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Archives for December 2008

7 Great Examples Of WordPress Threaded Comments

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With the public release of WordPress 2.7, end users now have the ability to enable threaded conversations to take place on their blog. However, your theme must support this ability before you can turn them on. Within this article, I’ll highlight a few examples that can give you inspiration if you decide to style the way threaded comments appear on your site. Also, I’ll provide a few links as resources for more help on configuring threaded comments.

First up, Revolution 2. The following is a screenshot of the Revolution 2 Church Theme. This type of threaded comment design and layout has been applied to all of Brian’s themes.

One of the coolest implementations of threaded comments in WordPress 2.7 I have seen is on CDHarrison.com. By the way, he also has written a great post detailing the CSS classes that need to be added to a theme in order to style the way in which comments are displayed. Usually the Reply link is just that, a link. In this example, it’s more like a button.

Tarski is a free theme that now has support for threaded comments. This design is minimal in nature and also has a styled reply link.

Just Tadlock has announced that all of his themes now support comment threading with the exception of the Bliss theme. The following screenshot is how threaded comments look within the Hybrid Theme.

Maybe you’re looking for that white and gray look? Evening Sun by Spectacu.la should fit the bill.

Aeros 1.0.5 created by TheBuckMaker. A pretty extensible theme which now has threaded comment support.

The following screenshot is taken from the eVid theme which is part of the elegantthemes theme club. You can’t get it for free but you can be inspired by it.

Resources:

WordPress 2.7 Comment Enhancements
WordPress 2.7 Comment Style Starter 1
WordPress 2.7 Comment Style Starter 2
WordPress 2.7 Theme Enhancements Part 3 – Threaded Comments Edition
Make Threaded Comments Compatible With Versions Of WordPress Earlier Than 2.7

Conclusion:

While I had a really difficult time styling threaded comments on my own blog, the images shown within this post clearly demonstrate that it’s possible to control the look and feel of the way in which threaded comments are displayed. With more documentation being released and more people sharing their tips and strategies, I think I may go back in and give it another shot.

Will you be using threaded comments on your WordPress 2.7 installation? Know of any other great resources or design inspiration for threaded comments? Share them in the comments.

WordCamp Chicago Now Has A Date

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I just found out a few hours ago that WordCamp Chicago now has the confirmed dates of June 6th and 7th, 2009. The event will consist of a full day Saturday with Sunday being a half-day of presentations. Also in the works is a possible meetup before the event. The venue has yet to be chosen but once it is, it will be announced on the WordCamp Chicago website which has a spiffy design by the way.

As it stands, Matt Mullenweg, Mark Ghosh, Sarah James, and Jeremy Wright have been confirmed as speakers. The speakers list will be updated as they are confirmed so be sure to keep tabs on the Speakers List. In fact, it’s worthy of mentioning that the founders of this particular WordCamp are Lisa Sabin-Wilson, Brian Gardner, Wendy Piersall and Cory Miller, an all-star lineup if you ask me.

I bring this particular event up because I will be making every effort possible to be in attendance. I’ve talked with David Peralty and he too might make the trip. If you live in or around the Chicago area, mark this event on your calendar as WordCamps are simply a blast both in and outside of the event. If you don’t have an idea what a WordCamp is, check out this primer I wrote, What Is A WordCamp?

What do you say? Will I be seeing you in Chicago come June of 2009?

Perfcast Episode 16 – Managing More Than Forums With Patrick O’ Keefe

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Patrick O’ Keefe, author of Managing Online Forums was our special one hour guest. In this episode we discussed a wide variety of topics related to managing forums such as:

  • A short checklist of things to consider before even thinking about starting a forum.
  • Describing the difference between managing a forum and managing a blog
  • How can one extend the skills they learn from managing forums to entire online communities
  • What do you think of gated communities like Hive or my own Branding David Members area
  • You are selling one of your blogs, what do you think of people selling “communities”
  • Should every major blog or site have a forum for community interaction
  • What is your best advice for someone who has set up a forum, but it hasn’t become a community

Those topics are just the tip of the iceberg! We also had quite a chatty bunch with us in the live chat room which was awesome to see. They provided us with a couple of great questions that Patrick had no problem answering. Although we simply couldn’t discuss everything we wanted to within a 60 minute time period, Patrick will definitely be on the show in 2009 to provide even more insight into the realm of forums and online communities.

