Comments
Posted on May 31, 2006 Posted by John Scalzi 18 Comments
I’m fiddling with a comment plug-in. There may be comment disruption while I fiddle. If your comment disappears, don’t panic — however you might want to hold off on making important comments until I’m done fiddling. However, if you want to attempt to leave comments in this comment thread, that might be helpful. Any comment is fine for the moment.
Update: Huh, that was interesting. The plug-in sent the comments into a dusky netherworld which apparently cannot be accessed by mere mortals. I’ve sent that plug-in away. You may now comment normally.
test again
Who Is Barbara Gilly?
She’s a writer.
Link to homepage?
If I had one, I’d give it to you.
Arggghh, how does one read her work then?
Sorry about that, John–it works well for me, though I’ve temporarily disabled it while trying to figure out if it can be made to fail gracefully when a non-JavaScript-using commenter appears.
Yeah, I suspected that might be the problem.
Are you implying that some comments are not important?
Are you trying to use the CCode plugin (the one that inserts a random number for later verification)? If so, then yeah, it is a problem that non-Javascript users can’t comment if you use it. I put up a little warning on my site saying you need to turn on Javascript to comment. That means both comments have shown up over the last month:-)
Isn’t it dreadful just how much work you have to go through to avoid comment spammers? Makes me want to scream some days.
Pssst. It is fine by me if you exlcude non-java folks fomr commenting.
Might drag them kicking and screaming into whatever century we are in now.
The problem, Bill, is that some people turn off Javascript to avoid especially annoying advertisements on certain sites.
Also, since I have java scripts turned off myself, it’s not an optimal solution for me.
Anachronistic Losers. Turn on Java!
Java != JavaScript.
HTH. HAND.
(Feeling all old-school today . . .
More seriously, I believe that JavaScript isn’t available to people who use Lynx because it plays nicely with screen readers. Accessibility is a good thing.)
Well, with modern browsers (read: Firefox), there is no problem having Javascript turned on, as it still doesn’t allow unwanted windows to pop up. I don’t see how anyone can use the web effectively without turning on Javascript. Some of the best sites out there, including Google, as vastely improved via Javascript.
As mentioned, Java does not equal Javascript. It was a bad choice of names, as Javascript has nothing to do with Java. I don’t turn on Java and refuse to. If I must use Java (or, even worse, ActiveX), I’ll fire up a quick copy of IE but shut it down as soon as possible.
And you can still read the site via Lynx, you just can’t comment. It seems a fair tradeoff to me, as CCcode has completely annihilated comment spam for me, and I was getting dozens and dozens of them every day on one of my blogs.
For those who use Firefox, I would highly recommend the NoScript extension. It blocks JavaScript, Java, etc. across the board by default, but allows you to whitelist known-benign URLs such that scripts and applets from those URLs can run unimpeded. Thus, you can usually block the scripts from embedded ads but still run scripts required for main-page functionality. It’s obviously not completely safe, as only total blockage is, but I’ve found it to represent an appealing middle ground.
… and I thought it was something I said. I feel better now. Thanks!