Changes were made to our commenting system during System Update 2006-06-29 aimed at increasing performance and improving the security of the system against comment spam.
We try to avoid making changes to the system that would require modification of your custom templates, unfortunately it was necessary to update the default base, article, photo, movie_review, music_review, and book_review templates in order to implement this updated commenting system. If you have customized any of these templates, it will be necessary to roll our updates back into your customized template in order to re-enable commenting on your blog. This page will explain how to add these changes into your custom templates. If you have not already customized your templates, then you can ignore these instructions; your blog will receive the updated system templates automatically.
As a result of this revision to the commenting system, the comment form (and Comment Verification image known as a CAPTCHA) does not display immediately when your blog article loads, the comment box will appear only when your visitor clicks on the Post a Comment link. Not only will this change reduce the amount of comment spam targeted at your blog, but it also will increase the speed at which your article pages load.
We apologize for the necessity of this change and for the lack of advanced notice.
Updating your Article Templates
Access your blog's control panel and go to Look & Feel > Templates. Click on Edit in the article row. Look for the following code in your custom template:
{{if allow_comments}}
{{if can_post}}
<div style="margin-bottom:20px;"><a href="#post_comment"><%= gettext("Post a comment") %></a></div>
{{/if}} <!-- can_post -->
{{/if}} <!-- allow_comments -->
It might look like this, depending on when you originally made your customization:
{{if allow_comments}}
{{if can_post}}
<div style="margin-bottom:20px;"><a href="#post_comment">Post a comment</a></div>
{{/if}} <!-- can_post -->
{{/if}} <!-- allow_comments -->
Change that code to the following:
{{if allow_comments}}
<div style="margin-bottom:20px;"><a href="#post_comment" onclick="return reveal_post_comment_inline(true, false);"><%= gettext("Post a comment") %></a></div>
{{/if}} <!-- allow_comments -->
Click on Update Live Template. Your article template should now be updated with the most recent code. If you have made customizations to your photo, movie_review, music_review, or book_review templates, repeat this step for each of your customized templates.
Updating your Base Template
Access your blog's control panel and go to Look & Feel > Templates. Click on Edit in the base row. Look for the following lines near the top of your base template:
{{include name="javascript.html"}}
If it exists, delete it. Your template may or may not contain this line depending on when you customized your template. If you find it, remove it, but if you don't see it there's nothing wrong.
Next, look for the following line:
</head>
and right above it, enter the following:
{{include name="utils.js"}}
<script language="JavaScript" type="text/javascript"><!--
// translate common phrases
translator.settext("by", "<%= gettext("by") %>");
translator.settext("Anonymous", "<%= gettext("Anonymous") %>");
translator.settext("on", "<%= gettext("on") %>");
translator.settext("Permanent Link", "<%= gettext("Permanent Link") %>");
translator.settext("Profile", "<%= gettext("Profile") %>");
translator.settext("Reply", "<%= gettext("Reply") %>");
// -->
</script>
Click on Update Live Template. Your base template will now be updated with the most recent code, and comment functionality should now be restored.
Need some help?
If you have customized your templates and want us to roll the new changes into your existing article or body templates, please contact us; we'd be happy to make these changes for you.
Again, if you have never customized your blog templates, then it is not necessary for you to make any changes to your blog templates, as these changes have automatically been integrated into the default templates.
Our apologies to all of our users for the necessity of these changes, we hope that the new commenting system will meet its goals of decreasing comment spam and increasing the speed of your blog.
