Just to let readers know, I’ve just about completed my overhaul of the site’s infrastructure, and testing is pretty much over. The idea is to have something scalable in place that will continue to work for a long time to come, and it looks like we’re just about there. Instability should be far less common going forward. For those who asked why I wasn’t doing all the testing locally, each server configuration is unique and there’s no guarantee that my computer would handle scripts in the same manner as the webhost would, so it was necessary to do a lot of live testing.
Now, as far as comments are concerned, I’m going to move away from this moderation regime, and eventually require a login. However, not everyone will have to login through the site itself. Simply having a Twitter, WordPress or Facebook account should do the trick, but those who are actual members of the site will have privileges (such as voting) and access to extra content all the same.
These last features will be implemented through a subscription service, which will be opened after the details have been worked out. For now, I’m going to keep the comments on moderation for those who are not logged in on the site itself, because I don’t want to cut off those who might subscribe before they are given the opportunity to do so. At the moment, I’m using a custom php script to keep those who are not site members on moderation, but when I open subscriptions I’ll pull it out and require a login.
As for the wordpress.com comment field, feel free to report bugs if you’re having problems with it and I’ll investigate the issue. I tend to suspect that disappearing text and such is simply javascript quirks (and possibly browser-related), and this can probably be fixed by changing a few settings.
In the meanwhile, if the comments are a bit buggy, that’s just the final details on what has been a pretty big job. Looks like the site is just about ready for another three years.
