WP Plugin Idea - Comment Signatures
I’ve been planning for a while to write a WordPress plugin that allows readers to leave comment signatures as part of their comment. The concept of signatures in comments has been hotly debated amongst many bloggers, but I (and my fellow project members) are willing to experiment here with it.
What I’ve thought of doing is writing a WordPress plugin that allows registered users the ability to specify a signature. If the user leaves a comment, the signature would be displayed.
The benefit of a plugin in this case would be:
- Comment signatures can be moderated by the blog admin.
- Comment signatures can easily be disabled by readers who don’t like them.
- Comment signatures can easily be disabled by blog admin.
I’ve been thinking over the past few months what features blog admin and readers would like in this plugin, and to be honest, I’ve came up pretty short. The features I’ve thought of include:
- Registered users can add a signature in their profile.
- Admin can edit users’ signatures.
- Admin can disable signatures for individual users.
- Readers can disable signatures (using a cookie)
- Admin can enable or disable all signatures.
I’m hoping to receive some feedback from the readers regarding what features you might want in a plugin like this.
What do you think of a plugin like this? Would you use it? Also, what benefits to the readers do you think comment signatures might bring?
Thank you and I look forward to hearing your feedback.
Andrew says...
I’ve never been a big forum user, where it seems signatures are used most often, which is possibly why I find the way most people use them slightly annoying.
I have found that the result of signatures is a conversation with the same witty one-liner repeated multiple times down the page.
Perhaps then a feature I would want to see, as a reader, would be that only the first comment on a post by a user would show their signature
Ronald Huereca says...
Andrew,
That’s a good suggestion. After the first one, everything seems to get redundant.
Snoskred says...
I think it would rock - I’m in the process of switching over to WP right now.
I think one of the biggest problem with blogs is the users are all at different “literacy” levels as far as computer use. Surprisingly not everyone knows that you can click on the name above a comment to access that commenters link to their website, if they put one there.
I find that if I do put a little sign off block - just my name and URL - people click through to my blog a lot. It is especially important to do this on a Blogger blog, because the link takes people to my profile page, not my blog.
However some WP users classed my comments as spam and I ended up in Akismet. It clearly wasn’t spam because the comment was relevant etc, so I am not sure if it was a mistake, or whether it was accidental.
In preference to a signature block like you see on a forum, I would rather see a plugin that made it very clear to the readers - to visit the blog of the person who left the comment click here. I don’t know how you would word it.
It would need to be compatible with Ajax Edit Comments - I installed that today.
Does that help?
Cheers,
Snoskred
Andrew says...
Ronald, you could use this to encourage a whole new level of interactivity(and possible spam protection as well).
Imagine that I have installed your plugin on my Wordpress powered blog and commented on your blog.
If the plugin, in the settings on my site, allowed me to enter a brief textual description of myself then the plugin on your site could contact a specific URL on my site to see if I was a) using the plugin, and b) had provided a description.
If I had provided a description you could give the option on your blog for you readers to “read more about me” which would add a little box beneath my comment on your site with that description (and maybe a link to my about page for more information).
Add into the mix a feedback mechanism for readers to mark misuse of the plugin as spam (hence disabling the plugin for that site) and you have a nice way to appreciate your readers.
RT Cunningham says...
I think a simple added line to the bottom of the comment would be better than a signature. Something like “Click here to visit the commenter” would be handled by the plugin so it wouldn’t get flagged as a spam comment.
Ronald Huereca says...
Snoskred,
Congrats on switching. WP definitely kicks some butt.
Andrew,
Another great idea. That would be a great way for users to leave signatures without having to log in to a site. Furthermore, if enough people have the plugin, you could update your signature in one place (on your own blog) and have it filter to everyone else’s site.
RT,
Something like this would be very simple. A sentence or two max with zero images. The way I would set it up is that people wouldn’t have to leave links in their comment. Comment signatures would be the blog admin’s choice, and if enabled, and the commenter has set up a signature, the signature is displayed.
Adriana says...
I woyld love to have this plugin, I replaced my forum for the blog, so for me it’s a most!
PlanetPhillip says...
I presume this idea has been dropped. Pity because I can see plenty of times it could be useful.
I understand the worry about each comment signature after the first being redundant but I disagree because not every reader reads all the comments and often people are linked to one particular comment and if this isn’t the first one then the signature would be missed.
In my case I planned to use it in conjunction with the Favourite Post plugin to allow other readers the opportunity to see other commenters’ favourite posts.
Anyway, I hope one day the plugin idea will be revived.