please empty your brain below
Upgrade this comment at your peril.

Strandman | Homepage | 08.12.08 - 8:34 a.m. | #

HaloScan users will also get 12 engineers writing new features and improving the user experience.

That sentence alone would worry me... I'd hope that anyone tinkering with code was a 'developer' rather than an engineer. Or has the term 'engineer' taken on another new generic meaning since I last blinked?

As I always say, no such thing as a free lunch.

Blue Witch | Homepage | 08.12.08 - 8:57 a.m. | #

If threaded comments *are* an option, it might be worth at least giving them a trial run before turning them off. Threading can be really helpful, and although most implementations seem to make a pig's ear of it, it *should* be possible to devise a nice simple system that lets you go at least four levels deep.

Chris | 08.12.08 - 9:11 a.m. | #

I commented in my own blog a couple of weeks ago about the changes recently made to Google Maps, most of which seem to centre on the way you "interface" (hey - I just verbed!) with the maps as opposed to the what they actually do.

My solution to this would be: every time a computer programmer/web designer buys a car, the pedals should be shuffled about, but with no instruction as to which pedal now does what. As a bonus (we can call it a new version as opposed to just an bug fix) the steering wheel should be moved. On major version releases, the steering wheel should be hidden somewhere new.

My prediction on the haloscan changes is that everything will look different, all the buttons will be nice, smooth, almost tactile.... but the programming wont work

Simon | Homepage | 08.12.08 - 9:29 a.m. | #

mjufhhg ertsghjk poiuyyy ,nnnhjedfgt
ooo gftrlpoqasffj mjuioytr ghfgdrejkuio hgfds yhujikooo .

Rtedfgtyufghvbd mjuytr nbvcxzderfgh uio hgtr ghjhgtr uio poiuy nhuyt.
wtrej nhgf rty gy dsa ?

Colin in Thailand | 08.12.08 - 10:13 a.m. | #

Right, so the new version means you'll no longer be able to export comments, nor will you be able to set your own timezone. But it will have "karma ratings" added to it, so that's great!!!

I currently pay to be a premium Haloscan member (which is affordable and worth it, I feel) and I'm definite that I'll get more than 25,000 pageviews in a month, so this new upgraded version appears not to be free for me. Where does that leave me? There's no mention of cost in any of the FAQ...

The Girl | Homepage | 08.12.08 - 11:04 a.m. | #

Also, I've just noticed that the new version will only give administrators "partiall [sic] IP" addresses of commenters, "for privacy"; the old/current version offers full IP addresses. So if you want to ban people (eg. persistent trolls, abusive stalkers etc.), that will no longer be an option. Brilliant! I can't wait to upgrade!!!

The Girl | Homepage | 08.12.08 - 11:08 a.m. | #

Why,adverts?

jerym | 08.12.08 - 11:28 a.m. | #

They've bought everyone's email addresses and now they're going to try and turn it into an advertising laden "social" network. The best thing would be if Blogger produced an import (quick, before they block it) tool and got all the old comments built in). The native Blogger comment system is pretty good now. A few years ago I wrote a program to extract all of the comments for Willesden Herald from Squawkbox (which was supposed to be free but suddenly decided to charge £14 a year) and I turned them into static webpages. I added a bit of Javascript to my Blogger template to produce a link to the static "old comments" page for items dating back to the time of Squawkbox (the patheolithic). Aw, yeaaawwwwnn, where was I...oh yeah, then another bit of Jav
asc
r
sdkf

F Moon | Homepage | 08.12.08 - 11:28 a.m. | #

Re adverts: I should have said that was just a bit of guesswork by me. I have no evidence for it. However, they are not going to get money to pay "12 engineers" (Casey Jones?) (and probably means 1 and a dog) to do programming on a free comments system with no adverts.

F Moon | Homepage | 08.12.08 - 11:30 a.m. | #

If Haloscan has a backup to (own) disk utility, execute it now to get a copy of all your comments. Then you can do what WH did and preserve the old ones and switchover to native Blogger comments. If not, somebody write a utility to crawl a website and download all the Haloscan comments - though that very possibility is probably why they haven't been showing the older ones.

F Moon | Homepage | 08.12.08 - 11:33 a.m. | #

This reminds me of the furore that came about when Facebook decided to upgrade its design a few months ago.

Andrewh | 08.12.08 - 11:57 a.m. | #

JSKit has a tendency to e-mail all future comments in a given thread to everyone who left an e-mail address.

You may consider this a feature - or a bug.

Alex | Homepage | 08.12.08 - 12:35 p.m. | #

I tweeted about my frustration with this and unexpectedly got an almost instant response. They seem to want to be helpful.

