About

Introduction

Everyone likes to receive comments on their blog, it helps to grow a community and makes you feel special as a blog owner to hear from the people who read your posts. I created the CommentLuv wordpress plugin to help give something back to every single commentator as well as entice them to come back and visit more often by automatically adding a titled link to their last blog post at the end of their comment. It’s done fantastically well with tens of thousands of comments every day receiving a little luv.

Level Up!

In September 2008 a new generation of CommentLuv became available utilizing AJAX and platform independent technologies which brought about support for Blogger, Typepad, GoDaddy Blogs, Drupal and Expression Engine.

A support site was released at the same time to provide statistics for CommentLuv members and an easy way for a new user to register and verify their blog (enabling them to have the last 10 posts from their blog returned to them when they comment)

The site got busier and busier and during the month of April 2009, it received more than 9,000,000 hits!! (8 mil the month before and 6 mil before that)

The Problem

The cached feeds numbered in the millions and the scripts originally written to handle a few thousand requests a week started to get more than a quarter million requests for last blog posts per day.

Each versions’ plugin had to be coded and updated separately which was time consuming and the regular updates to each systems commenting method meant that new versions had to be constantly released.

It took a significant amount of time every day for little ol’ me to stay on top of things and I became increasingly frustrated at the ups and downs of the hosting that CommentLuv lived on.

The Solution

I proudly present the new ComLuv network, New API and generation 3 of the CommentLuv plugin.

The API

A new and improved backend fetching and database script was commissioned from a seasoned WordPress development team and just a few thousand hours, dollars and lost hairs later, the new API was ready for the world to use, develop for and interact with.

The introduction of an API allows developers and plugin coders to write their own version of CommentLuv and still keep the fetching of feeds and storing of statistics in a central place.

The Site

A new site was developed which could provide the statistics and backend features that the nearly 10,000 existing members were used to as well as introduce all the things that I had been pestered politely asked for from members;

  • Add multiple blogs per account
  • Add more than just blog posts to comment
  • A stable API to develop for
  • More blogging platforms supported
  • More Accurate Statistcs
  • A CommentLuv search engine
  • Easier installation for Blogspot
  • Multiple language support
  • A place to start a new blog with CommentLuv already installed

The Plugin

The CommentLuv plugin has gone through many updates and improvements over it’s lifespan since the first WordPress only release in 2007. Some due to changes in technology, some due to user demand and mostly due to an increase in my programming knowledge!

Now the plugin can run on multiple platforms, is more stable, has better functionality, is easier to install and is open for other developers to tinker with and improve.

Help & Support

The old site had forums and support tickets for support but the forums required a seperate registration and was quite a job to trim the automated spam from every day. The support tickets system worked well but because it was housed on the old server, the emails didn’t always get updated and the sql database needed regular fixing.

Now, the support is all internal to the ComLuv dashboard and an ever growing FAQ based on the questions you ask is available 24 hours a day.

If a user gets completely stuck, they can always get in contact with me using any of the following details..

My skype: (voice only) teamplaylotto.com
My mobile: +44 7921628872
My gtalk: commentluv
My yahoo: lythoboy
My msn: andy@baileys.tv
My email: admin @ comluv.com
My twitter: @commentluv
My time zone is GMT. Please check the time before you call me!.

The Future

Almost every feature and improvement made to CommentLuv over the past 2 years has been at the request (and sometimes demand!) of you, the user so feel free to get in contact with me if you have any suggestions or request for the plugin, site or API.

I hope you enjoy your time on this site, have fun creating a blog here or exploring the thousands of CommentLuv enabled blogs around the globe by using the search engine and active sites list.

Please comment responsibly on the blogs that display the CommentLuv badge (or I’ll send a rabbid rabbit to chew your ears when you sleep).

The Credits

The following people need to be acknowledged..

Ron

alt="Ron. master of WPMU" class="alignleft">Ron is part of the Ron and Andrea team, he is responsible for taking the backend code I created on the old commentluv site and turning it into a fully functional API that integrates with WordPressMU. Using Ron’s example to see the result of the first months traffic and usage, I was able to completely rewrite the API code from scratch to perform the extras I have added since version 1.

He has a very high class of programming skill and could take almost anything I threw at him with patience and understanding. I always had regular updates and responses that explained things well, it was a real pleasure to work with him.

TwitterHome Page

Andrea

Canadian code goddessAndrea is the other part of the Ron and Andrea team. It’s her fault the first theme looked so nice, it’s also her fault that there are so many great features here at the start of ComLuv. From her beginnings, came the new theme I created to take care of the new tutorial and member content. Her expertise in getting WP-Mu to dance to her tune has been a joy to behold. Our long and greatly entertaining phone calls over the few short months it took to get this site from concept to reality kept me informed and confident that it would be the best CommentLuv site evah!

TwitterHome Page

Head first PHP & MySQL

[easyazon-image align=”left” asin=”0596006306″ locale=”us” height=”160″ src=”http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51e2wFzmiZL._SL160_.jpg” width=”139″]Yes, a book. I am thanking a book. This is by far, the best technical book I have ever bought. Seriously, I learned more going through this book following the case studies and example projects than I ever thought possible. I can literally feel myself as a better programmer now that I have read this book. Before, I was a tinkerer and now, I am a creator! This book has made it possible for me to be fully confident that I have the skills necessary to keep ComLuv maintained and updated as technology and versions progress.

I thoroughly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in php and mysql. The way it is written is slightly different than normal technical manuals, this one encourages you to answer quizzes and presents the information in interesting ways that make the whole process of learning good fun.

[easyazon-link asin=”0596006306″ locale=”us”]Head First PHP & MySQL[/easyazon-link]

WordPress Plugin Development

[easyazon-image align=”left” asin=”1847193595″ locale=”us” height=”160″ src=”http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51V7mf-ZXPL._SL160_.jpg” width=”130″]Another book! and this one available as a PDF too. This is a great book to introduce you to the wonders of programming plugins for the greatest blogging system ever – WordPress.

It is written by Vladimir Prelovac and published by Packt Publishing.

I remember Vladimir visiting my site way back in the old days to tell me he had made his first plugin. Now, he has written numerous popular plugins and even had time to write this, I was given a pdf version by packt publishing to review on Fiddyp right before the decision to move to this new server was made. I must say, it was perfect timing! combined with the above book, I was able to develop the new CommentLuv plugin much faster, more securely and more reliably than I could have thought possible.

Hats off to you Vladimir! I really used your book until the ears got all coffee stained (and yes, I printed out all 700 pages from the pdf!).

Having a plethora of usage examples of the major WordPress API commands has been a real time saver and a fantastic launching point for future WP projects.

I recommend this book to WordPress junkies or anyone with a bit of curiosity on how plugins work with wordpress.

[easyazon-link asin=”1847193595″ locale=”us”]WordPress Plugin Development (Beginner’s Guide)[/easyazon-link]BlogTwitter

Honorable Mentions

Byteful Traveller – for images and buttons for the plugin
“Free travel articles highlighting the most amazing places, creative commons travel photography, and travel video resources. Come with me and see Earth’s amazing tapestry of life and culture!” – Byteful Traveller

Spartz – for providing perfect coding music

andy
I am the creator of CommentLuv Premium
andy
andy
You can get your own content published on this site as long as you have CommentLuv installed on your site.

Doing so means you get exposure to thousands and thousands of other CommentLuv users and your posts get sent out to the massive subscriber list.

Google loves this site and indexes it multiple times per day and posts always get lots of comments so you can be sure of some excellent exposure.

See the Write For Us page for more details

btw.. you can get this author box here