February 12, 2010

Old Plains Feeder Comments Restored

As you might recall, our old comment system was handled by Haloscan. That company was subsumed by a new one, JS-Kit that insisted that we change over to their Echo comment system. The changeover did not go smoothly, the old feeder screwed around trying until it seemed that everything was hopelessly wrecked. Angela, bless her heart, spent a great deal of time getting things to work again, but it seemed all the years of comments (over 7,000 of 'em) were lost to the big bit bucket in the sky.

Today, with a great deal of assistance from Igor at Echo, all the old Plains Feeder comments are back. We are now using the Echo system. I think the comment interface needs a bit of tweaking, but I'll wait for some feedback from our readers.

Thanks for 'bearing' with us.

11 comments:

  1. This is kind of a different comments interface, but it seems almost friendlier than the old Haloscan system (I've never been a big fan of the Haloscan comment interface, with everything popping up in a separate window).

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  2. I'd like to make it simpler and less cluttered, Laura. I don't need the pictures, for example. When it first started to work, it was so cobbled up with stuff (rich text editor, "'like" ratings, etc.) one could barely figure out where to type a comment. If and when I get to feeling better, I'll spend more time on the blogs.

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  3. BWAh! They didn't automatically switch me over!

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  4. of course, when they do I'll certainly need a tutorial.

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  5. So the most recent comment will be on top. Is that the way you want it?

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  6. I don't know how to change it, DB.

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  7. Basic HTML  is allowed, but there is no way to know it. I turned on the 'rich text' editor. Here is a link made with the editor. I can't find any way to change the comment order in the admin tools.

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  8. Are congrats in order? 

    I switched mine over today.

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  9. I had the same dilemma at Don't Let Me Stop You, compounded by the fact that I'm too cheap to pay for the Echo service. :) I opted to take this chance to move to WordPress (free version of course). 

    All the Blogger posts migrated, although I've noticed a few oddities. Most of the Haloscan/Echo comments did not transfer. I was able to move 57 comments, but those might all predate my switch to Haloscan. 

    I was able to export the comments as XML (about 1700), but the page I found on migrating them to WordPress seems to require features I don't get for free. Oh, well. I can always paste them into new comments one at a time in the new system. 

    My new home: 
    http://dontletmestopyou.wordpress.com/

    Finally adding Angela to the Nebraska part of the blogroll. :)

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  10. Great blog, Porkie

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  11. is Haloscan fromyour craeting, or just a game from you??

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