kata ta biblia

a blog exploring Christian origins, biblical studies, social/cultural history, method, education and the journey through academia

Best Way to Track Comments on Other People's Blogs?

I will be making the switch to WordPress.org from WordPress.com soon and I’m trying to figure out some of the best options for the switch. I already have had a peek into WP.org because of my wife setting up her new blog on breastfeeding. I have enjoyed the feature available on WP.com called “My Comments”, which tracks all comments that you have made to other WP.com blogs (while signed in to your account). I particularly appreciate how it lists all other comments after yours, and whenever a new comment arises on that post, that list of comments goes to the top of the report.

The only thing I wish it could do that it doesn’t is track comments made on non-WordPress blogs.

On WP.org, one has to find a plugin that does the trick (sometimes like finding a needle in a haystack), or else find some other service outside of the WordPress admin area. I have not found something to my liking that both (1) tracks all comments made on all other blogs and (2) updates the report whenever new comments appear on that post. It would be particularly nice if the report showed up within the WP admin area–too many websites to go to!–but I may be dreaming there.

I’ve experimented a bit with BackType, but it doesn’t look like it performs the second task (updating for every new comment). Am I wrong about that?

How do you track your comments and responses?

Post to Facebook Post to Twitter Post to Delicious Post to Digg Post to Google Buzz Post to LinkedIn Post to StumbleUpon

4 Comments by Patrick George McCullough  /  September 5, 2009  /  Posted in: blogging, comments
« Previous post
Next post »
  • http://thechurchofjesuschrist.us Joel

    I don’t use that service, but if you continue to maintain you WP.com account (and I would recommend you do so) your comments should still be maintained there.

  • http://kashow.wordpress.com Rob Kashow

    i haven’t even been following the distinction between the two. i want in! has somebody blogged on the difference? or has wordpress explained this somewhere?

  • http://thechurchofjesuschrist.us Joel

    Rob, WP.org is self-hosted while Wp.com is not. Big difference in personal responsibility, but there are big pay offs in what you can include on the site. I have a WP.org self-hosted. Wp.org is essentially a blogging platform.

  • http://patmccullough.com/ Patrick George McCullough

    Joel’s already fielded this one, but yeah, WP.org was actually the original WordPress. You would have your own hosting through some other service and own your domain, then WP.org would be the application by which you would actually do your blogging.

    WP.com came about after the success of the WP.org application (or “blogging platform”). They figured they would offer a free hosting service, but significantly reduce the options available to you.