Bookish Blather: Bloggiesta update - Saturday morning

Saturday, January 22, 2011

Bloggiesta update - Saturday morning

Husband had to wake up at seven to prepare for an eye doctor appointment (things to consider when you get new contacts: if you have to wear them for three hours before your appointment, don't make your appointment first thing!) so I've been up since 7 and have been Bloggiesta-ing since 7:30. Yay for being a nerd!

Yesterday I only got two hours of work done, but I wrote up two reviews and set up a page for my What Have I Missed challenge, as well as creating an image for the challenge, so that's good work in my opinion. The link to the new page is in the header, and my first What I Missed review will be up on Friday! I also spent a lot of time on Twitter and looking at other blogs, trying to figure out the comment situation. I didn't get any opinions on Disqus, though there was a lot of back and forth on IntenseDebate. Former users seem to hate it while current blog admins really like it.

I chose to go with IntenseDebate because I like the look of it (petty, I know) and from a commenter-perspective it seems less finicky than Disqus - there are other blogs I follow who have to announce almost once a month that they're having Disqus problems. Not a great selling point for the system. If you have a moment (and/or need to boost your comment challenge numbers!), please leave a comment on this entry and try out the new commenting system! Whether you're a big ID fan or not, it has to be better than Blogger's system, right?

Plans for today: more reviews to be written, and template cleanup. Work work work...

Comments (19)

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Andromeda Jazmon · 745 weeks ago

I think you are right about the need for commenting to be easy. I had to put authentication on because I was getting so much spam, but making it easy for real people who have something relevant to say is really important! Thanks for working so hard to make your blog better. I am enjoying your multicultural reviews.

1 reply · active 745 weeks ago

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angelacraft 35p · 745 weeks ago

I've never had much spam- maybe two spam comments in the lifetime of this blog? I'm hoping that trend continues!

Thanks for dropping by to comment! Hope you continue to enjoy the blog.

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basiasbookshelf 36p · 745 weeks ago

I really dislike having to jump through hoops to comment - one of my longer term goals is to try what you're doing, which I really like. I think if you've written a topic that you know is going to inspire a spirited debate, you'll probably be keeping an eye on comments if you worry about things getting heated and as far as spammers..the stray idiot can be plucked pretty easily on a daily check. :)

1 reply · active 744 weeks ago

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angelacraft 35p · 744 weeks ago

I have it set up right now so every time a comment is posted, I get an e-mail notification. For now that will help me control any spam, I figure, and any trolls that feel like popping in. Should I get so lucky that lots of people start commenting I may have to change that notification so my inbox doesn't explode, but I'll cross that bridge if I come to it!

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Callista · 744 weeks ago

I don't mind commenting with ID. At least you can reply directly to my comment. I've considered switching mine but wasn't sure if I wanted to yet.

Thanks for trying out my Bloggiesta mini-challenge. Your button for your challenge looks great!

1 reply · active less than 1 minute ago

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angelacraft 35p · 744 weeks ago

I had lots of minor irritants with Blogger's commenting, but the final straw was when I realized just how many times I had to click "submit" to get a comment to post on my own blog if it didn't register that I was already signed in to Google (I had the in-page comment system set up). Pain in the butt, and I figured if I was getting frustrated, how many people were put off from commenting entirely? So that's why I decided to make the switch.

Thanks for hosting the mini-challenge!

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Kristin · 744 weeks ago

I've been wanting to change my commenting system for a while - I currently have blogger and really want to be able to reply to each comment right under the comment. I have been leaning towards intensedebate for a while - is it easy to switch to?

5 replies · active 744 weeks ago

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angelacraft 35p · 744 weeks ago

I have many issues with Blogger's commenting system - and one of them definitely was not being able to reply directly to comments. (Other random and petty dislike: getting an e-mail notification when I replied to a comment on my own blog. Doesn't happen with ID!)

I made the switch in about 5 minutes. They have two methods - a widget that is a really simple install but can increase page load times, and a template modification that doesn't affect loading but is considered for more advanced users. I'm pretty comfortable with the tech side of blogger so I opted for the template modification - downloaded a backup copy of my template (just in case everything went pearshaped), then uploaded that copy to IntenseDebate so they inserted the code. Then copy it into the Edit HTML page in the Blogger dashboard and I was done!

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Kristin · 744 weeks ago

I just installed it - it was very easy...now I just hope it works!

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AlwaysWithaBook 22p · 744 weeks ago

And I just uninstalled it...it wasn't showing the comments or showing a comment link for new posts...I started out installing the widget, than uninstalled that and installed the template, but it didn't fix the problem. So I just went back to the old blogger comments - any feedback/tips would be appreciated!

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angelacraft 35p · 744 weeks ago

I really wish I had some advice! The install went flawlessly for me. Are you using a customized layout or one of Blogger's? That's the only possibility that comes to my (relatively unexperienced) mind.

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AlwaysWithaBook 22p · 744 weeks ago

I do have a customized blogger template...maybe that's it. I'm going to try again tomorrow (after a good night's sleep) and cross my fingers that it will work. Thanks for answering/responding to all my questions/comments.

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Marie · 744 weeks ago

This certainly has me thinking! I knowing commenting can sometimes be a pain, but I didn't realize there were other options. That's very cool and certainly better than Blogger. I'm going to take a look at it (probably after the weekend).

Thanks for visiting my blog. I see you're on Networked Blogs and have followed your blog there. Looks good!

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Ruth @ Bookish Ruth · 744 weeks ago

I'm seriously considering a switch to ID after looking through your comments. I love the organization of being able to reply directly to a comment!

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Ari · 744 weeks ago

I WANT this commenting system! But if I switch will all my old comments from posts past be saved? I don't want to lose some of them especially the ones with recommendations and on discussion posts...

But I love the intensedebate system, it's so so easy to reply to comments.

2 replies · active 744 weeks ago

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angelacraft 35p · 744 weeks ago

There are two options with previous comments. The version I chose added IntenseDebate to all posts that had 0 comments (and will be added to all posts I make in the future ) but posts that already had comments are still using Blogger comments. The other option hides them, and I'm not sure whether they're visible at all to blog users or if just the admin can see them. I didn't want to mess with it!

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Ari · 744 weeks ago

I'll definitely go with the first version then. I have a Blogger template so hopefully it won't be too hard to instal...I am not at all good with technology

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Natasha @ Maw Books · 744 weeks ago

I do breathe a sigh of relief when I see intensedebate installed on Blogger blogs. Makes it rather easy to comment! Great Bloggiesta thus far Angela!

1 reply · active 744 weeks ago

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angelacraft 35p · 744 weeks ago

Sorry for the delay in getting your comment up, Natasha - IntenseDebate marked it as spam for some reason! So weird.

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