Unfortunately, the bottom line is that I could make Haloscan school safe for my students, but I can't do this with JS-KIT. Maybe someone else could (my knowledge is somewhat limited) but I can't. So I'm having to switch comments off and move house. Lets hope edublogs don't decide to make sudden changes as well.

Then there's the problem of what will happen to my personal blog. It's a pain isn't it?

three-legged-cat | Homepage | 08.12.08 - 1:33 p.m. | #

I've not been close to Haloscan for a while but I used to help out a lot.

I'm pretty sure that, throughout, it was one guy (a student) who wrote and maintained the system in his part time. I don't think he made a fortune, as last time I heard from him, a couple of years back, he was looking for a fulltime job.

Doesn't change anything here of course but just in case anyone is under the impression that Haloscan was run by a company or group of people.

Gordon | Homepage | 08.12.08 - 1:43 p.m. | #

If Haloscan generates an XML backup and somebody sends me an example XML file to wh.mail1 at willesdenherald dot com, I have a program here that I could adapt to generate static webpages out of them, which you can then link to your blogger templates (the link will contain the blogger item id, that's how it can be done). I would then put the online as a free download. So you could then have something like http://
willesdenherald.blogspot....ld\\_archive.html with links to the old comments and the new. On brand new pages you could omit the link to the old comments, as per the present http://willesdenherald.blogspot.com.

F Moon | Homepage | 08.12.08 - 2:32 p.m. | #

I would then put THE PROGRAM online, that should say. (oops)

F Moon | Homepage | 08.12.08 - 2:33 p.m. | #

You would need hosting to save your static old comments pages to. Mine were hosted on Blogger when Blogger Pro was around and they are still there, but that facility is no longer available.

F Moon | Homepage | 08.12.08 - 2:34 p.m. | #

Anonymous Lefty got upgraded as a test case without any prior warning, and I believe they ended up losing all his old comments. Here was the response he ended up getting from haloscan: http://anonymouslefty.blogspot.c...t-we-
lucky.html (there's more of his haloscan story further back in November.

megan | Homepage | 08.12.08 - 3:05 p.m. | #

Oh bum.

Bye the bye, although I am a premium Haloscan user, I've never been asked for money after paying up the first time. That'll probably change too.

Ham | Homepage | 08.12.08 - 7:07 p.m. | #

@ bluewitch: be worried, but on the other hand take a look at 'community'-generated good-to-cool stuff:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/...tioncamp-
events
(but all the same, still be very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, worried coz 'Mulder&Scully' sit at the top table)
@Colin in Thailand; precisely
@The Girl: is that a pure buddhist definition of karme, or has it been 'monetised' somehow?
The collective 'we' in the Lee Delta harbour a deep hatred of comments that appear in pop-up windows. Does this model remain? Have their been successful consultations already? Can they therefore tell us what we think?

lee delta | Homepage | 08.12.08 - 9:44 p.m. | #

In the JS-Kit future, apparently, it won't be possible to delete fruitloop comments without leaving messy residue.

diamond geezer | Homepage | 08.12.08 - 10:14 p.m. | #

Hi everyone, Chris here from Haloscan/JS-Kit.

I just wanted to assure you that we are listening very closely to feedback. We intend to make the transition as smooth as possible and make the new experience as good or better than Haloscan.

Most JS-Kit features can be tweaked and toggled to make the experience as simple or as advanced as you like.

Please don't hesitate to reach out to the support team or on our blog for specific feature requests or troubles and we will nail the bugs as quickly as possible.

Cheers,

Chris

Chris Saad | Homepage | 13.12.08 - 3:46 a.m. | #

Hi,

A few answers about the new HaloScan Comment service:

~ The blogger controls all new features by turning them on or off, including: Threading, Photo upload, YouTube video support, Email notifications, and so on

~ HaloScan DOES NOT sell email addresses - period.

~ All Comment data has been backed-up. There are no "lost comments". There may be bugs from time to time that prevent a comment from being show but it is not lost.

~ The new service supports importing of existing Comments from Blogger and WordPress and AUTOMATIC update to the blog of all new Comments. This means you can remove HaloScan at anytime and have all of your comments with you.

~ We do not show ads.

~ We do not delete comments after 4 months.

~ You can ban or un-ban an IP address or a user at any time.

~ We have added the ability for readers to login with their FaceBook account or OpenID.

~ We have dedicated assistance for you: [email protected]

~ We have lots of documentation:

http://insiite.pbwiki.com/

~ You can try the new service, here:

http://js-kit.com/comments/haloscan.html

Please feel free to contact me directly with any problems or ideas for new features. [email protected]

Happy Holidays

khris | 24.12.08 - 7:41 p.m. | #











TridentScan v2.10.0 | Privacy Policy