Blog enhancements
We’re always on the lookout to tweak the blog to make it better.
FYI, here were a few enhancements made in the past several days:
- Comments will now be open on all older posts. We originally had to close them after two weeks due to spam, but that is now under control.
- Added a new and better print plugin.
- Added some features to comments, including buttons for copy, paste, and blockquotes. You can now also drag the comment box to make it bigger if you need more space when you’re typing.
I have a question for you on comments. We have the ability to nest comments, which would let you respond to a comment after the comment. Would you like that feature added, or no?
As an aside, most of you know the site was compromised March 30 and 31. Hackers succeeded in injecting scripts that directed you to spam and malware sites. It was a sophisticated hack that took two experts several hours to find.
As I said before, we will likely never know who did it, but the break-in coincidentally occurred soon after I began writing about the new Voice Of Choice website, which promises to retaliate against pro-life activists.
As a result of this incident we have signed on with the security service Sucuri, which was recommended to us by another pro-life group. I mention this as a word to the wise to other pro-life bloggers and webmasters.
Jill Stanek is a nurse turned speaker, columnist and blogger, a national figure in the effort to protect both preborn and postborn innocent human life.
Can I use html to embed my cranky photos in the combox anymore?
Of course you’re under attack Jill! You’re just too good and too effective to be ignored! Glad you solved the problem. And yes, the ability to reply to a comment would be nice. You get a lot of comments–a sign that you need to add that ability.
As a frequent visitor to your blog, I wonder if it is coincidental that my laptop had a major collapse on Friday, March 30th, infected with a serious malware virus, which completely shut down my entire system, making all my files inaccessible. Did this happen to anyone else who visited Jill’s blog on Friday afternoon?
Threaded comments are more troll-friendly IMO. I personally wouldn’t want the feature added, though I don’t feel particularly strongly about it.
Did we lose the QOTD archive?
My computer crashed on Thurs. 3-29, 8:39 PM. Lost lots on info./favorites/pictures, etc. Still not working correctly.
Cranky, I know you did that way back when, but have you been able to do that lately?
I’m sorry hacking has gotten in the way of posting images, but it’s considered a bit dangerous to allow image links or html code to be added to a comment because a hacker could insert an ad, a porn image, or a tracking script. Even if moderated, we’d have to examine every
comment in html mode to detect malicious code. You can always insert a link to an image, that way others have the option to view it or not depending on their level of trust.
My firewall blocked Jill’s site Friday evening.
I had a notification that Jill’s site was an attack site. I came in anyway, then scanned later that night. 2 viruses found, 2 eliminated. :(
I had a virus in my computer pretending to be virus software. I did system restore and now I dont have any word files. Curiosity killed my computer. No worries though, the Geeks at Best Buy got my files back before.
I don’t like the idea of nesting comments, it helps to contribute to “flame wars,” which is definitely not something you need, based on the attacks you’ve already faced.
I am glad to hear that you figured out the attacks, they also got Secular Pro Life’s site marked as a malware site, just for linking to you!
Both my work pc and my home pc were infected.
Ya, one of my computers got nailed. A virus scan and system restore has everything back up. I use alternate computers to access the innards of my site and will be looking at added security. Would not be wanting to wreck other people’s computers.
Apparently across leftie land they have run out of legal means of persuasion.
If you do add nesting comments, try to make it so they aren’t indented too much every time, because on heavily commented blogs like this one, you could end up with comments with just one or two words a line after a while, which is very hard to read — I have been on a few blogs with this problem.
My computer said it was an “attack site” and wouldn’t let me on here so, thankfully, I didn’t get a virus. When it happened, I figured the site must have been hacked. So glad you got it back up and running, Jill!
Carla, I’ll have more on that later this morning. Lori, yes, we’re talking about allowing only one indent for all comments pertaining to the original comment, with perhaps a color change for them.
One vote for nested comments. Nesting always aids readability, and it has the added bonus of discouraging super-lengthy conversations with ever shrinking reply-widths.
However, if you’re open to a complete comment system overhaul, I would highly recommend Disqus: http://disqus.com
It’s free unless you want to do some really advanced stuff, and it offloads all the headache of comment formatting, notification emails, logins, spam, and hacking to their service so you don’t even have to think about it. Users have the option of logging in with just about any service (Facebook, Twitter, etc.) and can reply to comment notification emails to add their response!
