The Reader Appreciation Project

One of the things I’ve constantly struggled with is replying to comments.

Sometimes a post is old, and someone decides to leave an off-hand comment. Do I reply, or just leave it be?

Or, someone has made a well-versed comment, but all I can think of is, “Nice comment.”

I’ve created some code (if you’re using WordPress) that takes the guess work out of this. If a reader would like a reply, they can explicitly say so.

The Concept

Right below the comment form is a drop-down box that lets the reader choose if they desire a reply or not.

Once they leave the comment, you are sent a normal comment e-mail with the reader’s preference included.

Here are some screenshots to demonstrate:

On a Blog

In Your E-mail

You can also view live implementations here:

• Ronald’s Blog
• Bes’s Blog

The Code

The code is rather simple, so I’m not going to release it as a plugin.

All you’re required to do is insert the code into your WordPress theme’s functions.php file.

Here is a download link.

When viewing the source, you can customize the IDs (for CSS), as well as text.

If customizing, be sure that the “SELECT” tag ID/Name matches the ID in line 13 of the code.

Conclusion

Giving the reader the option to weigh in on his/her preference is a concept I have yet to see elsewhere.

Please feel free to try it out and/or weigh in here on your thoughts.

As most of you are aware, the posts on RAP have died down over the last several months. The reason? I decided to take a long break from blogging, reassess my priorities and interests, and rejuvenate myself mentally and physically.

I’ve made some decisions, and one of those is to rid myself of prior obligations so that I can work on other projects. That’s the reason I’m no longer developing/supporting my WordPress plugins; they are too time consuming with very little ROI.

New Owner

Bes Zain, one of the original RAP founders, recently got back in touch with me. We were talking, and he asked, “What are you planning to do with raproject?” I couldn’t give him a good answer.

I then asked him, “Would you like to take it over?” He enthusiastically agreed.

So here’s my announcement: Bes is back and he’s now in charge of the future of raproject.

What’s in store? I have no idea, but I’m sure Bes will fill you all in. If you are subscribed, please hang in there and see what Bes can do.

I’ll still be around, but my priorities are elsewhere right now.

Thank you all for supporting me at this project. Take care.

Ajax Edit Comments has a new home at AjaxEditComments.com, with full updates & news.

I’ve been looking for a new author for Ajax Edit Comments for some time now.

With the help of Jeff from WP Tavern, I was able to find a new author.

Ajay Dsouza, who I assume needs no introduction, has decided to take over the plugin.

I’ve swarmed Ajay with diagrams and e-mails explaining the plugin, so hopefully updates will come soon.

Thank you to everyone here at raproject who has supported this plugin and made it one of WordPress’s most popular. A big thank you to the translators, and everyone who has given feedback in the forms of posts, bugs, support, and more.

If you have a moment, please give Ajay some love and write about the new home for Ajax Edit Comments (http://ajaydsouza.com/wordpress/plugins/wp-ajax-edit-comments/).

In order to minimize confusion, the existing Ajax Edit Comments pages will now redirect to Ajay’s website.

Thanks again for your support.

WP Categories and Posts now has a new page and author. Please visit the new WP Categories and Posts Page on the Phill McDonnell website.

WP Categories and Posts was one of my first plugins I wrote for raproject.

It was quickly overshadowed by Ajax Edit Comments, and I didn’t really touch it after that.

Phil McDonnell approached me last week about taking it over, and I was pleasantly surprised at his eagerness.

We spent a few days exchanging details, and I helped him get it listed on WP Extend.

Features Planned

Here are some of the features Phil plans to add:

• Add the number of posts to each category, like Rants (5), Poetry (3), etc.
• Parameter to limit the number of post displayed
• Parameter to show/hide date display
• Parameter to show/hide parent category name

And here are the features you suggested that may make the cut:

• Create an admin menu with user-definable settings. Ideally a user shouldn’t have to program in a function, but include something like <!–cats_and_posts(args)–> in a page or post.
• Maybe an AJAX implementation which could collapse/expand the index for posts older than a certain date?

Much thanks to Phil for taking this plugin over. Hopefully this neglected plugin will get some nice updates.

If you have any more feature requests, please comment here and I’ll refer Phil to this page.

Visit the Categories and Posts page hosted by Phil.

One Side Note

The plugin page for Categories and Posts hosted here will automatically redirect to Phil’s new plugin page. My apologies in advance for any inconvenience.

