Introduction
Everyone likes to receive comments on their blog, it helps to grow a community and makes you feel special as a blog owner to hear from the people who read your posts. I created the CommentLuv wordpress plugin to help give something back to every single commentator as well as entice them to come back and visit more often by automatically adding a titled link to their last blog post at the end of their comment. It’s done fantastically well with tens of thousands of comments every day receiving a little luv.
Level Up!
In September 2008 a new generation of CommentLuv became available utilizing AJAX and platform independent technologies which brought about support for Blogger, Typepad, GoDaddy Blogs, Drupal and Expression Engine.
A support site was released at the same time to provide statistics for CommentLuv members and an easy way for a new user to register and verify their blog (enabling them to have the last 10 posts from their blog returned to them when they comment)
The site got busier and busier and during the month of April 2009, it received more than 9,000,000 hits!! (8 mil the month before and 6 mil before that)
The Problem
The cached feeds numbered in the millions and the scripts originally written to handle a few thousand requests a week started to get more than a quarter million requests for last blog posts per day.
Each versions’ plugin had to be coded and updated separately which was time consuming and the regular updates to each systems commenting method meant that new versions had to be constantly released.
It took a significant amount of time every day for little ol’ me to stay on top of things and I became increasingly frustrated at the ups and downs of the hosting that CommentLuv lived on.
The Solution
I proudly present the new ComLuv network, New API and generation 3 of the CommentLuv plugin.
The API
A new and improved backend fetching and database script was commissioned from a seasoned WordPress development team and just a few thousand hours, dollars and lost hairs later, the new API was ready for the world to use, develop for and interact with.
The introduction of an API allows developers and plugin coders to write their own version of CommentLuv and still keep the fetching of feeds and storing of statistics in a central place.
The Site
A new site was developed which could provide the statistics and backend features that the nearly 10,000 existing members were used to as well as introduce all the things that I had been pestered politely asked for from members;
- Add multiple blogs per account
- Add more than just blog posts to comment
- A stable API to develop for
- More blogging platforms supported
- More Accurate Statistcs
- A CommentLuv search engine
- Easier installation for Blogspot
- Multiple language support
- A place to start a new blog with CommentLuv already installed
The Plugin
The CommentLuv plugin has gone through many updates and improvements over it’s lifespan since the first WordPress only release in 2007. Some due to changes in technology, some due to user demand and mostly due to an increase in my programming knowledge!
Now the plugin can run on multiple platforms, is more stable, has better functionality, is easier to install and is open for other developers to tinker with and improve.
Help & Support
The old site had forums and support tickets for support but the forums required a seperate registration and was quite a job to trim the automated spam from every day. The support tickets system worked well but because it was housed on the old server, the emails didn’t always get updated and the sql database needed regular fixing.
Now, the support is all internal to the ComLuv dashboard and an ever growing FAQ based on the questions you ask is available 24 hours a day.
If a user gets completely stuck, they can always get in contact with me using any of the following details..
My skype: (voice only) teamplaylotto.com
My mobile: +44 7921628872
My gtalk: commentluv
My yahoo: lythoboy
My msn: andy@baileys.tv
My email: admin @ comluv.com
My twitter: @commentluv
My time zone is GMT. Please check the time before you call me!.
The Future
Almost every feature and improvement made to CommentLuv over the past 2 years has been at the request (and sometimes demand!) of you, the user so feel free to get in contact with me if you have any suggestions or request for the plugin, site or API.
I hope you enjoy your time on this site, have fun creating a blog here or exploring the thousands of CommentLuv enabled blogs around the globe by using the search engine and active sites list.
Please comment responsibly on the blogs that display the CommentLuv badge (or I’ll send a rabbid rabbit to chew your ears when you sleep).
The Credits
The following people need to be acknowledged..
Ron
Andrea is the other part of the Ron and Andrea team. It’s her fault the first theme looked so nice, it’s also her fault that there are so many great features here at the start of ComLuv. From her beginnings, came the new theme I created to take care of the new tutorial and member content. Her expertise in getting WP-Mu to dance to her tune has been a joy to behold. Our long and greatly entertaining phone calls over the few short months it took to get this site from concept to reality kept me informed and confident that it would be the best CommentLuv site evah!
