What are the advantages to doing it this way rather than just making a post called guestbook and having people leave comments? So far, the only differences I see:

1. A different url. ?disp=guestbook instead of /2005/8/20/guestbook

2. The feedback label. It says "Guest Book Entries:" rather than "Comments:" .

That's all I can see. I'm probably missing something, though.

The post IDs I'm using are roughly 300 posts in the past. Since I'm doing 10 posts per page (I think...) that means you would click through about 30 pages of posts to see the guestbook post. Even if your guestbook post was right now brand new, it'll move away from the front of the blog eventually.

I also auto-close comments after a certain number of days. It was an anti-spam thing that is probably obsolete compliments of my bobobox hack which is probably obsolete compliments of whoo's changing the htsrv folder name hack, but, I still auto-close comments. Thus technically whoever goes through 30 pages of posts would get to a guestbook post they can't comment on.

So I guess it's visibility of the link and the ability to comment even if comments are closed or disabled.

EDIT: another one is that feedback shows oldest first but guestbooks normally show the newest entry on top. I think, so I just changed the guestbook hack to DESC instead of ASC.

Ok, I see. Having the comment in reverse chronological order would make more sense for a guestbook. I have hard-coded into my skin some links to old posts. Click on 'Services' or 'Essays' at the top of my site to see what I mean. It works ok, but the downside to that is that I'm stuck with the skin and the skin is stuck with me. I'm hoping that someone will write a plugin that makes something similar to [url="http://codex.wordpress.org/pages"]Wordpress Pages[/url].

At any rate, I can do a write up of your guestbook hack for the plugins site if you like. Or you can submit it if you want to put it in your own words.

I'll get that done for ya, but if you're pressed for time and don't want to wait feel free to add what you see fit.

I'm in no hurry. Submit it whenever you get the time.

Hello EdB, a Chinese friend of mine asked whether there is guestbook plug-in for b2e. I found out your entry in the Plug-in directory for version 1.x. But the link there is no longer working. So, what's the current status of your plugin? Thanks!

Yeah I wiped out all the really old stuff because I don't use or support it anymore. Haven't really thought about it again to be honest, but I'm making a little list of things I'd like to get done in the next week or so and have added "guestbook hack/plugin for 242" to it.

No promises!!! I often want to do lots of things that never get done, except for mentioning how there are no promises made when I mention that I'd like to do something with code ;)

Hmmm, I was just looking to see if there was a way to do guestbook again now that I've finally abandoned 0.9.2 for 2.4.2.... ;)

The Dreamer

wait for this plugin,guestbook plugin is an useful tool for blog...

Thanks to EdB for your quick response.

You're very welcome! ;)

So ... what did you expect? That I would drop everything important to me and try to write a plugin I have no interest in actually using? Tell ya what: make a blog post and call it "guestbook" and save it as post type "page" then use the page list widget so you can have "guestbook" show up outside of the blog listing. All better now right?

edb,i am sorry..
i just have a request，just need you help,if you have some time to do this plugin,you can do it,but not require you.

tks for you reply and tks for you help

if my poor english let you have a wrong understanding,i say sorry..

Hi hong0. No problem. I was upset with guizi6's statement because it implied that I somehow promised I would work on this immediately but didn't.

The only difference between using a "post as page" and the old guestbook hack is that in the old hack comments were newest on top. But honestly if you make a post title "guestbook" (or something like that) and select "page" from the drop-down menu for post type, you will get almost everything else that old hack had. In other words you will have a post that does not show up in the posts list, does not ever move off the front page, and is capable of having comments added. Actually ... that is not totally true. :( SOME skins are set up so that "post type page" posts do not allow comments. So perhaps there is a good reason to make a plugin that restores this function? hmmm... let me think a bit ...

See the thing is I have been VERY busy trying to make a plugin that will, sort of, automatically translate plugins. At the very least, it will be able to make the files that b2evolution needs to get from plugin authors and plugin translators AFTER the author writes the plugin and after the translator translates it. So basically I am simplifying the idea of having translations for plugins. Plus I'll have a home for sharing the translations to anyone who wants them even if the plugin author doesn't add a translation to his/her plugin. To me this is something that I think will help people who want to use plugins but don't want to have them in English Only. I also want to make a plugin that provides a random quote. I also want to upgrade a couple of my plugins with translations and feedback for improvements that people have given me. I also want to work on some of the existing widgets because (to me) some of them are very broken.

So anyway that is why I don't instantly make a "guestbook" plugin, and that is why I got mad at guizi6 for the pointless and rude "thanks" comment he (she?) made.

In thinking about this a bit more, I THINK one could make some small hacks to their skin so that a "post type page" would show comments even if all other "page" posts did not. Aha! Yes it will not be hard at all. BUT I am finally making good progress with my translator and do very much want to get that behind me.

hong0 I most certainly will work on this when I can, but I can't say when that will be. Maybe tomorrow? I just don't know.

edb
In any case,thx very much ..

I wasn't expecting a plugin overnight or anything, but just voting that I'd be interested.

I was using the hack for things other than guestbook, and people keep complaining that they can't access that page of my blog using the link from another site anymore. Even though I told them (and the owner of the other site) to use the post's permalink now instead.

I had tried to make the hack again, but didn't get very far...and haven't had time to look at it again (it was not a planned upgrade for my blog....)

Though I guess since I don't have the auto-close comment hack anymore...that might simplify what I need to reimplement....though I might decide I miss the auto-close comments.... ;D

The Dreamer.

I tried a guestbook using the "Type - Page" idea and it worked without issue. I even switched to several different skins and the comments did not disappear, so IF not commenting on a type=page post is part of a skin, it is part of a skin I haven't found ... and easily fixed.

Having an auto-close of comments feature (again one day maybe ;) ) *might* be a problem for using type=page, but if someone makes that hack again then all they have to do is set it up to not close comments on a post that is not type=post.