Intense debate comments show then disappear

JB22 · **Joined:** Sat Feb 19, 2011 11:42 pm **Posts:** 5

Hi!

Hope you can help. I have seen comments on this but they are with MobileMe publishing. I am with IntenseDebate and have copied the code into snippets on two pages on my site. People have posted comments which are there for a while then they dissapear and I don't know why. When I log onto IDebate, they are all there. I publish to a server via FileZila and wondered what I should do. I really need a comment system on the site. Is it because I have pasted the same code on more than one page? Do I need to iFrame the code itself? I have no idea what to do.

Can you help?

Jb22

iWebFAQ · **Posted:** Sun Feb 20, 2011 1:27 am

Hi,

don't use HTML Snippets. I hate HTML Snippets! And I guess they are the problem on your page. Follow the tutorial I wrote and use Alternative HTML instead.

When you add an HTML Snippet a new page is created to which the code you add to the Snippet is added and this new Snippet page is then embedded into the page you added the Snippet to with an iFrame. This means that the code is not added to the page itself.

The URL of a Snippet looks like

Code:

http://yourdomain.com/Sitename//Pagename_files/widget6_markup.html

The important part here is this widget6_markup.html especially the number in it. This number changes depending on whether you add new HTML Snippets, remove HTML SNippets, change the position of the HTML Snippets or whatever.

IntenseDebate threads the comments by taking the URL of the page (HTML Snippet page) as the id to define whether a comment belongs to a page or to another. If the URL changes because the number of the Snippet changes of course the comments go nuts.

Regards,
Cédric

JB22 · **Joined:** Sat Feb 19, 2011 11:42 pm **Posts:** 5

Hi Cèdric

Thanks for the information. I have followed your tutorial and have everything in place. Just another two questions: say for example I get comments where I have included the alternative HTML, then I go in and make more changes generally in iWeb and re-publish following your steps, would existing comments still be there?

And second: if I had to make the text box bigger to fit more comments in and then re-published, would all comments still continue to show?

That's all from me. Look forward to your thoughts!

iWebFAQ · **Posted:** Mon Feb 21, 2011 6:12 pm

IntenseDebate takes the page's URL as the ID to thread comments.

Hence as long as as the URL remains the same (domain, sitename, pagename) the comments will be there. Making changes, re-publish and re-run MassReplaceIt is not a problem. Making the TextBox bigger is no problem either. Comments continue to show.

Regards,
Cédric

JB22 · **Joined:** Sat Feb 19, 2011 11:42 pm **Posts:** 5

Hi Cédric

Thanks so much for your help!

Its been a few days now and comments are still there!

This may be sad, but I'm actually really excited by this fact as I was literally thinking of trying to move my site to a Wordpress one - not that I know how to - but was considering it. I like iWeb as it's pretty easy to set up/amend etc.

JB22

JB22 · **Joined:** Sat Feb 19, 2011 11:42 pm **Posts:** 5

Hi Cédric

I hope you're well.

Sorry - I have another question on this, well more of a situation that's weird.

If i type in the website address (www.guideandinspire.co.uk into the bar and then go to where the comments are, they show up, but if I google the name of my website and click through from there, the comments are not there.

Any explanation?

Best
JB22

iWebFAQ · **Posted:** Sun Feb 27, 2011 12:40 am

For some reason it looks like Intense Debate differs www.guideandinspire.co.uk from guideandinspire.co.uk which is why entering

Code:

http://www.guideandinspire.co.uk/Inspired_Blog/Entries/2011/2/12_BFIs_Future_Film_Festival_-_inspired!.html

the comments display while entering

Code:

http://guideandinspire.co.uk/Inspired_Blog/Entries/2011/2/12_BFIs_Future_Film_Festival_-_inspired!.html

they don't.

I don't know why this is happening. Whether it's because of your hosting, iWeb or IntenseDebate but I don't see it happening on my rapidweaverfaq.org website. If you have a look at the comments at the bottom of this page:
http://rapidweaverfaq.org/site/comments.html
it equals the comments on
http://www.rapidweaverfaq.org/site/comments.html
hence same page with www.

What you could do is ask your hosting to make a htaccess rewrite rule to redirect people from with www to without www hence people would be redirected from

Code:

http://www.guideandinspire.co.uk/Inspired_Blog/Entries/2011/2/12_BFIs_Future_Film_Festival_-_inspired!.html

to

Code:

http://guideandinspire.co.uk/Inspired_Blog/Entries/2011/2/12_BFIs_Future_Film_Festival_-_inspired!.html

For example on my iwebfaq.org website whenever you type the URL including the www like
http://www.iwebfaq.org/site/iWeb_Facebook.html
you are redirected to the same page but without www
http://iwebfaq.org/site/iWeb_Facebook.html

Same for all other pages on the website. This way you wouldn't have the problem with different comments displaying depending on whether people type or not the www.

Regards,
Cédric

JB22 · **Joined:** Sat Feb 19, 2011 11:42 pm **Posts:** 5

Hi Cédric

Wow, sorry for the long reply. Thanks for your feedback. The problem I can say is solved. It was an issue with Google. Had to add some meta code and it's sorted now.

I appreciate your help with this. I'm using MassReplaceIt for a few other things.

JB22