Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
IV
Comments
For some people, the ability to interact with readers through commenting is at the heart of the blog-
ging experience. WordPress offers a basic commenting system out of the box, but that may not be
enough for you. One or more of these plug-ins can trick out your commenting area more to your
liking.
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IntenseDebate
—This commenting system is now owned by Automattic. This system helps you
organize discussions by threading conversations. Commenters can develop a reputation across
blogs through comment and user ratings. A nice feature for the site owner (you) is the ability to
respond to comments via email. Create a free account at www.IntenseDebate.com, then install
and activate the plug-in.
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Disqus
—This is the other prominent commenting system, presumably if you want your com-
menting system to be less intense. Disqus (pronounced “discuss”) is about connecting tradi-
tional blog commenting with other social networking tools. If your audience can tweet with the
best of them, this system may be what you need. Commenters can log in with their Facebook or
Twitter accounts, along with OpenID (an identity management system supported by WordPress
and IntenseDebate). Install the plug-in, sign up and log in at www.Disqus.com, and you're ready
to go.
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GD Star Rating
—Using this plug-in, you can let your readers rate pretty much any element on
your site with either stars or thumbs up or down: your posts and pages, along with other com-
ments. Take the ratings statistics and post them in a sidebar. These developers even offer a sup-
port forum, so whatever problems you might encounter can be dealt with in a prompt and
reasonable manner. This is another plug-in from the same developer as GD Press Tools, listed in
the Administration section.
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Subscribe to Comments
—Using this plug-in, you can generate a separate RSS feed for your com-
ment stream and allow commenters to get an email when someone else replies in the thread.
When someone comments on the standard form, the plug-in adds the option to subscribe. Use
Settings, Subscribe to Comments in the Administration page to customize your messages.
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Ajax Edit Comments
—Ever said something in a comment or a blog that you wanted to take
back? When you're the blogger, WordPress lets you edit posts and comments at all times, but
what about the other visitors? In most cases, those words will haunt them to eternity or at least
until the final crash of the last web server on earth—unless, of course, you have installed this
plug-in. Ajax Edit Comments lets your commenter edit her own words for a period of time that
you (or your admin) can set.
Advertising/Search Engine Optimization
While you may not be into blogging strictly for the income potential, there's certainly no harm in
picking up some of the loose change available for bloggers. These tools are about maximizing your
exposure and visibility on the web, and turning at least some of that fame or notoriety into supple-
ments to your bank account.
