Tag Archives: comments

Forget MyBlogLog, Here’s a Better Idea

I’m not the only one who thinks MyBlogLog is a waste of valuable template space. It clutters an otherwise (hopefully) clean design, makes pages take longer to load, and doesn’t really provide much value to the reader. Do you pay any attention to MyBlogLog widgets when you visit a blog, or do you ignore them like I do?

Now, MyBlogLog is an interesting concept, but it has some issues, and I’m sure a lot of you avoid it for the same reasons I do.

Recently, I came up with something a bit more interesting…

Okay, obviously you like to recieve comments on your blog postings, and it’s nice to offer a small reward to people who frequently contribute to the discussions. Thus, many of us have “Top Commentators” sections on our blogs, which generally show frequent commenters’ names and link to their websites.

After reading Blog Herald’s post on MyBlogLog (see above link), I thought Why not have a recent/top commentators section on a blog that displays Gravatars linked to the commentators’ uls instead of just names?” (From my Twitter.)

Obviously this is a plugin waiting to happen, but I’m too lazy to throw one together yet. :D If anyone wants to take my idea and build something, feel free to do so. (If you do build a plugin, I’d like an email so I can try it out myself…)

And here’s the plugin: Gravatar Top Commenters.

Some Useful Commenting Advice

Comments are one of my favorite parts of blogging. It’s nice to be able to give some feedback on a post you enjoy, disagree with, or have something to add to. You really notice how much you like having the ability to leave a comment when you read a site like The New York Times…because they don’t allow comments on their articles.

Commenting can help promote your blog subtly and effectively, but remember that comments are first and foremost about discussion.

What are some good practices to use when commenting? Here are a few articles on that note:

WordPress Comment Styling

The default comments template included in the Kubrick theme, and by extension a lot of other freely available themes, isn’t very interesting. It suits the theme, but it’s not a one-size-fits-all solution, ready for use in any theme. If you go through the trouble of finding or creating a more unique theme, shouldn’t the comments be styled differently as well? It surprises me how many blog themes have pretty much the same comment style as Kubrick.

Whether you’re putting together your own theme from scratch, or customizing an existing one, don’t neglect the comments. After all, you want to draw readers to them, don’t you?

Here are a couple places to read-up on the comment template:

Also, be sure to add Gravatar support!