This Magic Widget Makes Your Comments Pretty…
ARRRRRRGHH! I was ready to pull out my hair, kick a kitten, and toss my laptop out the second floor window of my office when this widget came to my rescue.
It turns out my comments were not “threading” properly so whenever somebody replied to a comment it wouldn’t appear under the original comment.
Gosh, the comment section of this blog was starting
to look like a Twitter feed!
So a few friendly readers like Justin S King, and Michaelé Harrington took it upon themselves to poke me with a stick until I fixed the problem – And rest assured that I wanted too – but it wasn’t easy.
I activated ten widgets. I punched dozens of buttons on my Wordpress dashboard. I read every article that ever existed on “comment threading” and they all seem to require a degree in computer science or sewing needles…
I confess, I was totally lost when Michaelé Harrington came to my rescue with simple, practical advice, and the Excalibur (King Arthur’s Sword) of comment threading widgets!
Michaelé Harrington said: “Hey this is totally off topic but I’ve noticed the same funky thing happening with your blog comments that was happening with mine. That being, when you reply to someone, they don’t ‘nest’ properly. E.g you set some time aside to reply to comments and suddenly end up with “Hi Mary, Hi Bob, Hi Tom” all in a row instead of nesting properly under that persons comment.
Well, talk about hot plugin of the month but after reading a friends blog the other day, (Kary Rogney) I found there’s an awesome solution that I think you are going to love! It’s called ‘Wordpress Thread Comment’. I won’t put a link to the plugin here as I don’t want the ever efficient Akismet to knock me into the abyss lol.”
Well, thank you, thank you, thank you Michaelé!
You have no idea how many screaming hours of frustration you saved me – and how many kittens too…
But here’s why this widget is soooo coool…
Not only does it “thread” or “nest” or “whatever” your comments but it also lets you control the design elements too. So you’ll notice that my replies now appear in a nice tint of blue… and… drumroll please….
Brrrrrrr…..badddaburrr…. bing!
My replies appear under your comments!
Now, doesn’t that make perfect sense? I’ve been looking for a solution to this problem for ages and this proves that once and for all… that I learn every bit as much from you as you do from me – So thank you!
Now, go visit Michaelé Harrington and give her a group hug…
To your success,
Jason The “Better Networker”
The Jason Better Blog
P.S. Disclaimer: In order to control design elements with “Wordpress Thread Comment” you have to know basic html and how to use hex colors, but the widget still works “out of the box” so to speak… so it’s user friendly.
P.P.S. Save A Kitten - every time you “retweet” this post you’re saving a kitten’s life. It’s easy to do, just look for the little green “retweet” button on the top of this post and “Mittens” will thank you.
P.P.P.S. Only five kittens were harmed during the writing of this post.
42 Comments
Michael Cole on February 17th, 2010
Hi Jason,
I was hoping you would tell us the plugin looks way cool.
Thank you Michaelé for sharing.
Michael
[Reply]
February 17th, 2010 at 2:45 pm
Definitely,
Took a while to get the layout right.
And a little HTML looking up.
[Reply]
Wayne Vassell on February 17th, 2010
Hey Jason,
That makes things a lot better! I use “disqus” on my blog, however your one sounds cool with the customization aspect.
Nice tip.
[Reply]
February 17th, 2010 at 2:47 pm
Wayne,
Disqus is way cool. I’ve used it on other blogs
in the past and highly recommend it to anybody here.
Awesome.
[Reply]
Ilka Flood on February 17th, 2010
Thank you, Michelle, for sharing it…
…and thank you ,Jason, for posting it.
Now I’ve got a cool tool to share with my husband. He’s always the one who shares cool stuff with me 
[Reply]
February 17th, 2010 at 2:48 pm
Haha…
I know that feeling.
Sometimes I feel like everybody is two steps ahead of me.
[Reply]
Ilka Flood on February 17th, 2010
Oh, sorry, my apologies for misspelling your name, Michaele.
[Reply]
Richard Walsh on February 17th, 2010
That is a very useful bit of info aand very worthy of a retweet! Thanks to both of you.
[Reply]
Marcus Baker on February 17th, 2010
Hi Jason and thanks to you and Michaelé. I have been wondering how to sort this out too but at this stage got as far as adding it to my list of “How can I get…” At least it’s one I can fix and tick off.
Cheers
Marcus
[Reply]
Chris Owen on February 17th, 2010
Hey Jason,
I always thought that you did that on purpose. Funny.
I have had a page up on my website in the free area for the past two months with that plugin listed and explained.
Themes like thesis and flex don’t have this issue, but a lot of the free themes do.
I have to say, I have never seen the double avatar before. What theme is this?
[Reply]
February 18th, 2010 at 9:35 am
Hey Chris,
It’s a custom theme but I’m not sure what
theme it was adapted from.
So I hope i can sort out the double avatar thing
without too much fuss.
I wish I would have seen your page sooner. 
[Reply]
February 18th, 2010 at 7:50 pm
Hey Jason,
I have another suggestion for you. I sometimes click on the names of the comments to go check out their sites. Your site is replaced by the site that I click to.
