Post Archive
› December 16, 2003
MTIcon
When a weblog post receives many comments, it becomes somewhat of a visual chore to chunk through all that text and decipher each commenters name/alias or the associated URL. Understanding who said what can be very valuable in an extended group discussion. Many forum applications allow registered users to add an icon to their profile, but how about those of us who prefer not to use registration systems?
Victor of has created a nifty solution in the form of a Movable Type plugin called MTIcon. It's quite simple and elegant - if a commenter includes a URL, and if that URL has an associated favicon (the little graphic that shows up in the address bar), it will be added as a graphic along side their comment. Where the icon shows up in your template is up to you.
Comments
1. December 16, 2003 05:17 PM
2. December 16, 2003 05:45 PM
Dave S. Posted…
I gave it a shot, but won't use it long term. I'd imagine most will end up .htaccessing their icons. Too much overhead serving them to other site discussions, given how often some discussions can get hit.
3. December 16, 2003 05:53 PM
owen Posted…
seems like a very great idea. adds alittle extra to a long list of coments
4. December 16, 2003 06:43 PM
Nate Posted…
Dave: Maybe caching the icons is a better idea? Further, perhaps by running the icons through some sort of processing like GD Image or Image Magic one could resize and greyscale the icons for a bit of aesthetic consistency? I have no idea how easy/difficult doing these things would be, just thinking aloud here.
5. December 17, 2003 07:36 AM
victor Posted…
I agree my plugin is a bandwidth hog.
Right now it hits the server for every comment (even if a user has commented more than once) every time an entry is rebuilt, which is pretty harsh in my opinion, that's why I intend to implement a caching solution in the next versions.
As for greyscaling the icons, I don't think it's worth it. While it is doable, I think it adds a note of color and personality to each comment.
6. December 22, 2003 07:49 AM
Søren Madsen Posted…
I put together a little function in ASP/VBScript that does the same, if you're interested.
Grab it here
Scott Posted…
I don't have anything to say other than I think that is a great idea.
Here's hoping mine works