Fresh when it gets here from
Julie Barrett
Saturday, December 16, 2006
Apologies again for the problems with posting comments last night. I had planned to step away from the computer this weekend, but instead I spent several hours today rewriting the comment engine. I still don't haven't figured out an elegant way around that error message when it crops up, but I've done two things:
First, I've separated the script that e-mails me comment notifications from the script that posts the comment to the database. Post first, send notification next. You may get an error message, but at least your comments are in the database.
Second, I've added a notice to the effect of what I said above, but much more succinct.
There's a side benefit to all this that you don't see. Because the script to insert to the database and the script to send a notification were triggered at the same time, I would get a message every time someone mistyped the CAPTCHA or if a spambot tried to post. (I've only had one piece of comment spam get through since I've implemented the CAPTCHA, and I'm completely convinced that it was posted by hand. The author posted it to the blogs of several writers.)
This gave me the opportunity to also rewrite the script for HouseFans.net. We've been getting lots of spam attempts over there, so at least we won't see those notifications any longer.
Now I really DO need to step away from the computer.
Tags: Blogging,
Technology