[chratcliff]

I've used Commentics for 3+ years now and just integrated this into a new site I'd been developing. I am happy with the changes since I last used it. Installing commentics on one of my sites led to a massive doubling of traffic when the site was previously stable. This was at least partially tied to comments and the growing volume of info on the site. I would definitely use a donate button if I saw one. Back when I was looking for a way to get comments on my site, the only comments systems I saw were for blogs, while I run a few static html sites. I can see how you ended up creating this and am grateful that you still support/develop it. 

Anyway, after using this so much I do have some ideas to pass along.

Like anyone else with a site, I get a lot of spam, and this happens whether I use a captcha or not so I've just removed it. I've been using akismet, and in combination with the excellent filters you've given us, I am finding that no spam has made it live in my first full week with 2.5. Big thank you for that, because these two combined has me feeling very confident that they won't make it live.

Something I'd like to see in the upcoming v3, is the ability to trust Akismet and just drop those comments  so that they do not need removal. I do realize that there are false positives, but they seem rare and it'd save me some time. I end up disabling comments at some point in a site's life, so that I no longer have to deal with deleting spam.

However, that you've added check boxes to let us mass-delete comments is wonderful and does help with this problem. I've realized it's better for me to let a couple of days' worth build up then delete it all at once

I assume that the new v2 of recaptcha will be in the upcoming new version. What led to me dropping the captcha entirely was my inability to modify the code in order to make the older recaptcha responsive. On mobile, it was breaking the page while securimage would not work properly on my kindle fire. It always said the code was wrong unless I pressed the reload button on the captcha. Using securimage on desktop was fine, but I didn't want mobile users to be frustrated. The new recaptcha seems to be responsive, so it would fit into my design. 

My idea on Akismet may apply to this as well, depending how it works when a commentor can't pass the single check and has to enter a captcha code. To be able to set those to need approval, regardless of them getting it right, for those of us who use instant approval for most comments.

Additional ideas:

Making show x entries on Manage Comments something we can set a default for. If you edit a comment, then go back it's returned to 10 entries. With ajax in the new version, maybe this won't be an issue at all.

Similarly, if sorting on manage comments would remember what we chose last, for example when handling reports.

Set administrator reply name ("Admin"), without editing the file would be more user friendly. Also for larger systems, maybe admin display name could be set per-user. I've had 3 people managing before, and the replies all coming as Admin was not ideal.

For newbie friendliness, using $cmtx_path = $_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'] . 'comments/  might be mentioned as an option on the integration page

The options in Pages seem out of place given everything else is pretty much under settings. Settings > Pages would work fine. I'm sure some people might not notice the little 'options' there and realize they can stop page generation without a comment or stop comments on all pages. 

Setting reference to cmtx_identifier was not working for me when using URL as the identifier. May be a server thing. 

Overall I'm very much looking forward to V3 and know it'll take some time. I hope to hear that it will still work similarly in regards to the generation of extra pages when a url has many comments. I set mine to display oldest first, so that comments are always in the same place. Search engines then index extra copies of my pages with the comments in the right place, resulting in a lot more users getting the answers they seek.

I appreciate you taking the time to read my suggestions even if they don't make it in. Thank you for Commentics and all your hard work!

[Steven]

Hi and thanks for your feedback. I always appreciate it, especially from long-term users.

Something I'd like to see in the upcoming v3, is the ability to trust Akismet and just drop those comments so that they do not need removal. I do realize that there are false positives, but they seem rare and it'd save me some time.

Yeah I think that would be a good feature for those with a very high degree of confidence in their service. As you said, it might discard a perfectly fine comment which I think would frustrate the user a lot if they'd taken time to write it but I guess that's a decision for the administrator. I assume you'd want the message after they have posted to say that the comment requires approval like normal? Also I'll need to think about the flooding aspect of it because the flooding prevention works by checking the number of recent comments by the user but if the comment never gets inserted then there won't be any to check.

However, that you've added check boxes to let us mass-delete comments is wonderful and does help with this problem.

Another way that you might not be familiar with is clicking the 'Spam' button when editing a comment. That will take you to a different page where you can delete all the comments from that user, ban them and add their details to the built-in spam filters, all in one click!

I assume that the new v2 of recaptcha will be in the upcoming new version.

Yeah it will have ReCaptcha v1, ReCaptcha v2 and Securimage. I've already done the admin settings for all three.

My idea on Akismet may apply to this as well, depending how it works when a commentor can't pass the single check and has to enter a captcha code. To be able to set those to need approval, regardless of them getting it right, for those of us who use instant approval for most comments.

