Fun New Blog Feature:  Recent Comments

Posted by The_Elves

To avoid cluttering the sidebar, we've decided not to display recent comments there. Instead, we've created a page where you can view the most recent comments to keep up with which articles are generating discussion. Here's the link: http://www.kendallharmon.net/t19/index.php/t19/comments/

Although there is no search feature (yet? maybe we can add one, eventually) on this page, for the meantime, you can use the "find on this page" feature of your browser (look under the Edit menu in Internet Explorer or Firefox) and thus find comments containing certain text, or comments by a certain user.

We're really pleased with how this has turned out. Let us know how it works for you all and any suggestions for making it even more useful. We will see if we can add search capacity within a few days. We're also wondering if we might be able to add a calendar feature to facilitate displaying all comments for a given date. We would be glad to have you all brainstorm with us and suggest ideas. Some of the best features we've been able to design so far have been the direct result of reader requests and ideas.

P.S. Don't forget, you can also use the Advanced Search feature to see which blog entries have the most recent comments.

As an example:
1. enter "the" (without the quotes) in the keyword section
2. choose search in "Titles, Entries, and Comments"
3. Select TitusOneNine in the weblog box
4. On the right in the "Sort Results By" box, select Most Recent Comments

(You could also specify a date range if you liked, or a specific category, such as Anglican - Episcopal)



Filed under: * Admin • Blog Tips & Features

13 Comments
Posted June 20, 2007 at 3:15 pm [Printer Friendly] [Print w/ comments]



1. KAR wrote:

Oh Joy excaim

Now we can follow all the various fights ... I mean passionate-discourse-in-love with ease cool smile

June 20, 3:25 pm | [comment link]
2. Words Matter wrote:

This is as good a place as any for a public mea culpa. The emailed comments were a source of fussing on my part at first, what with littering my precious inbox and all. Of course, I never remembered to uncheck the little box about getting notifications, but then I found that I could set the default to not receive them. Of course, I didn’t get around to that, and now I really like the notifications. Filtered to their own mailbox, they make it easy to follow the battles…er…discussions…

So… I repent!  red face

June 20, 3:57 pm | [comment link]
3. Pageantmaster [Free Archbishop Cranmer] wrote:

Wonderful - just what I was looking for and I see that one can go back to the time one last came in and follow comments forward.

When one enters the new gold standard T19 site it is to come through mahogany doors with brass fittings into a world of deep carpets and comfortable armchairs; of air-conditioned comfort with one’s every care seamlessly and discretely looked after by courteous elves.  A perfect place to settle down and catch up with the news over a cup of coffee.

Ahh! Bliss!

June 20, 3:58 pm | [comment link]
4. Words Matter wrote:

Meant to ask: is there a way to subscribe to a thread without making a comment? Sorry if I overlooked it, but that’s happened a couple of time.

June 20, 4:02 pm | [comment link]
5. The_Elves wrote:

Words Matter, no need to apologize.  I think it probably helped many that we explained how to turn off the e-mail notification.
I’m not aware of a way to subscribe to the e-mail notifications if you haven’t left a comment, but I’ll experiment and see what I can discover.

PageantMaster, thank you for the very kind words, and so glad the blog is proving a comfortable and user-friendly place.  We’re so pleased with how it is shaping up and thankful for the helpful feedback from so many readers.

June 20, 4:11 pm | [comment link]
6. Pageantmaster [Free Archbishop Cranmer] wrote:

Great work elves - and I have book-marked the page by adding the link to my favorites as TitusOneNine comments complete with ribbon.
That has enormous style.

June 20, 4:21 pm | [comment link]
7. Simon Sarmiento wrote:

Am I missing something, or is there no RSS feed for all comments, like there used to be on the old blog?

I found that by far the easiest way to read (well, scan) the comments.

June 20, 4:44 pm | [comment link]
8. The_Elves wrote:

Simon, no you’re not missing anything.  There is no RSS feed for comments (Yet, anyway).  It was way high on the elves’ wish list too, but in all our search of Expression Engine documentation on the web, and looking at other Expression Engine blogs, we haven’t seen comment RSS feed!

This creation of this separate comments page (with its own URL) may be a step towards creating a comments RSS feed.  Stay tuned.

And if any of our readers knows Expression Engine well and knows anything about RSS Comment feeds with this software, we’d be grateful for advice.  Greg G. was stumped when we asked him.

June 20, 4:53 pm | [comment link]
9. Pageantmaster [Free Archbishop Cranmer] wrote:

Perhaps Simon knows - he is a bit of a whiz on both his site Thinking Anglicans and some of the CofE’s sites

June 20, 5:06 pm | [comment link]
10. Greg Griffith wrote:

Not stumped - just short on time. I’m pretty sure I know how to create the RSS feed for comments.

June 20, 7:48 pm | [comment link]
11. The_Elves wrote:

Thanks Greg.  Sorry to post anything incorrect or cast aspersions on your expertise!!  I must have misunderstood you at some point 2 weeks ago.  At this point, the RSS feed for comments isn’t as high a priority since the new comments page is the functional equivalent.

You’re the best,
elfgirl

June 20, 8:18 pm | [comment link]
12. Pageantmaster [Free Archbishop Cranmer] wrote:

Dear Elves
Is there any possibility of posting this link somewhere prominent on the side of the main page so that it is easy to cross link from the main page please.
Many thanks.

June 21, 6:23 pm | [comment link]
13. The_Elves wrote:

Pageantmaster,  Thanks.
Yes.  We’re planning that.  I need to do quite a bit of housekeeping over in the blog admin / tips section of the sidebar.  Probably tomorrow or Sat.  Too beat tonight.
Keep bugging us if you don’t see it soon.

June 21, 6:48 pm | [comment link]
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