PSDFan Extra

CommentBoost.com Update

CommentBoost, Beta

Today the CommentBoost private beta finally went live! You may remember me posting about it just over a month ago.

Despite being fairly secretive about the details of the web app, I was pleased to see some definite interest and curiosity when I first mentioned it.

Today I wanted to share the details of the app with you, giving you an overview of it’s purpose and functionality.

What it’s for

As I mentioned in my previous post:

“CommentBoost aims to give bloggers more & better comments to their blogs.”

The app gives members approximately one comment back, for each comment that they leave on another members blog.

How it Works

The application actually works very simply. Members blog comments are automatically recorded within the system, and then members reward each other ‘credits’ for their blog comments. Credits are rewarded on a scale of 0-10, so the better the comment, the more that it should be rewarded. This is very important, as it makes leaving quick/useless comments entirely pointless, as you won’t earn anywhere near the amount of credits that you’d get for leaving a quality/relevant comment.

What is the value of these credits you might ask? Well really they are a way of moderating commenting. If you receive 5 credits for leaving a comment, then you can reward someone commenting on your blog these 5 credits.

Unlike past systems which have relied upon good faith for blog commenting, this is a moderated, automated system, that involves minimum effort on the bloggers part. Personally, if I had a group of even 20 people that I knew would regularly comment on my blogs, then this would be worth the time spent commenting on each of their blog posts. I’m all for commenting on other blogs, but I also recognize that time constraints mean that without guaranteed comments back, blog commenting becomes a daunting task.


(Your dashboard shows you your available credits, as well as statistics for your comments left and received.)


(To rate comments to your blog you must go to your ‘rate comments’ page. There you can drag a slider along to indicate the number of credits that you wish to reward a comment. The rating process is very quick and easy.)

How do you leave comments?


(You are able to browse members blogs by category, and features such as keyword search are in the works)


(You can then view a blogs profile, which contains all of their recent posts which you can comment on, as well as a thumbnail/description. Also, like Twitter, you’re able to follow your favorite blogs, and build up a network.)


(In addition to browsing by blog, you can view recent posts, and narrow down by category. You also have the option of viewing posts from only blogs that you are following.)


(Blog commenting works just like normal. You can comment on your favorite blogs, and it’s automatically recorded within our system. You can ensure that you’re logged in by an indiscreet link above each blogs comment form.)

Signup/Twitter

Whilst we are still in private beta at the moment, fixing up final bugs in the system, we hope to be launching publicly soon.

For now, you can sign up to be notified of our official launch.

I’ve also set up a Twitter page for the app, which anyone can follow to keep up with how the site is progressing.

Feedback Appreciated

I appreciate that no one can fully explore the system without being able to actually use it. However, I’d love to hear your ideas on the overall concept.

Thanks!


About the Author:

Tom is the founder of PSDFAN. He loves writing tutorials, learning more about design and interacting with the community. On a more interesting note he can also play guitar hero drunk with his teeth.

Leave a comment

26 Comments:

  1. Saro says:

    This is a great idea, and will sure give people a boost to comment and to explore more other blogs. I have a Dutch blog myself, it would be great if it would be able to get this blog into the system as well.

    • Tom says:

      Hey Saro. I’m glad that you like the idea. I’ve been thinking about non-English blogs, as they will be much harder to moderate. Do you run any English blogs that you might want to use first?

  2. Franz Jeitz says:

    I’m really excited about this project and am happy to be part of the beta test phase. I hope it’ll catch on. I don’t see why not since the design community is all about giving and good karma so this is yet another way to show your appreciation for fellow designers and bloggers. I wish you good luck with it Tom!

    • Tom says:

      Thanks Franz! Yeah I agree, I love the whole idea of karma in the design community. What CommentBoost does is help moderate and encourage this giving in the community. Thanks again for helping test the beta Franz, you’ve been a tremendous help so far :)

  3. I’d love to check out the beta, and help test it. Looks like a magnificent idea, and I believe (tom..), that you are the genius of this?

    Shoot me a message!

