I can’t easily decipher the code in scripts.js, but I do know there’s a missing return false; somewhere. If, after it’s done handling the keypress, the script returns false, things like the Quick Find bar in Firefox don’t pop up. It’s a minor annoyance, since I have to wait for the bar to go away before I can hit another shortcut.

I’ve been happily adding comment threads to track when I realised that I was not getting updates on my RSS feed. I followed through to the co.mments page and realised there were only two comment threads being followed and I was not logged in.

I attempted to log in and was informed that my password didn’t match. Feasible (there was nothing stored in Firefox) but a bit odd. So I clicked on the forgotten password link and was sent a new one. This still comes up with the same error. On the off chance of a temporary glitch, I asked to be sent a second password, which equally didn’t work.

Note that I am able topost this by using OpenID. Will you allow OpenID log ins for co.mments?

Would it be possible to please notify users if they have been logged out so they know they aren’t storing the tracked conversations where they think they are?

Is it possible to find out what’s stopping passwords from being accepted after they are reset?

I have a suggestion for co.mments. A netvibes module. I know that co.mments has a rss feed I could view in Netvibes, but a little netvibes module sure would be nice. Anyone a Netvibes module developer?

any chance co.mments could track forum posts too?

I tend to post on a lot of blogs, for which it works great, but also a number of forums (for which it doesn’t work at all).

For example: voodoo extreme on ign: http://ve3dboards.ign.com/message.asp?topic=26215973

I’d guess a lot of forums use standard code.. so i’d think it wouldn’t be too hard. (though they do often take you to a second page to post, dunno if thats a problem).

On SOB, individual posts get the names of the categories used as the title by co.mments. I think this stems from apotheon’s formatting of the categories within a div of class-name “post-title”. Is co.mments using a regex to scrape the title that’s maybe a little too loose? Something like <.*title.*>? Example post: http://sob.apotheon.org/?p=182, where the title comes out as “Metalog& Geek 16 Jan 2007 07:53 pm”.

It seems that the blogs hosted at blogia.com, i.e. diariodelabecaria, or leetamargo, or many others ar not correctly parsed and the comments either are not found, or only the name of commenter

When I use the “Track Comment” applet (?) to flag a blog post for tracking, it’d be nice if com.ments would automatically note which comments were already visible in my browser, and would then track new comments over and above those initial comments.

Great product, BTW; I use it every day.

Would it be possible to put the “Clear” button AFTER the comments? That way, when reading a lot of new comments, we wouldn’t have to scroll all the way back to the top to click on the Clear button.

This is not specific to co.mments, but a worthwhile plugin for WordPress users.

If you like to turn comments off on old posts, or even just trackbacks, this plugin by Being Mr Kenny will make your life much easier. It has simple and advance settings for managing comments on new and old posts.

Advanced Settings

This section gives you more control over discussion options. You can choose whether you want to open/close comments or pings, or both. You can also choose whether you want to change the default setting for new posts.

In the “Which posts?” section, you can choose which groups of posts you want to affect. The first two are for new posts and existing posts respectively. The third option allows you to open/close discussion on posts made before or after a specific date. The fourth option allows you to, for example, open discussion on the last five posts, or on posts made in the last month, or the last 2 years. It then closes discussion on the remaining posts.

Via Blogging Pro.

Every time I add a new feature to co.mments, I’m piling code on top of existing code. At some point it starts looking like the messy living room of a bachelor pad, dishes, books, CDs, everywhere. You can’t move around in the mess. So it was time for some spring cleaning.

I reorganized a lot of code, dusted up some old stuff. Less mess so I can easily add new features.

The best part is the new login system, which fixes the old nutty one, and makes it easy to login from different computers. You complained about the schizo login system before, and now I fixed it so it will work the way you expect it to.

That’s a good lesson in software design, and also a good one in organizing your life.

I developed co.mments for my own personal use, and when I decided to make it a free service, I wrote a login system so you can register for a free account. A few weeks later, Gabe Rivera convinced me to let people use co.mments without registering for an account. So I added that feature as well. I love it.

The co.mments data belongs to all of you, and I wanted to open it up, so last week I released the co.mments API. That uses another login system. Three of them is too much, and I couldn’t find my way through the mess. So I spent the week tidying up and fighting dust bunnies, and now there’s less mess, less code and one new feature. You can login to your account from several computers.

And if you accidentally bookmark a conversation but forget to login, login immediately and the recently bookmarked conversations will be added to your account.

I also picked two good habits out of developing the co.mments API. I used REST and XOXO to keep the code simple. I decided to use them out of technical curiosity, and ended up with much simpler, better organized code. And simpler is easier to develop. In fact, I wrote most of the API in just a couple of days.

IconBuffet has a great article on how REST helped them simplify their code. Technology aside, keep things simple, tidy the mess once in a while, and you can do more with your life. Spring clean often.