Comment Luv

Testing out temporary new api. please comment and try it

2009-07-04T12:40:58Z

I had the api working on my local install and while I was uploading it I realized I had to make a few changes, hours later I think I have it ready for some limited live testing so I’ve enabled the new api to be used on comluv blogs, please leave a comment below to test it out for me.

thanks!

Oh dear, I completely rewrote the API

2009-07-03T14:33:15Z

Wot, no support?

I haven’t been able to do much support ticket replies this week because I got stuck in the matrix. Coders will know the situation, where you sit down to try something in your favourite IDE and a whole day passes and by the time you feel it’s time for bed, it’s way past time for bed and you’ve got nearly a thousand lines of code in front of you.

That happened to me this week, every.day.

New API!

Now I’ve got a new API coded from scratch. This time the focus is on making sure last blog posts get returned instead of keeping stats which should make a whole lot more people who had trouble before, start to see data returned again when they comment on CommentLuv enabled blogs.

I didn’t really want to have a new API, the one Ron made was awesome and even considering the amount changes that had to be made because of the way I changed the plugin two weeks after release, it did a great job! I did learn an awful lot from it over the past few weeks though, and between the time I commissioned the project to be started and now - there’s been an awful lot of reading and learning about php and mysql.

Enough I think, to allow me to do the API in a way I am fully intimate with (oo-er). Enough now too, to add more source types to the returned data and a way for members to have a list of urls they can use to comment and still get more than 1 result passed back using only one ComLuv account.

Planned Changes

I’m going to add the database and enable the api for a few select sites to see what happens over the weekend and if it can behave itself until Wednesday, I’ll switch it on for everyones commentluv. No plugin updates will be required, the API can still be communicated with in the same way, it’s just the backend fetching and storing routines have changed.

Wish me luck!

What’s happening with ComLuv?

2009-06-29T09:48:43Z

Database queries

With the introduction of the new API, not to mention the thousands of uses it gets per day, there is a pretty large load on the server during peak times of the (US) day. Me and Ron are tracking down queries used in the API and will see if they can be refined or improved so things can carry on and grow as normal.

Documentation

Yes, I know I need to get more docs online but, I want to get the API and extra sources routines working 100% before I can let the (geek) world start playing with it. That takes time (I run a Chinese takeaway & delivery too!)

Version for Disqus

This is another thing that’s taking time, so many people have asked me for, neigh, demanded a version for Disqus that it’s got my top priority (along with API, docs, site, real life business). Things are a little different with Disqus though, their system uses an iframe to house the comment form and that’s a real stopper. Using javascript to manipulate an iframe is pretty hard but when the iframe is on an external site? forgettaboutit!

I’ll have to see if I can talk to one of their pyramid heads about adding an extra meta field on outside the frame.

Newsletter Software

I have been using an extremely powerful and feature rich newsletter software to send out the update emails (thankfully, not needed to for a while) and it has performed well. It was pretty intensive for a while getting all the cogs and wheels in place for bounce handling and segmentation (only sending to users who clicked on a particular link) and I’ve been making sure I can integrate it to be part of the supporter package. Again, it takes time!

New Theme Layout

I’m considering changing the theme here too, I like how this one looks but I want more scope for tutorial pages and other sub-content that I have planned. I could prolly do it myself if that’s the only thing I needed to do but, real life needs me too so I’m seeing if I can outsource the design to someone. I’ve already received one quote and I’m talking to a couple of other designers to see what they say.

Summary

All the above is being done as quickly as possible but it all requires a stable platform to be run on, that’s why I’m spending so much time ‘in the code’ and not ‘on the blog’ . I’ll get there, I feel it in my bone but it’s gonna have to happen at the pace of my life which, right now, is hugely exciting and full of things like cash & carry visits, vat returns, accountant fees and stupid windows machines that are starting to fossilize because they’re so old.

happy blogging!

How are you going to make money with your ComLuv blog?

2009-06-23T13:36:27Z

Making Money

Every site likes to make money, for some it’s a bonus and for others it’s their whole purpose of blogging. For ComLuv blogs, I want to make the whole daunting process of monetizing your blog into a simple and reliable process.

This is why I have made, and will make more, widgets and plugins that can be easily configured with an id or username to display links and buttons to approved affiliate programs and advertisers.