Ajax Edit Comments has a new home at AjaxEditComments.com

Today marks the first major release in some time for Ajax Edit Comments.

Here are some of the changes in 2.2.

• Feature: De-link comment option for admins.
• Feature: Ability to move comment-editing interface above or below the comment.
• Feature/Bug Fix: Edited comments are checked against comment blacklist.
• Feature/Bug Fix: Anonymous users can no longer edit comments that are marked as moderated.
• Misc: JavaScript should leave less of a footprint.
• Misc: Comment Editor is completely stand-alone. Hopefully this will resolve some conflicts.
• Misc: Updated jQuery script to 1.2.6. *crossing fingers*

Please head over to WordPress Extend and download your own copy.

If you have any issues with the new version, please leave a comment below.

Ajax Edit Comments has a new home at AjaxEditComments.com.

This weekend I released an update to two of my plugins hosted here.

Ajax Edit Comments

The first update was for Ajax Edit Comments. Oliver from the cforms-ii plugin approached me and asked if I was interested in making our plugins compatible.

Being a huge fan of cforms, I was thrilled with the opportunity and the willingness of the cforms author to assist in compatibility. After hashing some e-mails back and forth, we finally got our plugins to work with each other.

Another feature added to Ajax Edit Comments was the automatic deletion of security keys for every 100 comments. RT Cunningham expressed his frustration with an ever-growing database filled with security keys. After discussing ideas, we agreed that every 100 comments was a good place to delete the comments. In the future I may make this an option that a user can configure, but I haven’t had much demand for it, so we’ll see.

As a side note, Ajax Edit Comments is approaching the 50,000 download mark. It’s an incredible milestone, and one I’d like to thank you all for. So, thanks for your support of this plugin in the form of translations, links, word-of-mouth, donations, and just plain using it. I’m still impressed when I comment on a random blog and it has the plugin installed.

WP-Grins Lite

WP-Grins, written by Alex King, was ported over by me to the jQuery library. For those not familiar with jQuery, it’s a far less bandwidth-intensive library compared to Prototype. The end result was WP-Grins Lite.

Several commenters chimed in with feedback, and so far the results have been very positive. Alex King informed me that he planned to port all his plugins over to jQuery, and I would be grateful if he released WP-Grins Lite as his official version.

The update I released for this plugin resolved some WP 2.6 (curse you!) issues, and fixed a rather peculiar bug on a blog where it was loading the JavaScript four times (weird).

So What’s Next?

As far as programming goes, I’m starting to take more client work, which is nice, but means I have less time to work on side projects such as the two listed above.

I am looking forward to WordPress 2.7 and the comment API. For the first time, users could have comment management at the desktop or mobile level. I will be following this closely, and who knows, you might see something from me here.

Conclusion

For all who have downloaded, or used either of the above plugins directly or indirectly, thank you. Thank you for putting up with me, and for helping me make better plugins.

When I started blogging, it was all about giving. Giving, giving, and more giving.

Writing for free, programming for free, talking, e-mailing, more blogging, more writing, and soon I got over my head.

Everybody is busy in their own way. Priorities shift constantly, and interests change.

One thing I’ve struggled with lately is how to keep on going. My personal situation has changed since I bailed out a friend who was kicked out of his apartment (long story). I’ve met a nice lady friend. I used to use blogging and programming to pass the time, now I have to make the time.

It’s a struggle, and one that I’m sure we all face. Some of us have kids. Most of us have day jobs. Some of us have school. And some have all three and then some. Yet we still find the time to make it online and share with the world our thoughts and knowledge.

Just this week I had to tell a guy who requested CSS customization on Ajax Edit Comments that I wasn’t able to help him unless I billed him my hourly rate. I felt bad about it, but there wasn’t much I could do. I had a paying client I had to finish a job for, and the custom work would have competed with that.

Andrew Rickmann also raised a thought-provoking issue. If someone had a site you didn’t particularly agree with, would you still help? So not only is our time being competed for, our ideals are as well.

My question to you is, how much are you willing to give away before it’s too much for you to handle? If you do client work, how do you determine what work should be paid for, versus not?

Thank you for reading.

Darren Rowse from ProBlogger wrote a post today that covered the topic of removing dates from blog posts for the appearance of timeless content.

As mentioned in my design decisions series, I believe it should be the reader, and not the blogger, who decides which content is timeless.

