neocities comment section widget!

[kiki & ayano]

it's my first time posting any sort of resource to the forum, so let me know if i'm doing something wrong! this was one of the first things i was excited (but also anxious haha) to share when i signed up.

i recently created a comment section widget in pure vanilla javascript for neocities sites/static sites through the usage of google forms/google sheets. while relying on google for stuff isn't ideal, i wanted to provide an option to fellow webmasters (especially newbie webmasters) to have a comment section without a server backend that also doesn't cost money to unlock all the features and is fully customizable, without navigating to an external site... most cbox/guestbook/comment section sites fall into one or more of those categories, and i just sort of think that's lame. i tried my best to make it modular and easy to use, even if you don't know a lick of javascript. it also has documentation of all IDs/class names for all the various pieces of the widget, so the sky's the limit with CSS customization. you can get it here! instructions on how to put it on your site are located at the link provided and are written in such a way that it's pretty hard to mess up, i think. the only true limitation is google drive space - if your site has enough comments that the text content alone made a google sheet big enough to break drive's free storage limit, the widget would stop working. though i think at that point, your site is probably large enough to deserve non-static hosting and other solutions.

additionally, i am just a hobbyist and have no formal education in programming and while i don't think i'm a complete idiot, it's possible my code could be optimized or perhaps there are issues with it i did not catch or consider! if you're javascript-savvy and happen to look through my code and have suggestions or find a bug, feel free to let me know. i am dedicated to updating the widget if the need to arises, or if it could just be made better.

there's an example of it working at the link provided and you can also find what i think is a pretty cool implementation of it on this website for the webcomic Night Shifting (warning for mature content in the comic, the site itself has more detailed trigger warnings)

- ayano

edit: i forgot that i wanted to add an example of it being used. added that, oops

[pinkvampyr]

woah this is so cool!!!!

[kiki & ayano]

woah this is so cool!!!!

thanks so much!
- ayano

[xandra]

this is so awesome! thanks for making this. a lot of people have wanted this for sure.

going to put include this on the 32-bit cafe's massive resource list if that's okay!

[kiki & ayano]

this is so awesome! thanks for making this. a lot of people have wanted this for sure.

going to put include this on the 32-bit cafe's massive resource list if that's okay!

oh yeah, go ahead! i'm a bit flustered almost that you would think it good/useful enough to add haha
- ayano

[TheNothingMonster]

I remember looking EVERYWHERE to find a simple script such as this. Thanks for sharing, Ayano!

[sig]

Gonna be using this too, thank you for sharing! 

[kiki & ayano]

I remember looking EVERYWHERE to find a simple script such as this. Thanks for sharing, Ayano!

Gonna be using this too, thank you for sharing! 

no problem, feel free to let me know if you run into any issues!
- ayano

[Kolo]

This is amazing! Thank you so much for making this!!

[BananaBoots]

Oh, I'm absolutely using this! I was using smartgb but it'll be nice to have proper control over my guestbook

[Grimlock]

this is cool! i'm not sure if i'm gonna end up using it but it seems so useful!

[kiki & ayano]

hi, been a while, just popping in to say i pushed a really important update to the widget today and if any of you were using it, please update! if you don't, replies will be broken for users in other timezones than you. https://virtualobserver.moe/ayano/comment-widget

extremely sorry for the inconvenience. i'm pretty embarrassed about such a major bug slipping through my bugtesting, but it happens i suppose, i'm just one person. information on how to update can be found in the update log section. as per usual with neocities, you may need to refresh for things to appear properly - and i'd really appreciate any spreading of the update through word of mouth to those using it. thank you!

- ayano

[TheNothingMonster]

hi, been a while, just popping in to say i pushed a really important update to the widget today and if any of you were using it, please update! if you don't, replies will be broken for users in other timezones than you.

Thanks for the update!

As I dived a bit deeper into your script today, I came up with some general suggestions:

• To further prevent spam, I recommend you adding a function which clears all the input fields after the message's submission.
• When the "Show Replies" button is activated, make it so the text changes to "Hide Replies".
• Create different CSS for the "Submit" & "Reply" buttons. I would love to be able to customise these buttons separately!

That's all I have in mind for the time being. Hoped I could help.

[kiki & ayano]

Thanks for the update!

As I dived a bit deeper into your script today, I came up with some general suggestions:

• To further prevent spam, I recommend you adding a function which clears all the input fields after the message's submission.
• When the "Show Replies" button is activated, make it so the text changes to "Hide Replies".
• Create different CSS for the "Submit" & "Reply" buttons. I would love to be able to customise these buttons separately!

That's all I have in mind for the time being. Hoped I could help.

hi, these are great suggestions and i'll probably implement them, thank you! i'm pretty busy this week (i'm glad i had the time to fix that urgent timezone bug) so i may not be able to get to it for a little bit, but yeah

- ayano

[serenefork]

I'm really grateful for this resource! I actually implemented into my site last night (though it's not linked to yet so I can finish the graphics for the page first...) It is really well explained in the installation guide! Thank you Ayano!