From f1e59f905c1ec629f7976e5d6c3a7a21283ed6e7 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: "M. Taylor Saotome-Westlake" Date: Sun, 5 Apr 2020 22:19:01 -0700 Subject: [PATCH] announce comments --- content/2020/dont-read-the-comments.md | 16 ++++++++++++++++ theme/templates/base.html | 2 +- 2 files changed, 17 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-) create mode 100644 content/2020/dont-read-the-comments.md diff --git a/content/2020/dont-read-the-comments.md b/content/2020/dont-read-the-comments.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..0c8b229 --- /dev/null +++ b/content/2020/dont-read-the-comments.md @@ -0,0 +1,16 @@ +Title: Don't Read the Comments?? +Date: 2020-04-05 22:30 +Category: other +Tags: meta, Python + +Historically, _The Scintillating But Ultimately Untrue Thought_ has not provided a comment section. There were two reasons for this. + +First, technical limitations, downstream of technical æsthetics. There are standard out-of-the-box blogging hosts—your [WordPress](https://wordpress.com/), your [Medium](https://medium.com/), _&c._—that are easy for anyone to use, at the cost of taking control away from the user, locking access to _your soul_ away on someone else's server, or, at best, obfuscated in some database behind opaque gobs of PHP. My real-name blog (started in December 2011, when I was much less technically adept) is still running WordPress, and I'm sad about it. In contrast, this blog is produced using the [Pelican](https://blog.getpelican.com/) static site generator from Markdown text files, [versioned in Git](http://unremediatedgender.space/source?p=Ultimately_Untrue_Thought.git)—simple tools I _understand_, producing flat HTML files that Nginx can serve. When I don't like something about my theme or my plugins, I'm not at the mercy of the developers; I can just fix it myself. The lack of a database meant forgoing a comment section, but that seemed like a small loss, because— + +Second, internet comment sections are _garbage_ and I don't want to be bothered to moderate one. I thought, people who are actually interested in replying to my writing can write a longform response on their own blog (please?—I'll link back), or on Reddit when I share to [/r/TheMotte](https://www.reddit.com/r/TheMotte/); and people who want to talk to me can find [my email address](mailto:ultimatelyuntruethought@gmail.com) (checked less often than my real-name email; I regret any delays) on [the About page](/about/). + +So I thought, and yet—first, the same do-it-myself æsthetics that make static-site generators attractive, make me cautiously open to the idea of a comment section that I can configure and host myself, rather than being held commercially hostage by the likes of [Disqus](https://disqus.com/). Second, perhaps some small consolation for never being a popular writer (I'm not prolific enough, and occupying too _weird_ of a niche), is that maybe _my_ readership is exclusive and discerning enough for the comments section to _not_ be garbage. + +So, as an _experiment_—no promises or warranties—I've set up an instance of the [Isso](https://posativ.org/isso/) commenting engine to host a comments section at the bottom of each indivdual post page. + +Don't make me regret this. diff --git a/theme/templates/base.html b/theme/templates/base.html index 0861d51..dc81d7b 100644 --- a/theme/templates/base.html +++ b/theme/templates/base.html @@ -107,7 +107,7 @@ ©2016–2020 {{ AUTHOR }} • Creative Commons License This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

- Proudly powered by Pelican. Theme modified from pelican-simplegrey. Site source. + Proudly powered by Pelican. Theme modified from pelican-simplegrey. Comments powered by [Isso](https://posativ.org/isso/). Site source.

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