Can you tell us a bit about your website?
Though I started my first websites in the late 90s this is the only one where I still have server access :) It was registered in 2010 when php scripting language just was about to replace JSP, which I studied before. So this site was basically made as "blog" for my first steps in php. Several html-versions later I gave in to my passion of webdesign.
So over the years numerous articles about html and css filled the site and php is not one of the main keywords anymore. The texts about responsive webdesign created a lot of feedback and so the need of a more functional comment system appeared.
For sure, the next article on php-homepage.com will be about commentics, the best comment system I found along github, sourceforge and so on. I hope it will help this great "comment script" to spread in the german speaking internet.
How did you discover the Commentics site?
Unfortunately, google doesn't really rank commentics.com as well as it would deserve, a lot of scammers/spammers take the first places and so I had to dig deep in sourceforge respectively github to find Commentics.
What made you choose the script over others?
Commentics is the best in functionality and also security, as far as I can judge. Stability and scaling, which is important for my higher traffic sites. And without any doubt the most user friendly back-end I have seen among all open source comment systems. It is simply the one with the best back-end (tooltips/explanations included), has clean coding and what I was really surprised because among freelance and open source programmers it is very rare: Disciplined error handling including specific error messages, a good documentation and detailed changelogs. I would never use a system, not to talk about paying for, where I find only one error message for every possible fault case or "some changes" in patchnotes...
Not least Steven's helpfulness and overall skills when asking for help in the forum. And he does it for a very long time now, which shows his attitude to this project and its future.
What advice would you give to fellow admins?
Forget every other comment script/comment system; Commentics looks extensive at first glance and it may take some time to learn to manage it - it is worth it! If you think something is missing, just have a look in the forum and you will find out where to activate this functionality :)
How, if at all, did you customize the script?
The layout is already great (mobile-ready), so I just did some localisation, a little adaption in design, mostly colors to fit the particular sites appearance; And I use some of the many various options in the back-end for customisation, certainly.
What would you like to see added or improved?
Multisite :) I can guess it would be a massive change and maybe not even possible to realise, but for people managing several sites at once it would make Commentics to the swiss army knife of comment systems.
Have you ever needed to use the support site?
Yes maybe more than needed, confessing that I wanted to be sure that it is an active project. After reading a lot of old threads and communicating with the developer I can use Commentics with quiet conscience.
Has Commentics helped your website so far?
Just setting it up on productive sites, only hobby/test projects up to now. But I am confident it will lower my email requests and create a more active community on some of my projects.
Would you recommend Commentics to others?
Without any doubt! Already praised this system as much as a can, sorry it is the years of online marketing and I just regret that I have not found it earlier!
Do you have any final words to add?
Thanks to Steven for this really tidy "script" and the disciplined style of programming, what as seldom nowadays.