I currently use the free version on 6 different wordpress blogs (3 of which are pro-life blogs), and it works great! I’ve never had a problem or complaint.
I’m on a Mac. There was no compromise as far as I can tell.
Just use Disqus — or something at least comparably solid.
Seriously. To date, whatever plugins you’ve using have been inadequate from the user standpoint. The current implementation is terrible. The posting editor has the right minimalist set of formatting tools, but it actually works terribly. I suspect your Ajax implementation is darned iffy. And your method for editing existing posts is just cockeyed.
Think rigor. Don’t cobble, if possible. Single solution. Eh?
I assume you’re using Akismet, at least, and it’s certainly working very well indeed. I have no idea what the moderation queue looks like, but you want a solution that keeps that trim, too.
Nested is good.
Whoops. I see I’m not the only Disqus liker . . .
@rasqual: That’s a bit harsh don’t you think?
Two things I’d like to add about Disqus:
1. It’s very easy to setup, and will import all your previous comments in a snap.
2. I know moderation is important for this site. You can add as many moderators to each of your sites as you want, and each will be notified based on their preferences. Disqus’s moderation tools are very easy to use. They even have mobile apps for iPhone/Android for moderators/site-owners.
I like the existing blog editor.
I am not a fan of “mandatory” nesting; however, if the nesting feature can be turned on or off by the user then I don’t mind it.
Andrew: Not sure about harsh. My target is the technology, not the humans. Something has been royally screwy with the site, including differences in what cookies do depending on whether someone is accessing via .net or .com. I mean weird issues. The new editor for existing posts is absolutely cockeyed. No one — NO ONE — uses editors that take the discussion to a new page that consists entirely of an editor pane that exposes tags and doesn’t return the user to the discussion. It’s entirely regressive. The previous solution was better. I found the new version an inexplicable twist to a site that hadn’t been all that bad. If it’s merely a matter of which options are set to these entirely odd settings, then someone should tweak those settings (e.g., a lightbox-style popup for editing existing comments, versus the present craziness).
But this editor — the main one, not the editing-existing-posts editor (I think they’re the same plugin, though, AJAX Comment Editor) — also has problems, now, that I don’t recall from months back. To cite just one example, depending on variables I haven’t nailed down, if you select a block of text and hit Enter, it will not replace that block with a CR/LF. It just unselects the block of text and inserts the CR/LF in advance of the formerly selected block. That’s non-standard behavior for any editor, and I suspect it’s connected to some bugs that are responsible for other bizarre editing idiosyncrasies I’ve also seen.
The current situation is a bit of a “Gah! What were they thinking!” scenario.
ken: “Both my work pc and my home pc were infected.”
Loser. ;-)
But seriously, aren’t you protected?
Can I very strongly urge you not to use Disqus? At all. I have tried, multiple times, to post comments to sites using it. I have tried with and without my ad-blocker running, with and without my tracking-blocker running, with and without both running, in a few different browsers, and on multiple sites. I am not certain, but I believe something about Disqus may be incompatible with my operating system (Linux Ubuntu). I absolutely hate the Disqus system, and I believe I’m not the only person who is locked out of comments because of it.
As to nested/not nested, I generally prefer flat view (newest comments are easy to find) to nested, however on sites like LiveJournal where new comments are marked, I like the nested view better. So I suppose it depends on implementation, really. So long as the new comments are easy to find without making it necessary to read the whole thread every single time, then I’m not that fussed.
Alice, from what I’ve read, it seems Disqus was developed using Linux. Try looking at your browser add-ons. I hear Ghostery blocks it. To test, just go to Live Action’s news site, or LifeSiteNews. There is also a thread about it on the Mozilla Firefox support site, so you can search there if you’re still having problems.
Well…huh. If that’s the case, then I have no idea what’s wrong. But while I do use Ghostery, Disqus won’t work for me even when I turn Ghostery off. I’ve tried several times. I can’t get it to accept my log ins from Facebook or Twitter or anywhere. Even when I created a Disqus-specific account, it still won’t let me log in. Which has been crazy frustrating when browsing LiveAction, believe me (it’s on that site that I first encountered this problem, and that’s the one I’ve been trying hardest to access). I can live with being outvoted here, if that’s what’s best for the site, but I would be disappointed to loose y’all.
As an Ubuntu user myself, I can verify that Disqus does work under Linux. It really doesn’t do anything more complicated than the Facebook and Twitter social plugins do (technology-wise).