Blog - Movable Type AddComment plugin

Adding comments manually is one way, but it must annoy you :(

And if it was anyone else’s blog but yours I wouldn’t want to use the e-mail address I’m using right now just to send a comment, for fear of getting spammed myself...

Is it difficult to build in comment verification? Like this: http://saxonica.blogharbor.com/blog/_archives/2006/6/15/2033435.html (interesting read if you’re using xslt2 btw ;)

Posted by Erik on June 19, 2006 at 20:24

It's easy to put in that kind of verification (there are plenty of plugins that do so), but the problem is that any request to the comment script still uses server CPU and hits the database, even if it's to be rejected as being spam. The spam trouble I had a few days ago is beyond that, as there were so many requests that it took all of my allowed CPU usage and database connections, apparently. It's cheap shared hosting after all.

The only choice I was left was to cut all access to the comments script, so my only solution to keep comments is to go manual. Luckily, it's not so much work with the plugin I made up, and there's truly zero spam. :)

Anyway, don't hesitate to send comments. You can also cut & paste the provided template to your favorite webmail (you don't have to use your default email application)... or just email me the old way. :)

Posted by Patrick on June 19, 2006 at 21:17

In numbers, I have had 12500+ posts to my comments script this month so far. Even after the comments script was blocked it continues in crazy numbers, but at least it doesn't fire-up the Movable Type engine everytime anymore.
I wonder how long it will last that way...

Posted by Patrick on June 19, 2006 at 21:31

Hello, if this plugin had a date field so I could make responses after comments have been published, that would be super great.

Posted by John on February 28, 2007 at 04:54

Thanks for trying out the plugin and for your suggestion!

I had thought of making the date editable but wondered if anyone would really need that feature. I guess some would. :)

Please check new version 1.5 which now contains a date field.

Posted by Patrick on February 28, 2007 at 15:42

Wow, thank you so much. I know there are a few other people who need it too, I've been poking around in forums. I'll send them here.

Posted by John on March 1, 2007 at 04:19

No problem, and thanks!!

Posted by Patrick on March 1, 2007 at 09:51

This is slick, but I have to comment that I think this is in the wrong place to be useful to respond to posted comments. The better location would be underneath each comment reached by the Comment button on the backend's left menu bar. That way one could quote the previous comment, etc. As is, I'd have to remember what the commenter said, or copy/paste from another backend section. Too many steps.

Posted by Gary on March 3, 2007 at 12:38

Hi Patrick,

Thanks SO much for this plugin :D I'm one of those actually needing to edit comment's date, so its grrreat to see I now can do that.

Gary's right in that it would be even better if I could quote directly in my response, and also I think there's a bug when clicking the NOW link, at least for me it displays this: 1975-02-28 00:00:09

I'm using MT 3.34 on DreamHost, if that's of any use.

Cheers!

Posted by vinco01 on March 20, 2007 at 10:20

Update:

When trying to input a date like 2005-03-19 19:57:03, I receive an error msg saying the date must be valid, where's the problem?? :(

Hope this helps!

Posted by vinco01 on March 20, 2007 at 10:27

I'm glad to hear you're finding this plugin useful!

From what you've said, it seems like the date-related JavaScript this plugin uses is not correctly supported by your browser. I have tested that the script works fine on Firefox and IE on PC, and as far as I can tell it should work with all modern browsers.

It looks to me like you're using Safari so I'll try to test with it when I have a chance, but meanwhile you'd have to refrain from using the date field.

Posted by Patrick on March 20, 2007 at 10:35

Yes, I'm using Safari 1.3.2 on Mac OS 10.3. I'll try on FF to the Mac and I'll let you know.

Regards.

Posted by vinco01 on March 20, 2007 at 11:41

Ok, your plugin works just fine in Firefox (2.0.0.2) for the Mac. Thanks again and good luck :)

Posted by vinco01 on March 20, 2007 at 12:30

Ok great! :)
I'll still try to figure out what's up with Safari when I have a chance.

Posted by Patrick on March 20, 2007 at 13:12

Hello.

