Having Your Say: Commenting easily on Macfilos articles

We get endless complaints about the comments section of this Squarespace template, especially the symbols-only log-on dialogue box which which sets out to be easy to use but ends up confusing everybody. Finding the comments box is also sometimes difficult. This is because, unlike on many blogs, the comments are not immediately visible at the foot of the article.

We cannot change the way this chosen template works (they all suffer from the same problem) but the layout does have the advantage of keeping the pages clean without the need to wade through loads of comments before getting to the next article. We help this along by posting a synopsis paragraph with the option to Read More. 

Commenting

If you would like to make a comment on an article it is simple once you know how.

At the bottom of every Macfilos article is a panel showing links to the Permalink¹, the tags and categories and, finally, the Comments button (illustration above right).

If comments already exist the number of items will be shown to the left of the word Comments.

Leaving your comment

1. Click on the Comments button and the page will refresh. This time you will see the comment entry form and all previous comments. As shown in the screenshot on the right.
2. Type your comment and press the POST COMMENT button. You will then see the following confusing box:
3. When it first opens the Squarespace log-on icon is shown highlighted (that’s the second one from the right in the above line of icons. Don’t bother with this, simply click on the little man and you will see a simple form.
4. Enter your name (or any name, even a pseudonym if you wish). You do not need to enter an email address or website (both are shown as “optional”) but the advantage of entering your email address is that you will then receive details of any replies to your comment or of any further comments on that particular article. The disadvantage, is that your email address will be visible to readers. If you enter an invalid email address, as I did in the above illustration, you will be warned as shown in the red box. 
5. Finally press LOGIN and that’s it.

This the the simplest way of making a quick comment. The icon to the right of the little man (the squiggly S) allows you to create a Squarespace comments account which you can then use in future. The other icons are self-explanatory: Log in using your Google, Twitter or Facebook credentials. But for a quick entry just stick with the little man, confusing as he is. 

Baked in

Much as I hate this comments feature there is nothing we can do to change it because it is baked in to the Squarespace system. Nevertheless, this is just one minor quibble. The Squarespace hosting platform comes highly recommended. It is easy to manage and quite within the capabilities of the average computer user rather than a professional web designer. It is relatively secure in relation to some other systems such as WordPress, with Squarespace professionals looking after site security and hacking attempts.

Touch wood, I have never experienced spam commenting with Squarespace as I did with the previous Macfilos host, Typepad. A big bonus, also, is the speed and helpful can-do attitude of the help desk personnel. Even though Squarespace is situated across the Atlantic in New York, any queries or cries for help are answered usually within the hour. 

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¹ If you wish to copy the specific URL for an article, for instance if intending to insert it into an article or to keep a reference note, press the Permalink button and the page will refresh, then copy the URL. Pressing the Comments button also refreshes the page in the same way and shows the permanent URL.