Rabit holes. Sometimes you learn something, sometimes you never come back out, and sometimes you come out missing a bit of your liver.

Diving Into Comments

The idea of adding comments to my blog, has been scratching at my brain for a while. Yeah, comments on a static site are a pain. But there are some good systems that work around that. What’s the harm in just taking a quick look.

Every time I decide to just take a “quick look”, it’s never quick. It’s a deep dive. And that’s what I did.

I started with trying to get Kev’s Pure Comments up and running. While I know how to set up a static site, PHP ain’t my shit. And I was running into issues, because of that knowledge gap. So, I quickly pivoted.

My next attempt, was with Remark42. Something not php based, and it ships as a binary file. This should be a little easier…

I spent a whole day poking at Remark. Running into issues getting it to do what I want. And I’ve learned when you are stuck on something. Get outside, and go for a walk.

Birbs

With the weather being decent, I filled up my camelbak, grabbed my camera, and set out for my local Audubon bird sanctuary. The goal, let my brain stop working on the issue full throttle. Let myself think through the issues, and enjoy the birds.

Walking in, things here are looking way better that the last time I was here. Last time, the state had done a controlled burn, to clear out the dead plants, and let things regrow.

While walking, I spent some time thinking. I was probably going to continue with Remark. It runs its own server, so that makes things easy to reverse proxy though Caddy. At the same time. I was also trying to to get a shot of the birds flying all around the field. Little bastards were moving fast, and a pain to keep in the view finder.

A Tree Swallow. Not a great photo, but this bugger was a pain.

I think my main issues with me Remark, was my config. Remark has a ton of options. I probably just have those set wrong. Or I need a better testing set up. Something closer to how it will be when deployed. Currently things are limited to my local net. I’ll have to set up a test site on a side domain, and get some reverse proxying going. That will be pretty easy to set up… Hold up.

I haven’t been this deep into the sanctuary before. I tend to stick to the wood trails. But I’ve just been walking the field trail. Clearly thinking a little too much. Ooo, a small stream.

Tire tracks. Probably left over from the burn crew. And… power lines.

I am getting some real FireWatch vibes. This lone bench isn’t helping with that.

Hello Robin.

Before I knew it, I was at the very back of the sanctuary. So, with nowhere else to go, I started heading back.

I didn’t get many shots on the way back. Mostly because a bee started chasing me. I have no idea was kind it was, I didn’t bother to turn around and check. I just kept moving. I’m not allergic, but the last time I got stung was, less than enjoyable. Grant it, that was a Texas red wasp.

After the terror bee gave up, I got one more birb.

Time to head to the car. I want to get some food from the local Sheetz.

Back To Head Smashing

Back home, I got back to work. I figured out the Remark config on FreeBSD. Got it working on the test site. Got anonymous comments working, and started working on a login provider.

This is where I lost a bit of the liver. I won’t dive into it, but in short: oAuth on a separate domain (and to some extent a subdomain) is a pain in the god damn ass. I worked on this for a couple hours, stopping for a pizza break in the middle. In the end, I just said screw it. And started putting the energy into Pure Comments.

With some work (and reading), I got Pure Comments working on my test page. The server side was working, and the comment form was loading. Except, I couldn’t post a comment. I’m thinking this was due to my stubbornness. As I wanted this running on the same server as my site. Kev (from what I can tell) made Pure Comments with Apache and Nginx in mind. And I use Caddy. And I still have a PHP hosting sized hole in my head. So, I had an idea. Fuck it.

Electronic Mail

Web comments, are cool, and fancy. Whole classes of websites are built around them. Some site types wouldn’t be quite the same without them. But I don’t think a personal blog needs them.

Comments are just that, cool, and fancy. And I really like the old school blog. Static, made locally, and nothing fancy. And what isn’t more old school static blog, than having just an email reply link.

Don’t get me wrong, both of the offerings I looked at seem great. But I just don’t think, that I’m actually in the market for a comment system. Sometimes, the only way to tell if an itch is something you actually want, is to give it a scratch. Just don’t scratch your skin off.

Anyway, I need to top up the bird feeder. The birds get unhappy when the seed runs out.