[Geek] Blog Update – Subscribe to comments

I’ve added a new feature, based on a recent discussion about LiveJournal. That is, the ability to subscribe to comments.

This means when you leave a comment on my blog, you can be notified (via email, if you entered a valid address) when someone else posts a comment on the same topic.

I’m working on adding a threaded comment list as well, but I have to hack it up a bit. It’s designed for a white background, so I have to convert the collapse images into their inverse. Problem is that stupid IE can’t handle Alpha channels in PNG, so it can’t deal with the transparancy. So I added a fix (via javascript) to each page to handle IE’s crappy alpha support. Now the problem is that the fix prevents the image from being clickable, which means IE users can’t collapse/expand the threads. I think I might just wind up saying screw it, and letting the IE users suffer. I just have to redo the whole css for the dang thing so it matches my colors and layout the way I already had it.

Current Mood: (cynical) cynical

8 Replies to “[Geek] Blog Update – Subscribe to comments”

  1. You know, after “This means when you leave a comment on my blog, you can be notified (via email, if you entered a valid address) when someone else posts a comment on the same topic.”
    I just have no clue of what you said…

  2. Wow!!! Duncan, I had no clue you are SUCH a Geek!!! Damn! and you seem like such a normal Joe, for a puffy pant wearing fencer-LOL
    Although this of course just gives me another person to holler for help from when I goof my comp-LOL

  3. You know, after “This means when you leave a comment on my blog, you can be notified (via email, if you entered a valid address) when someone else posts a comment on the same topic.”
    I just have no clue of what you said…

    What it means is, that when you posted that comment, if you entered your email address and you subscribed to the comments (turned on by default), you should ge t an email when I post this comment.

    One of the faults with the comment system on LJ is that only the author gets notified when someone comments. This forces you as a reader to constantly reread comments, just in case someone replied to one of your comments.

    With a ‘per topic’ subscription, you will only get notified on my blog if someone comments on a post in which you previous commented. Does that make sense?

    Granted, if you didn’t subscribe, you won’t get this notice, so it might be a moot point. Though if I don’t hear back from you, I might cut/paste this comment into an email and send it to you.

  4. Wow Duncan, I had no clue you are SUCH a Geek Damn! and you seem like such a normal Joe, for a puffy pant wearing fencer-LOL
    Although this of course just gives me another person to holler for help from when I goof my comp-LOL

    Yeah, I not only work on computers for a living, I play with them in my spare time too.

    I notice that no one is entering a website when they post their comment. If they do, then their name turns into a link. It would be a good place to put the URL of your LJ blog for example.. hint hint.

    Other future improvements for the comment system will be the support of Gravatars. These are avatars which travel with you from blog to blog, or anyplace that supports them. Though I don’t think LJ supports them, which means it’s only useful to those readers who go to other sites. Alternately, you could take a few seconds to sign up for a Gravatar with your LJ icon, and then it’s available for you in the future. We’ll cross that bridge when I come to it.

    Another is support for openID. This is a verification system that allows people’s comments to truly belong to them and be verified, rather than someone being able to pretend they are you.

    I’ll probably need to enable spam-bot protection on these comments too at some time, since I turned moderation off.

  5. like that? And I have to say…
    Gods, Duncan-not only are you a geek, you are like a Geek God!!! Damn, I’m so technically impaired that if I can’t point and click it’s not going to happen and I’m scared to try to clean up the junk in my comp for fear of breaking it. But I know I need to do so since it’s moving slower and slower.

    I bow to your knowledge. But it’s one of those bows of respect and fear like the natives gave to the sailors who had gun powder. Eeck!

  6. Yeah, but now I realized a shortcoming of the CSS, in that it makes the name be that hard to read brown. So I’ll have to make it be the same off-white as before, but underline it or something, so folks know it’s a link.

    BTW, you put your URL in wrong. You missed a . between your name and livejournal.
    It should be http://katyaehal.livejournal.com/

  7. see told you I’m impaired.

    And upon further inspection and trying to remember what you look like-yes, you’re avatar does look like you.

  8. So is this hosted on LiveJournal or embedded in your site?

    Poking around on LJ, it looks like you need to be an upgraded user to customize. But it also looks like you can download the opensource via CVS? I’m guessing you’re done one of those and have embedded in your site?

Leave a Reply