Commenting (again)

From the Friday Open Thread:

This is the only link you ever need:

http://hepcomments.blogspot.com

I wish the whole comment thing could be automated like on just about every other blog in the world, but for some reason it can't be. I've tried to make the best of it, but couldn't figure out how to teach other people how to make the links.

So this is the solution I've come up with. I will continue to make sure comment links publish once a day over at the HEP comments blog. One comment link a day--not for each new post. So we really shouldn't need to add the comment link to every post, as it is always going to be the same link. And that link is at the top of the left sidebar. But if it helps make things clearer, we can put that link in each post. But anyone with keys to the blog can do that. There is no special link that needs to go up with a new post, since there is now a new link once a day rather than for each post. Another advantage to this approach is that, if there is not a new front page post for a couple days, people can still follow the link to the newest comment thread. (Because there will be a new comment thread every day.)

I made this change and announced it in this post. At the moment, there is no guarantee that I will be able to read all the comments in a timely manner. So I'm asking a favor...if anyone is confused about the way comments work now, those of you who have figured it out, please explain to those of you who don't.

I'm trying not to get cranky about this, but I'm also trying to figure out how to explain it in a way that at least most people will understand.

But I will add this piece of clarification: I am asking that people posting front page blog entries not point your Comments links to specific comment thread. Please, instead, do what I am about to do right now and point the link here: http://hepcomments.blogspot.com

Comments

Open thread

I've had the words of The Runaway Bunny running through my head lately...

Once there was a little bunny who wanted to run away. So he said to his mother, "I am running away."
"If you run away," said his mother, "I will run after you. For you are my little bunny."

Imagining a sequel written years later (when the little bunny has grown into a teenage bunny) entitled The Runaway Mommy.

Would anyone run after her?

These are the sorts of deep thoughts I'm having these days. I'll be okay. I'm working on it. But with all the discussion around the tubes about Obama's choice of VP, all I have to say on the subject is "Meh." Somebody Else's Problem. I'm just not feeling it.

But I will keep an eye on the numbers at the HEP comments blog, and put up an extra thread on days that really need them. I may or may not be around in the comments, so (probably stating the obvious here), if you see a new comment thread, be sure to go back and tell folks in the old thread who might not know about it. Thanks.


{ { { I would run after the Mommy Bunny, Renee. And I'd bring snacks. XOXOXXX listener } } }



Comments

Three years ago

Three years ago I started this blog because some members of the community at BFA felt the environment there had become too toxic, but they didn't want to give up the community. I was one of the people who felt that way. My son has Asperger's Syndrome, and, heaven help us, we've never really managed to cobble together a really good IEP and a good team of professionals who are all on the same page as us. So the beginning of the school year can't help but be a stressful time, and that was a time when maintaining a supportive community was especially important to me.

But I knew that starting a new community blog on my own was more than I could handle, so before I ever flipped the switch to start up the blog, I e-mailed a number of people to ask if they could help me.

Over time we've lost some contributors. And I've lost almost all desire to write about politics. Maybe it will come back one day, but I don't know. Anyway, for anyone who's been away for a while and is just now coming back, that's why so many of the posts consist of pictures of dogs and cats.

So now it's August--back to school time is looming once again. And things are more complicated now that the kids are teenagers. So yeah, I'm a bit stressed from time to time. I really need to be able to take some time away--like everyone else does every now and then.

The history of the comment software issue is rather complicated, and one thing I lack at the moment is the time, patience, and focus to try to explain all of that in detail. But basically, some people have trouble using the integrated Blogger commenting. I installed Haloscan commenting, but for some people, that didn't work unless I made the comment link by hand. These days I have a separate blog I use to "grow" new Halosan threads. I've added a link to it in the sidebar, and in my posts.

So the comment link no longer takes you straight to the comments, but to that other blog. But I've tried to make it as straightforward as possible. You just need to click on today's date.

I need to take off for a while now, as we have someone coming to the house shortly.

Update: Some time ago I lost my password for BFA and couldn't find a mechanism for retrieving it. Could someone please post a link to this entry over there. I know some people there come over here once in a while, but maybe not often to keep up to speed on changes. And if someone comes by here and asks a question in the comments on any given day, it may be hours before someone sees the question and is able to answer.

Comments

Comment threads

...can be found that-away.

This entry has been posted for information purposes only, without a comment link. To join in the most recent thread/discussion, click here or scroll down to Cat's post "Butter Not Guns" and click the comment thread there.

Blog comment software

Quick update, which hopefully won't include any profanity. (But after hours of frustration trying to do something with the comments, I wouldn' t count on it.)

Here's the thing. I'd like to be less indispensable with regard to adding the comment links. In addition, Haloscan has apparently made some change so that we can't edit comments any more.

So I tried to install Disqus, but for the life of me, I couldn't figure out how to get it to work all nice and integrated like it does at Americablog. So I went over to the old ShadowBFA url, which I have often used as my testing grounds for trying to figure such things out.

After trying long and hard and coming up empty-handed, I tried to reintall Haloscan over there, because that is where I "grow" the new comment threads. But for the life of me, I couldn't get Haloscan reinstalled. I've spent a couple hours trying to get back to where I was when I first started this little adventure. The ShadowBFA address still exists if you want to go back and look at old comment threads for whatever reason, but in the end, I had to set up a new blog for growing these threads. It can be found here.

One more thing...I'm having a rough couple of days, and the excursion into coding hell hasn't made things better. So if I came across cranky here, I'm sorry. It's the best I can manage at the moment. I hope no one has taken the crankiness personally, because that certainly is not my intention. But right now, I just need to step away from the computer for a couple hours.

Oh--and where it says "0 comments"--that's left over from when I tried to install Disqus. I will make that go away at a later time, when I am feeling slightly less hostile toward all things computer-related.

Haloscan comment thread