    • Tom says:

      Thanks a lot Stefan, I’m glad you like the concept. Yes it’s my idea :) . I’d be willing to give you a shot at the beta, and really like the content of your blog, but the background image you’re using is loading reeeally slowly, meaning that your content is unreadable for ages.

    • Tom says:

      Stefan: I’ve emailed you your beta invite :)

  4. Nick says:

    CommentBoost is awesome! :)

    I can’t wait until this goes out of beta, but I’m definitely glad to be a part of it.

    • Tom says:

      Thanks Nick! Yeah even though it’s on a very small scale at the moment I’ve been really enjoying seeing the concept in action. We’re working hard bug fixing and improving things though, so hopefully it won’t be too long until public launch.

  5. Thanks Tom. Would you mind giving me some insight on how I could fix this problem? Well, you can email me, and I’m looking forward to checking it out!

  6. Great Tom! I just noticed the “Enable Comment Boost?” Link below “Leave a Comment:”!
    That’s amazing man, I’m loving every second of it. This, I presume, records that you indeed commented on another blog, and are “eligible”, for a comment back? Amazing!

    Quick question: Is it integrated through a wordpress addon, or something else?

  7. Tom says:

    Hey Stefan. I would just optimize your images, as right now they must be a large file size (hence the long load time). Or alternatively use code not images for your backgrounds.

    Yeah the Enable Comment Boost link shows that a blog is part of the network, and also let’s people quickly login to leave a comment. It’s part of a lightweight WordPress plugin and will record all comments that are sent by other members so that they can be rewarded.

  8. Amazing! Simply amazing.
    Any expected dates that we can look forward to, such as an outlet of more beta users to test, or the official release?

  9. Saro says:

    Hi Tom, thank you very much for replying. No i don’t really have English blogs, but i’m going to set up a project quite soon (summer 2009). A bit equal to the Tuts+ network. So CommentBoost will come in handy for me. So i guess can’t participate to the Béta. Keep up the good work :) . PS: If you need any help hereafter in moderation of Dutch blogs, don’t hesitate!

  10. This sounds totally amazing! This will be big when you release it, it should be!

  11. Tom says:

    Stefan: I don’t want to hold myself to any specific dates, but we should launch as soon as all bugs are dealt with.

    Saro: Glad to hear it, feel free to use the service for your site network. I’ll have to think about non-English blogs.

    Craignedeker: Yeah I hope it’ll be big :) . Thanks for the support, I’ll post here when it goes live publicly.

  12. Stefan Drakulich says:

    Is it possible to view the only commenting side of CommentBoost? I understand my blog may not be optimized the best, but what about the commenting side? I’d love to help. Get back to me. Thanks.

  13. Stefan Drakulich says:

    Hey Tom. I’m getting help on the nasty white background that is slowing down loading. Hopefully it gets working soon!

  14. RUGRLN says:

    Uh…. r they ever gonna add me!

  15. Nick says:

    Tom, I found a site that is sort of cool and goes off of your e-mail/website without even needing registration and finds all of the comments you’ve left on sites/etc. Perhaps you could team up with them, or do something similar, not requiring CommentBoost to see the comments you’ve already left.

    http://www.backtype.com/

    • Tom says:

      Hey Nick. That’s a pretty cool site, thanks for sharing it. I’ll definitely be looking into integrating/joining with other services in the future, but for now we’re just focusing on the launch. Just to update you, my developer is still fixing bugs in the system, but we’re still moving towards public launch :) .

  16. Andrew Houle says:

    Finally had the time to install CommentBoost properly. I’m loving it so far! I’m looking forward to when it’s out of beta, to see if the design community catches on.

    • Tom says:

      Thanks Andrew! Yeah, I hope that the community catches on too. I think I’ll be targeting the design community more than others to start with as they’re so sociable and active when it comes to blogging. Thanks again for agreeing to help test the system :) .

  17. Stefan Drakulich says:

    Hey Tom, thanks for the invite! I was just wondering what I need to do to add other blogs (or are they not usable,…..?) and also where do I find the files to add the code bits in? Thanks!

  18. tulcod says:

    Anyone got an invite for this?

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