Sorry about not noticing recent comments! My comment alert system is extremely stupid.
Probably because of finite free development time, isso doesn't email via the local mail system like cron does. Instead, it uses smtp and asks you to put your password in plain text in a config file. The developer suggests you use a throwaway email.
So, I do just that with a Gmail account. However, Gmail considers this "unsecure access", so every time isso sends a notification to me about a comment via smtp, I don't get that message. Instead, I get a "critical security warning" from Google.
This is how I know someone has posted a comment.
The warning asks me to go in and verify that the SMTP access was actually OK. Until I do that, it passes on no further SMTP messages. Usually I do this, but sometimes I forget, then I don't get Critical Security Warnings telling me that someone's posted a comment.
I think the easiest way to get reliable notices is to write a job on the server than counts rows in the comment db, then uses just plain `mail` to let me know if the count has change.