Okay, here’s the scoop so far. Installed and activated the WP plugin yclept Better Recent Comments, inserted the short-code calling the plug’s functiionality up at the end of a couple of posts on which there are comments, and learned to my annoyance that
- The plug only displays an excerpt of the recent comments, for which the default setting is ten (10) words
- The default setting for how many recent comments are displayed is five (5); both this and the above setting can be changed, but the procedure is a big, fat pain in the ass
- Most annoying of all, the post shows the latest comments irrespective of which post they’re appended to, which stymies my attempt to use the short-code at the bottom of each individual post, thereby dashing my hopes for restoring inline comments pretty thoroughly. This setting too can be customized, but it’s an even bigger PITA than the aforementioned two, requiring me to determine each individual post’s ID number and insert that into the WP function.php code as and when
So shit, man, I dunno. Overall, the plugin seems to work quite well at what it does, it’s just that what it does ain’t in line with what I WANT the thing to do. Worse, I really dislike the idea of putting the plugin’s accompanying widget in the left sidebar, seeing as how that real estate is already full-up with indispensable items; the last thing I need in there, seems to me, is line after line of more schtuff piled atop the poor blogroll list, which common courtesy betwixt Persons Of Blogge I hope people make use of and don’t wish to obscure in any fashion. The only option I can descry for alleviating this piss-poor situation is to either abbreviate the “Comments Policy” section or excise it altogether, which I figger can only lead to misunderstanding, insult, and woe.
Ah well, that’s the sit-rep as things currently stand. I’m thinking I might try deploying “Recent comments” at the bottom of the Donnybrook post rather than in the sidebar someplace. That’s gonna bring on the unwelcome side-effect of displacing the day’s posting further down the index page, and it ain’t as if it isn’t further down than I’d prefer already. Exacerbating that problem is the addendum I intend to add to the Flatbed Fundie post, necessitate by reasons I shan’t go into here.
Another item to which I need to attend soon is de-activating, then re-activating ALL the CF plugins to determine which of them, or which combination of them, is causing the agonizingly slow page-load times we’ve been suffering of late. Another damnable nuisance, time-consuming for sure but thankfully not too difficult a chore. Best of all, it won’t involve any mucking about with short-codes, C&P embeds, or PHP scripts.
I probably shouldn’t oughta bring it up lest I jinx myself, but another tragically deprecated WP plugin I much mourn the passing of was the “Recent posts” doohickey that attached a brief excerpt under the blogroll link whence it came. That was a good and useful function, I thought. If I’m not mistaken, I believe the execrable Blogger platform offers that appealing feature, one of the very few things that shitlib stinkhole has going for it.
I say again: man, I dunno. With all this housekeeping and maintenance shite heaped on my plate, staring me down imperiously—waiting, just…WAITING—it’s an everlovin’ blue-eyed wonder I ever get any actual writing work done around here at all. Le sigh…
Then again, though, I think back twenty-some-odd years to the Paleolithic blogging epoch, the primordial days of my OG Blogger infancy. Back then—in addition to being forced to walk fourteen miles to school in a blizzard, uphill each way—the primary blogware choice was between Greymatter and Movable Type, neither of which offered more than the most minuscule fraction of the customization options, reliability, ease of use, and wondrous capabilities of the almighty WordPress and MarsEdit combine. Such reminiscences call to mind a hoary old bit of bawdy doggerel.
In days of old
when knights were bold
and condoms not invented
We tied a sock
around our cock
and babies were prevented!
There are several variants of that ripping gag floating about in the untracked wilds of the Innarnutz, all of them funny as all hell.
Update! Okely dokely: Tacked on BRC at the fag-end of the Donnybrook, which I think looks pretty good and is gonna do us up nicely. Still displays just five comments, which I’m mulling bumping up to eight, perhaps ten. Sound off in the comments and let me know what you think.
Updated update! Now displaying eight (8) comments, excerpt length is twenty (20) words. Still not too gross an impingement on main page posts, I don’t think.
- Entries
I like it just fine. Nothing is ever perfect. This works nicely IMO.