and changes are sometimes a little more challenging to implement than they would be if we could just press buttons and tweak settings for our own little corner of the Web.