I'm test-running this plugin, which seems like a good fail-safe measure when regular commenting isn't working. For instance, I run a group blog, and since altering how commenter authentication works for comments -- I'm using OpenID and the Comment Registration plugin -- one of the contributors to the blog has not been able to leave any comments from home. (He's able to leave comments from other locations, however. We've been unable to isolate what his exact problem is, although he has reported that the comment box under posts never appears on his install of IE, no matter how many times or how he logs in...) I've thought this plugin might allow him to comment from the MT backend whenever he has no other method of commenting.

One question: Will multiple authors of blogs need to have access to editing comments to use this plugin from the backend? At present, as site administrator I'm the only one able to edit comments, and I'd like to keep it that way; so, I'm wondering if others besides myself would be able to post comments using this plugin.

A bug, I think: Apparently, the "now" link doesn't work for the time for me, although I use Firefox 2.0.0.3. I received an error that the date was not valid and that authored on dates must be a real dates -- even though the date and time showing up in the error looked fine. If I leave the box empty, the comment posts correctly.

Suggestions (please bear with me!):

1. Have comments posted via this plugin leave a record in the activity log of the blog.

2. Have the MT author appear in the list of commenters under the commenters link, along with the other authenticated commenters, for better tracking of comments posted with the plugin, per author.

3. Perhaps an option to configure the plugin so that the comment author info is automatically filled with the info for the MT author accessing the comment field? This would be good for multi-author blogs and to save on errors entering the fields for comments, when the plugin is being used only by the MT authors for their own comments (and not to add comments sent in by others.) -- perhaps with an option to clear the fields for the odd case of entering a comment sent in by someone else.

4. Perhaps an option to allow/disallow use of this plugin, specifically, in the MT author permissions? If #3 (above) were included, then a permission to clear those comment author fields could also be configurable.

5. Would be cool if the comment form could be "hidden" on the post pages and appear only for MT authors, similar to the way the "edit" link for searches will appear for logged-in MT authors. If I had the knowledge of the MT backend structure, I might even experiment with this; but my knowledge in that area is quite limited.

6. Since I'm allowing direct posting of comments for visitors who pass authentication procedures, I've noticed that comments posted in that method include a symbol for the type of authentication -- on-site (really, the TypeKey image), OpenID, LiveJournal -- but comments left with this plugin leave no image (no image connected with the MT author.) Would be cool to allow configuration of this, so that multi-author blogs would have unique images associated with the comment when posting their own comments from the back-end.

I realize the plugin was designed for a different type of utilization, so these suggestions may be excessive! In fact, I've always wondered why authors of MT blogs were never able to leave comments, or be automatically authenticated to do so on blogs that use commenter authentication, for their own blogs. This plugin would work to make that a reality.

;)
Curtis.

Posted by Curtis Gale Weeks on May 31, 2007 at 17:02

Hi Curtis! Thanks for trying out AddComment!
I'm glad you could find a use for it with your writer who has trouble commenting the usual way.

> One question: [...] I'm wondering if others besides myself would be able to post comments using this plugin.

Since the comment form is located on the "edit entry" page, they should at least be able to add comments to entries they created themselves.

First, regarding the "now" date bug, I haven't encountered it here (Firefox 2.0.0.4). The error message your referred to should only occur if numbers in the date is not found on the calendar (like a Feb. 29 on a non-leap year).
Could you provide me a date string that gives you that result? or the full error message?

As for your suggestions,

1. Good one, I'll make it add to the activity log.

3. The fields can already be filled in one click using the provided "Set commenter as me" button, which copies the name, email and URL from the logged in user's profile.

As for the rest of your suggestions, while I think they all seem good and should be useful to some people, I find them a bit too involved for what I'm willing to do myself for this plugin.
If you (or someone) would be willing to program them though, I would be happy to incorporate the changes into a new version.

Posted by Patrick on June 1, 2007 at 15:27

Adding comments manually is really takes time and a little bit annoying. The above article should have a great solution for me. Must learn more detail

Posted by Pondok Sprei on December 15, 2011 at 11:21