Thursday 02 May 2002
Anyone care to comment?
In all of the hullabaloo about decentralized blogging tools, no-one seems to have addressed the issue of comments. Although “chat” was mentioned a couple of times, perhaps as another name for comments.
As far as I’m aware—and I know someone will correct me if I’m wrong—even if you configure Radio to post to your own site instead of the UserLand server (radio.weblogs.com), the comments on your posts (assuming you’ve activated that feature in Radio) will be stored on the radiocomments.userland.com server. The free Radio Community Server supports comments but setting up RCS just to handle comments is probably overkill for many users.
So it really depends on the individual configuration as to whether Radio is decentralized or not (which is the only conclusion one can draw from reading carefully through all the comments on Burningbird’s two separate posts on the subject).
One of the things I love about Movable Type is that comments are stored on my server (and I can back them up along with my weblog entries). Better still, I get an email every time someone comments on a post, whereas with Radio, I had to check several times a day (by keeping a mental tally of the number of comments on individual posts and noting whether any of those numbers had changed).
Is it important? Obviously that depends on how you regard comments. Though initially I was skeptical, I now believe they add a whole layer of value to one’s weblog. Before I switched to MT, I felt like a party host who only occasionally paid attention to his guests. It wasn’t any surprise, then, that everyone ended up at Burningbird’s place—she really is the hostess with the mostest. But now I feel I can be more gracious to the visitors who do take the time and trouble to comment when they visit.
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I probably wouldn't enjoy the whole experience as much if it weren't for comments... they're a level of interactivity with readers that make the whole thing worthwhile, in my view.
I was pretty sad to see my YACCS comments disappear after my recent move to MT, but in a burst of brilliance, Phil found a way to import YACCS comments into MT.
This makes me think, once people realize it's now possible - that there will be more moves to MT. Dunno. But I love the MT commenting system as well... I love the whole friggin' thing.
One can use YACCS fairly easily with Radio--just not automatically as with UserLand's hosted comments.
But then, I'm the type who wonders why everyone obfuscates comments pages with JavaScript links that obstinately refuse to work in my browser more often than not, so I probably notice such things.
I didn't consider using YACCS with Radio because I assumed that the comments were stored on the YACCS server, similar to Radio comments. Though, given Shannon's experience, it's clear you can get access to the comments.
I note in their FAQ that although they don't have email notification it is possible to set up a kind of notification via XML/RSS. That's certainly a kludge compared to MT's method.
Yes, I certainly prefer MT's comments to YACCS, although it was great for Blogger. I feel a little more ... sophisticated now, with all of that yummy MT goodness.
Jonathon, a minor peeve with your new comments system: it's inaccessible without javascript, so google can't index it. But perhaps that's intentional.
Zem, I've just checked the MT documentation, which doesn't mention comments without JavaScript, so you're almost certainly correct. I'd be more than happy to have Google index the comments (assuming the commenters didn't mind) but I'm willing to trade that for the email notification.
As of version 2.1, javascript isn't required for the comment pop-up links.
Check out the default templates to see the changes made to the code.
And, additionally, there is also the option of embedding your comments on your archive pages (rather than in a pop-up window).
This discussion is now closed. My thanks to everyone who contributed.
© Copyright 2002-2003 Jonathon Delacour
I probably wouldn't enjoy the whole experience as much if it weren't for comments... they're a level of interactivity with readers that make the whole thing worthwhile, in my view.
I was pretty sad to see my YACCS comments disappear after my recent move to MT, but in a burst of brilliance, Phil found a way to import YACCS comments into MT.
This makes me think, once people realize it's now possible - that there will be more moves to MT. Dunno. But I love the MT commenting system as well... I love the whole friggin' thing.
Posted by: Shannon on 3 May 2002 at 01:44 AM