After I consolidated my design decisions series for another site, I quoted a reader’s comment on another blog:

When I find a blog with no time stamp, I feel conned. (From Erica)

I don’t personally feel conned, but a timestamp is a helpful tool in gathering context. For example, if I’m looking up something time sensitive, such as useful apps for my new iPhone, I wouldn’t want to read something dated March of 2008 because the new iPhone wasn’t out then.

On the other hand, as Darren pointed out, there are older posts which are indeed timeless (not date sensitive) that readers ignore simply because they are old:

The problem is that when you have a post that is ‘timeless’ (ie it doesn’t really date because the tips you give or the principles that you talk about will always apply) a date can act as a distraction to your reader. They arrive at the post and see that it was written in 2006 and a little warning bell goes off in their mind that what they are reading is not ‘current’.

While Darren presents some good arguments for having (and not having) dates on posts, the majority of his comments are in favor of keeping dates.

So Should Blog Posts Have Dates?

My official stance is yes. You’d be hard pressed to find a magazine, journal, or newspaper without some kind of time reference. Even reference material and novels have publishing dates and revisions. Why would the web be any different?

Yes, I can hear Liz Strauss saying, “But we’re on the web, not in print.”

While true, a time reference is one aspect of print that should be carried over.

The argument for removing dates is so that the content appears timeless. I would love to declare all of my content timeless. But it’s not up to me. It’s up to my readers.

Comments on a blog are crucial to building community, meeting others, and (most importantly) interacting with your readers.

We’ve written many articles here on the importance of having comments enabled. Even Liz Strauss has weighed in on the issue:

My personal opinion is, that if I read a really great article and I come to the end and I can’t leave a comment… These days, my response is sort of like, “They don’t want to talk to me, I don’t want to talk to them.”

However, there are some times when it might be better to disable comments, regardless of the consequences.

You’re On Vacation

When going on an extended vacation, perhaps it’s better to disable comments temporarily rather than let a potential spammer take over your blog.

An alternative to this is enlisting the help of a trusted friend to help moderate your comments while you’re away. If you are in charge of a multi-author blog, perhaps temporarily promoting one of your authors is a good fit.

You’re Done With Blogging

You’ve had it! You’ve experienced everything the blogosphere has to offer and you’re ready to move on.

If you decide not to sell your website and just leave it up for archival purposes, then it would be wise to completely disable comments on your blog.

You’d Rather Concentrate on Writing

In the case of Shawn Blanc, he didn’t want readers to think they had an obligation to comment on every post. Shawn concentrates on his material, and allows readers to weigh in to him via e-mail.

Prominent blogger Seth Godin also follows this approach.

You Don’t Ever Respond

If you find yourself never responding to comments, then perhaps it’s time to turn those comments off.

I’m definitely not perfect, but I do try to respond to all comments. However, if one never makes that attempt, then perhaps comments aren’t a good fit.

You Don’t Have Time

A while back, a blogger named Avinash decided to disable comments on his site. It was temporary, but I understood his reasons.

Some bloggers simply don’t have time to manage comments.

Bloggers have to deal with:

• Spam
• Moderating
• Trolls
• Responses
• Requests

Managing comments is a lot of work, and if you simply don’t have the time, then perhaps leaving them off is a better solution.

There Are Legal Issues

There has been some debate in the blogosphere recently about who owns comments.

There are also countries out there where the blogger is liable for a reader’s comment.

If a blogger is fearing arrest (or worse) over a comment someone else made, then perhaps it’s better to leave them off.

Conclusion

I’m absolutely 100% for having comments enabled. It’s one of the first steps in reader appreciation.

However, comments aren’t for everyone.

In your opinion, is there ever a time when a blogger should disable comments completely?

In a crowded, smoke-filled room, a person asks me, “What are you singing?”

I stare at the blank sheet of paper in front of me, where I am to fill out my name and song request.

“I’m not sure yet. What about you?”

“Oh.” the person replies, “I’m not going up there.”

“Why not?” I ask.

“I get horrible stage fright.”

“It’s just karaoke. Nobody expects you to be an expert singer.” I say trying to reassure my friend.

“I’ve tried it before. I just froze up.”

I smiled, “Sometimes you just have to forget there are other people in the room and sing for yourself.”

Karaoke and Blogging

Singing karaoke in front of a bunch of strangers is an intimidating experience.

If you’ve ever written a blog post for a rather large audience, it is an equally intimidating experience. You’re placing yourself out there for all to criticize.

It is my belief, however, that the more comfortable you become with yourself, the more your audience will be comfortable with you.