Adsense

There is a google adsense widget you can add to your ComLuv blog in seconds, just copy and paste your google id into the widget and you’ll get 80% of the adsense impressions shown on your blog.

Affiliate Widgets

The problem with affiliate programs is that there are so many out there promising to make you money that it’s nigh on impossible to choose a reputable program or company, especially if you’re a new blogger.

There will be a selection of approved affiliate sites that can be used on your ComLuv blog

If you have a particular program you’d like to include in this section, please contact me via the support tickets system.

Sitewide Ads

I have been testing a facility to serve ads on every blog , these will be 125×125 ads that can be sold by the individual blogs to be displayed sitewide. Blogs that refer the purchase will get a healthy chunk of the fee as commission.

Link-ads

There is a possibility to have a text ads plugin which would enable you to sell linked keywords in your posts. Simple signup and activation

Paid Blogroll

How about an automated blogroll plugin that allows you to sell anchored text links on your blogroll?

Paid Traffic

I have a reseller account with a traffic provider that could be integrated as an affiliate option for ComLuv blogs, any purchase made through your link earns you a commission.

Custom Themes

Are you a theme designer? do you want a platform to sell your premium themes, I envisage a system where a theme designer can make a theme specifically for someones ComLuv blog and make a charge for the service.

Custom code

Need a particular function or feature on your blog? how about a custom code purchase where you pay a small fee to get a unique bit of code or html added to your theme just for you.

Let me know what you’d like to see here for the make money section..

Changed tag results page and some branding here and there

2009-06-21T15:21:22Z

I’ve done some minor updates to the site today (at the cost of my normal Sunday routine) which make the whole place a little bit more “commentluv” and changed the way the tag results page displays.

The login page now has the logo and the help page in the dashboard has a link to the support area. A few other minor links have been changed, expect more links to appear/dissappear/change over the next few days.

The tags results page now only shows an excerpt of the post and puts the authors avatar next to it too, this should prevent any duplicate content bad juju and encourage visitors to visit the individual blog to get more info.

More updates as more things get added..

New Plugin Added - Auto-close comments

2009-06-21T12:18:30Z

In a bid to combat spam and trackback spam, I have installed a new plugin available to all blogs on The ComLuv Network. It’s called Auto-close and allows every blog owner to set the maximum period a post or page can receive comments.

I used to get an awful lot of spam comments on posts that were waaaay deep and posted long ago, so I have it activated on my FiddyP blog and it’s working fine for now. I’ll see how it goes and see if there’s a better solution than just closing all the comments, maybe showing the existing comments and not accepting new ones would be better.

What do you think about closing comments on old posts? completely close or send new ones to the moderation queue after a certain amount of time?

Instructions

1

Visit the plugins page in your dashboard and activate the plugin by clicking the “activate” link on the right side of the box.

2

Go to settings on the left sidebar and select “auto-close” to view the settings page and enter the number of days you want to keep a post open for comments. You need to check the box for close comments on posts for it to take effect.

3

The first time you set it up, you can set it to run once per day at a time you specify and then you can click “save options and run once”.

If you want to open up comments and trackbacks again (if you use a new plugin to control comments) then click the “open comments” and “open page” buttons to open them up to comments and display the existing ones again.

Something for the weekend? Some improvements and additions to CommentLuv this week

2009-06-19T11:23:46Z

It’s been a busy week keeping things in check with the site and plugin but, it looks like it’s going ok so far!
Bug Fixes
There have been a few minor issues that were reported like the info box not showing for everyone, that’s been sorted out. Joomla site owners were seeing the “no blog posts found” message, that was due to a slightly different feed format produced by joomla which isn’t an issue any more.

JS-Kit (Blogger CommentLuv plugin)
Quite a few people have contacted me regarding the JS-Kit commenting system, please understand that JS-kit is NOT CommentLuv and the comments system cannot be controlled by CommentLuv, my plugin is just javascript that runs on top of JS-Kit to add a link to the comment, it does nothing to delete comments or change comment numbers. If you’re having an issue with JS-kit then please speak to JS-kit (does it really need to be said? lol, apparently it does!!) http://js-kit.com/comments/

New Platforms

Eric Maziade (@themaze75) has a working version of the new CommentLuv plugin for DotClear. You can see it in action on his blog CommentLuv for DotClear. Great work Eric!

I will be starting a blog for Disqus testing this week too. woot!