If you add the “open in a new window” plugin, your site will stay in the background. That way, if you link out in your blog, and someone clicks it, your blog will still be in another tab.
[Reply]
February 18th, 2010 at 8:03 pm
Way cool!
I’m going to have to do a whole widgets post
about plugins recommended by readers here.
I think a lot of people would benefit.
Justins S King on February 17th, 2010
Awesome. I don’t even have inline/threading comments on blog. I was waiting for you to test them all for me.
[Reply]
Amy on February 17th, 2010
This is great, Jason.
Hey, speaking of widgets, do you mind if I ask what widget you use to display your blog posts?
Thanks for everything… as usual!
[Reply]
February 18th, 2010 at 9:32 am
Hey Amy,
If you mean, “How do I display so many
blog posts on the main page.”
It’s the “more” tag when I write the posts.
You just click the little button that says
“more” and that cuts the rest of the article underneath
and hides it.
[Reply]
February 18th, 2010 at 11:47 pm
Oops… I meant to say Twitter posts… which widget/plugin do you use to display your Twitter posts? Yours is sleeker than any that I’ve found .
Sorry about that confusion!
[Reply]
February 19th, 2010 at 8:52 am
Hey Amy,
It’s called “Twitter for Wordpress”
Hope that helps.
Sometimes it displays a little funky, but I think
it depends on the browser. Still, in general it’s
my fave so far.
Dee Light on February 17th, 2010
Ohhhhh my dear Jason,
I am crying as I write this—-crying tears of EXTREME laughter—–can’t stop—-oooo tummy hurts. K—I retweeted—-are the kitties all ok now? pooooor lil things. Gosh jason. You are such a gift to us all.
Thank you so much!! (I am no where near being ready for this widget thing—-but the post MADE my day).
Now where’s the box of kleenex—whew.
[Reply]
February 18th, 2010 at 9:41 am
I’m glad Dee…
It’s not the most popular post here, but I thought
it was pretty funny myself.
The kitten abuse thing must have scared away
some people. lol.
[Reply]
Rebecca geiger on February 18th, 2010
How many kittens must be saved??!!!
I promise to twitter to save a kitten so they can grow up and eat the birds
Excellent! I am on my way to be a super threader.
Gosh This Blog Rocks. Do they have a plug-in that has a rock blog star? I give you 42 outa 10!
[Reply]
February 18th, 2010 at 9:45 am
Haha!
I think 42 outta ten might be a little
extreme.
But I always look at it this way…
Everybody here votes with comments, retweets,
facebook shares, and social bookmarking.
Stars are just shiny baubles.
[Reply]
February 18th, 2010 at 9:57 am
ps. If anyone wants to pick a pretty color for your comment color and don’t know how to get the Hexadecimal formula… go here:
http://www.colorblender.com/
[Reply]
Dave Marsh on February 18th, 2010
I went to the Wordpress site and found the plugin, but when I go to install it, I get a message saying it’s compatible up to WP version 2.7.1. The current version is 2.9.2. Can anyone attest to its functionality in the later version?
Thanks.
[Reply]
Rhonda Miller on February 19th, 2010
Jason & Michaele,
OMG!!! I love it. What helpful information.
I will have to add this information into my future “Wordpress Webinar or Video”. LOL That’s still in the back of my mind Jason:)
Thanks a mill,
~Rhonda
[Reply]
Michaelé Harrington on February 21st, 2010
Aww well there you go Jason, I mustn’t have subscribed to the comments from that post and only just discovered you wrote about it!
*Group hug* back to all the awesome people who stopped by to say thank you
Yay for comment threads that make sense as it really used to annoy me on my blog.
I must admit that Jason is so efficient with his replies that he almost didn’t need to worry about comment nesting lol.
[Reply]
February 21st, 2010 at 11:57 am
It’s all good Michaele,
Thank you for pointing out this widget.
Way cool
[Reply]
Richard Kaulfers on September 9th, 2010
Hmmm. Not bad at all. In deed getting a blog up is easy but to make it personal hiring someone can save some time.
[Reply]
Billee Brady on November 30th, 2010
Hey,
Haha I like this post! Kick a kitten!!!
Pretty funny thing to say… Yet so cruel…
Nice little nugget of knowledge to.
Thanks,
Billee Brady
[Reply]
November 30th, 2010 at 2:46 pm
Thanks Billee.
Thought that would get a chuckle.
No offense meant.
[Reply]
Hey Jason,
Well I would like to say…Thank You Michaelé for this gem.
It does make your comments look a lot neater.
Have a great day!
Josh
[Reply]
February 17th, 2010 at 11:04 am
Totally,
I’m thrilled that Michaele shared this with us.
[Reply]
February 17th, 2010 at 1:08 pm
Jason, on my PC it’s weird how your gravatar shows up twice in the reply. I wonder if my reply will do the same.
[Reply]
February 17th, 2010 at 2:50 pm
I know!
Still working on that buggy thing…
Hope it’s just a setting, but I will figure that
out for sure.
As long as everything else is finally working…
I’m happy.