It's an interesting idea. I'll have to see whether it's possible to detect if the user fails the first check. From my experience I fail the first check about 30% of the time.

Making show x entries on Manage Comments something we can set a default for. If you edit a comment, then go back it's returned to 10 entries.

In the new version there will be a setting in 'Settings -> System' to set the number of results per page. However this applies to every page so not only 'Manage -> Comments' but also 'Manage -> Bans', 'Reports -> Viewers' etc. Would you be happy with that?

With ajax in the new version, maybe this won't be an issue at all.

I'm afraid the ajax functionality will only be on the frontend.

Similarly, if sorting on manage comments would remember what we chose last, for example when handling reports.

I really like this suggestion. I could store this as a cookie for each page so for example on 'Manage -> Comments' it would remember that it was last sorted by approved and on 'Manage -> Pages' it would remember that it was last sorted by reference.

Set administrator reply name ("Admin"), without editing the file would be more user friendly. Also for larger systems, maybe admin display name could be set per-user. I've had 3 people managing before, and the replies all coming as Admin was not ideal.

I can totally see your point about having multiple admins and the user not being able to tell which admin is replying. The main reason it's in the files is so that it's translatable for those who have different languages. But if you're wanting to use the actual name of the admin then there obviously wouldn't be that need. I guess I could add a new setting in 'Settings -> Administrator' where the admin could select whether they want to use the reply name "Admin" or not, and if they don't then it would show a text field to enter their display name.

For newbie friendliness, using $cmtx_path = $_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'] . 'comments/  might be mentioned as an option on the integration page

Yeah I'm not sure why I didn't use that to begin with. Rather than an option, it should probably be the sole way to do it.

The options in Pages seem out of place given everything else is pretty much under settings. Settings > Pages would work fine. I'm sure some people might not notice the little 'options' there and realize they can stop page generation without a comment or stop comments on all pages.

I agree that it's too hidden. I've already moved the "stop comments on all pages" to 'Settings -> Layout -> Form' (the layout options are under the settings menu in the new version). Regarding the other two, I was actually thinking of making it so that it never generates the page until it has a comment (so there wouldn't be a setting) because it makes more sense to me, and converting the URL of the page to lowercase should probably be done anyway.

Setting reference to cmtx_identifier was not working for me when using URL as the identifier. May be a server thing.

Okay, I'll make sure to look into that prior to next release.

I hope to hear that it will still work similarly in regards to the generation of extra pages when a url has many comments. I set mine to display oldest first, so that comments are always in the same place. Search engines then index extra copies of my pages with the comments in the right place, resulting in a lot more users getting the answers they seek.

Yeah that's the current plan. I've noticed a few users have rightly raised this issue before, so I may set the default to oldest first in the new version. The comments can still shift pages if they're replied to though.

I would definitely use a donate button if I saw one.

Admittedly it's not very obvious but there is a way to donate. I just don't like scripts that show donate buttons everywhere so I wanted to make mine more subtle. There's an FAQ about it here:

https://www.commentics.org/support/knowl...article=16

[chratcliff]

I realized I've used it a bit longer than I thought and picked up some bad habits along the way, not rolling with changes and taking advantage of new features and overlooked some good stuff. I think that I should retract the suggestion on akismet. Not getting a chance to ban them is bad. I was not using ban very often, and didn't realize you'd given us the ability to remove all posts by that user. They're hitting me multiple times on different pages for sure, because I can see comment counts dropping quickly when banning some of these. I let it go for a day yesterday and am not disappointed that it's easy to get rid of them, so thanks. I just put this up on a site with 70k views a day and am very glad that it works this way, because it lets me get through the junk faster so I can start engaging with my community.

Maybe I'll revise that akismet suggestion to say, maybe we could have a spam button right on manage comments that allows multiple bans/delete alls at once? Because now I do feel a need to go at them each individually. That might be really complex but I think banning is the best way to go now that I'm aware of this. Maybe if not for v3, then some future revision if it's complex.

Banning does the IP, or just the name/email? I know IP bans aren't that effective anyway, just curious. It's disturbing that these bots were all coming every day, as they started immediately when I put the script up. Lot of nasties out there. 

Thanks for the response, it was insightful and will help me immediately. I'm glad to have provided some helpful suggestions and look forward to V3. I will submit an interview and hit that donate button as soon as I'm able

Edit: I guess if you can make cookies to remember our defaults, remembering that I want to ban email and delete all by this user would be great That would help a lot if my suggestion to be able to ban all them at once is too complex.