ANNOUNCEMENTS: Jonathan Bailey Of PlagiarismToday to discuss content theft as well as his blogging career thus far

BLOGGING JOB OF THE WEEK: b5Media looking for bloggers who can write about Cars, Men’s Fitness, Cigars and Liquor and other manly topics. – http://jobs.problogger.net/view/1875

LENGTH OF EPISODE – 1 Hour 16 Minutes

NEXT EPISODE – December 18th, 2008 at 7 P.M. EST

ITUNES – Click here to subscribe to the show via iTunes

DOWNLOAD THE SHOW: PerfcastEpisode16.mp3

LISTEN TO EPISODE 16 OF PERFCAST:

Patrick O’ Keefe On Perfcast

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On this weeks edition of Perfcast, our special guest will be Patrick O’ Keefe author of the book, Managing Online Forums. The name might sound familiar to you considering I published a large two part interview with him back in June which you can view here (Part 1 – Part 2) As you might have guessed, David and I will be grilling Patrick on all sorts of issues relating to forums, online communities, and also, running his own blogging network iFroggy. To catch a glimpse of the discussion to take place later today, check out the interview I conducted with Patrick on BloggerTalks this week.

WordPress 2.7 Sees The Light Of Day

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It didn’t take long for the team to release WordPress 2.7 after RC2 was released just a few hours prior. Despite any confusion that may arise from two versions being released in the same day, I highly encourage anyone that is using WordPress to upgrade to the latest release (WordPress 2.7). There is simply too much bundled in this new version to pass up in favor of a later release.

Just to name a few reasons:

  • Customizable Dashboard
  • User Interface That End Users Can Control
  • Browse And Install Plugins From Your Administration Panel
  • Automatic Core Upgrades
  • Automatic Theme Upgrades
  • A Write Panel That Is 100 Times Better Than The One In WordPress 2.3

I’ve been using WordPress since the 2.2 days. I know, it’s not a long time but 2.7 is by far the most exciting release for me as it introduces a user interface that reeks of pure awesome. Think about it, with 2.7, we now have automatic upgrades, plugin installation/upgrades, and theme upgrades all available as core features. I and many others have claimed this to be the holy grail of WordPress. I’m really impressed that ideas that have been discussed in prior months have turned into reality. A nice, shiny, polished reality at that.

Will you be upgrading to WordPress 2.7 sooner rather than later? What is your favorite feature in 2.7?

Comment Form vs. Contact Form: Do You Mistake One for the Other?

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Many of the blogs I run, manage or write for contain a handy contact form for directly emailing the blog’s owner straight from the browser. For those familiar with the difference, you would know that contact forms send email directly to the blog owner or author, while comment forms will leave a message viewable by the public. For instance, you can use this form to email me directly. Or you can leave a public comment at the comment box below.

But apparently, to some, it makes no difference whether you leave a comment or send an email as long as the message goes through. The mixup sometimes results in headaches and annoyances. For instance, a reader could be writing with the intent of replying to an existing comment. But if he uses the contact form, then the messages goes only to you. Are you obliged to re-post the message as a comment?

Or perhaps a reader wants to send you something in private, but instead publishes a comment. It’s probably easy enough to just unpublish the comment and respond to the writer via email (WordPress conveniently sends you alerts when there are new comments). But what if that message contained something you’d rather not have everybody read? Even if you hit the “unpublish” link, you can’t be sure that a comment would not leave traces (such as in comment RSS feeds).

There’s a simple solution, and this involves properly identifying both your email forms and comment forms. On the email form, you can write something like:

We appreciate your feedback. Please use the form below to send a direct message to the author/owner of this blog. Messages are sent directly to the author’s email inbox and will not be viewable by the public. If you wish to post a public reply, comment forms are available at the end of each article.

And then for comment forms:

Comments entered in this form are published for public viewing (once approved from moderation, if applicable). If you wish to send the author a private message, please use the contact form.

With luck, this should result in less confusion, and your readers will appreciate being told where their message will go.

Make Progress Everyday

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There isn’t going to be much brilliance to this post. It’s not going to blow you away. It’s not going to offer a panacea for Utopian automatons (like me).

But really, it’s the most precise and useful way that I’ve found to proceed with my online endeavors in a bad economy.

Make progress every day.

What does this mean in concrete terms? Well, it means spending a little more time making things happen and a little less time absorbing information. It means that you stop reading, and start doing. It means that you identify 1 or 2 simple goals and accomplish them. It means that you stop putting out fires for a day, and instead move things forward.

It means doing that guest post you’ve been planning to do for 2 months. It means networking with someone new for the first time in 6 months. It means sucking up your pride and asking for help when you need it.

The last three weeks have been the most productive of my life. Why? Because every day I’ve been waking up and rather than looking at stats and revenue sheets, or chatting on AIM, I’ve been starting my day by getting at least one substantial thing completed. That may sound insignificant. But I’ve probably gotten more done in the last 3 weeks than the entire 3 months prior.

As the economic situation gets worse, the people and companies that will survive are the ones who are fundamentally productive. So do what you can to identify the things people need and want, and make them. Every day.