New Language
Thanks go to Gianni Diurno for providing the Italian translation for CommentLuv 2.7.6

New members and sites
There are plenty of blogs and lots of new members coming in every day, it’s wonderful to see the types of blogs everyone is setting up. Some of the themes have custom headers and colour options which have been taken advantage of to create new and unique looks for the standard themes. Take a look through the ComLuv themes directory and choose a new look and know it’ll work with CommentLuv.

Widgets and Themes
I have a few more themes almost ready to be uploaded but before I do, I have to go through all the existing ones and edit the links and footer text as well as place some code there for future use. I’ll get an email out in the week with details of this.

Sitewide Ads
One of the ways a blog network pays for itself is through sitewide ads, that may be a way for the site to make money, but what about you? the people that make this site so popular are the ones that should get a taste of the revenue. That’s why I’m working on a way for there to be sitewide 125×125 ads system that will be attractive to advertisers and where you as a member of the ComLuv network can sell the ads on your own ComLuv site and get a healthy chunk of the fee!

It should work like this:
1. Visit the widgets page and select the sitewide ads affiliate widget.
2. Follow the instructions to get your affiliate id and insert it to the widget
3. Add the widget to your page.

If a visitor buys an ad through your page then you qualify for the commission. It’s as easy as that!

I’ll be testing this through the weekend and early next week to make sure the backend works and payments can be made to the right people when a sale is made. Once it’s ready, you’ll see the widget available in your dashboard under Appearance/Widgets

Next version update 2.7.6

The next update fixes a couple of typos in the settings page and an errant checkbox that wasn’t playing nice. I’ve updated the code a little to make sure proper html gets put out when a user specifies some prepend html and I have confirmation that the translation part works too!

Clearer signup and CommentLuv blogger released

2009-06-15T13:52:34Z

I’ve added some explanitory text to the signup page so new users don’t get confused and think they need a blog here just to have an account and I’ve added the CommentLuv Blogger download page with easy 1 click install method.

Next update to Commentluv will have Italian and Chinese language support and maybe a “traditional” method of operation that doesn’t use ajax, instead, it will fetch the latest post from the users first source after the comment has been submitted. I want to let this version settle in first and then I can work on improvements or additions.

I am working feverishly to put more pages on the site for tutorials and make all the layout play nice so let me know if there’s anything you want added to the site or plugin.

Why I love your feedback.

2009-06-14T00:41:42Z

I’ve stayed up a little late tonight again because some people were experiencing issues with the style of the links. Turns out it was because they had php4 on their hosting and that didn’t support the commands I was using to find the added link.

Thanks to some good feedback and dedication by CommentLuv users, I was able to track down the problem and learn regular expression along the way! (only to find out I didn’t need it lol)

I’d like to say thanks to http://www.makeupandbeautyblog.com for sending me your theme and your entire plugins folder so I could try to replicate the problem. I couldn’t, but I did come up with a regex to fix it.

Also to http://jahangiri.us/news for your regular kicks up the butt to sort out problems that only you seem to find. It was your fault I found out that strrpos doesn’t work on php4 hosting.

And http://speedforce.org/ for being a validation freak and spotting all the invalid xhtml so you could send me line numbers and exact positions of required edits.

There are sure to be more things that require attention and I wont find out about them unless you tell me so feel free to use the support tickets or comment here on a post if you want to suggest something (better to use the support ticket) I do try to respond to every request but, I do get a lot of emails so don’t feel sad if I don’t respond straight away

Thanks for being CommentLuvvers!! Hopefully this version will stay for a while and I can concentrate on building the site and making things a little bit easier for new users to understand.

Version 2.7.5 of Wordpress CommentLuv is here
Woot!

Version 2.74 is upon us! Fix old tags and info box display

2009-06-12T13:16:35Z

The latest update to commentluv is ready. It seems for each major update 1.9 -> 2.0 and 2.5 -> 2.7 there were some quick updates for the first 2 days. This happens because so many people use the plugin in so many different blog themes and settings types that it’s inevitable that there will be things I couldn’t have predicted.

This blog is now running v2.7.4 of CommentLuv. Please give it a test so I can see it’s behaving properly by commenting on this post.

thanks!

You can download direct from the Wordpress repository here
http://downloads.wordpress.org/plugin/commentluv.zip