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diff --git a/build/posts/poormans-comment-system/index.html b/build/posts/poormans-comment-system/index.html new file mode 100644 index 0000000..4a4db92 --- /dev/null +++ b/build/posts/poormans-comment-system/index.html @@ -0,0 +1,83 @@ +<!doctype html> +<html lang="en"> +<head> + <meta charset="utf-8"> + <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1"> + <meta name="color-scheme" content="dark light"> + <link rel="icon" href="data:,"> + <title>My Cheapskate Commenting System</title> + <link href="/atom.xml" type="application/atom+xml" rel="alternate" title="Atom feed for blog posts" /> + <link href="/rss.xml" type="application/rss+xml" rel="alternate" title="RSS feed for blog posts" /> +<style>*{box-sizing:border-box;}body{font-family:sans-serif;line-height:1.33;margin:0 auto;max-width:650px;padding:1rem;}blockquote{background:rgba(0,0,0,0.1);border-left:4px solid;padding-left:5px;}img{max-width:100%;}pre{border:1px solid;overflow:auto;padding:5px;}table{text-align:left;width:100%;}.footnotes{font-size:90%;}</style> +</head> + +<nav> + <a href="#menu">Menu ↓</a> +</nav> + +<main> +<h1 id="my-cheapskate-commenting-system">My Cheapskate Commenting System</h1> +<p>2022-02-03</p> +<p>My blog now has comments! Well, <em>kind of</em>…</p> +<p>I went down a two day long rabbit-hole trying to find the best solution for implementing comments on my static website (generated via Jekyll FYI). There are a ton of options out there and many open source models that allow you to spin up your own instance with something like DigitalOcean or AWS. But I’m a cheap bastard. I refuse to spend $5/month on a blog mostly used for fun and one that I have zero incentive to “monetize”.</p> +<p>So, what <em>free</em> options did this old miser have left to chose from? To my surprise, there were two solid options that initially caught my eye! Let’s take a look then, shall we?</p> +<h2 id="remarkbox">Remarkbox</h2> +<p>Overall I don’t have many bad things to say about <a href="https://www.remarkbox.com">Remarkbox</a>. It looks nice, is easy to implement and runs a “pay what you can” pricing model. What more could you ask for?! The major issue (for me, <em>personally</em>) is precisely <strong>that</strong>; the free model. This makes it difficult for me to trust 100% that this system will still be around in 3-4 years. Now I know - even paid systems can shutdown unexpectedly, but I find free tier options end up shutting their doors sooner. There is an option to self-host Remarkbox, but that requires a yearly license and also comes back to the point I made about not wanting to pay for hosting…</p> +<h2 id="utterances-github-based">Utterances (Github-based)</h2> +<p>The other major option was <a href="https://utteranc.es">Utterances</a>. This system was almost the winner due to it’s pretty great feature set:</p> +<ol> +<li>Open source</li> +<li>No tracking, no ads</li> +<li>All data stored in GitHub issues</li> +<li>Free!</li> +</ol> +<p>But take a look above at point number three. The fact that readers wishing to leave a comment are <strong>required to have a Github account</strong>. For me, this is a non-starter. I don’t want to force my audience to sign up for or sign in to <em>any</em> account just to leave a simple comment on my humble blog. Considering a number of my readers are part of the FOSS community, this just seemed like a bad fit.</p> +<h2 id="finding-inspiration">Finding Inspiration</h2> +<p>I absolutely love the <a href="https://solar.lowtechmagazine.com">solar.lowtechmagazine.com</a> website (both for it’s content and design) and indirectly found my comment system inspiration there. Okay let’s be honest, I completely stole their commenting system “concept”. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, right?</p> +<h2 id="my-comment-system-is">My Comment System is…</h2> +<p>E-mail. It’s just <strong>plain e-mail</strong>.</p> +<p>I’ve setup a basic <code>comment-prompt.html</code> in my <code>_includes</code> folder that contains a <code>mailto</code> action button[^1]:</p> +<pre><code><a href="mailto:myemail.com?subject=RE: { { page.title | uri_escape } }"> + <button>Comment via email</button> +</a> +</code></pre> +<p>This include template is placed at the bottom of every article automatically. Then, that action pulls in the article’s title as the e-mail subject line in the user’s default mailing app. That’s it.</p> +<h2 id="pros">Pros</h2> +<ul> +<li>No third party application needed</li> +<li>Privacy focused</li> +<li>More direct interaction with my audience/readers</li> +<li>Builds a much more close-knit community</li> +<li>Completely free!</li> +</ul> +<h2 id="cons">Cons</h2> +<ul> +<li>Must be manually curated and posted</li> +<li>No notifications</li> +<li>No “built-in” reply functionality</li> +<li>Has the potential to become unwieldy…</li> +</ul> +<h2 id="fun-experiment">Fun Experiment</h2> +<p>I figure either way, this will be an interesting experiment. I don’t know my audience size (since I don’t use any type of tracking) but I assume it’s very small. Those willing to write me a personal e-mail in order to share their thoughts on my stupid little blog probably have something interesting to say. At least I hope so. </p> +<p>Let’s see how this thing goes…</p> +<footer role="contentinfo"> + <h2>Menu Navigation</h2> + <ul id="menu"> + <li><a href="/">Home</a></li> + <li><a href="/projects">Projects</a></li> + <li><a href="/uses">Uses</a></li> + <li><a href="/wiki">Wiki</a></li> + <li><a href="/resume">Resume</a></li> + <li><a href="/colophon">Colophon</a></li> + <li><a href="/now">Now</a></li> + <li><a href="/donate">Donate</a></li> + <li><a href="/atom.xml">RSS</a></li> + <li><a href="#top">↑ Top of the page</a></li> + </ul> + <small> + Built with <a href="https://git.sr.ht/~bt/barf">barf</a>. <br> + Maintained with ♥ for the web. <br> + Proud supporter of <a href="https://usefathom.com/ref/DKHJVX">Fathom</a> & <a href="https://nextdns.io/?from=74d3p3h8">NextDNS</a>. <br> + The content for this site is <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/">CC-BY-SA</a>.<br> The <a href="https://git.sr.ht/~bt/bt.ht">code for this site</a> is <a href="https://git.sr.ht/~bt/bt.ht/tree/master/item/LICENSE">MIT</a>. + </small> +</footer>
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