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Recent Comments In Sidebar

How to keep track of comments on VagabondJourney.

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This is just a quick note for those who’ve gotten in touch with me asking for a way to subscribe to replies to their comments.

While it seems simple to just add a little check box to receive email notifications on comments that you leave, with the framework that I’m using I would either need to construct the code myself or use a plug-in. I don’t have time right now for any heavy coding and I hate plug-ins.

As you may remember, the last comment plug-in that we used ended up embedding affiliate links throughout thousands of pages with neither my consent nor remuneration for sales that they generated. So I don’t really trust the people behind a lot of plug-ins, and I only use essential ones here.

But I haven’t forgotten the requests for a way for regular readers to monitor what’s happening with the comments across the site. So at the bottom of the sidebar I added links to recent comments.

It’s not pretty, but it works.

In fact, nothing is really pretty about this site. I designed it to be as simple and straight forward as possible: black text on a white screen with images and video.

This is the kind of site that I like.

(I also want the design to be so simple that I rarely have to put time into redesigns and fixing things that break.)

It’s all about the content.

After getting rid of Disqus we again have an active comment community. I value you guys, so let me know what you think. Does this comment system work for you?

Filed under: Blogging, Vagabond Journey Updates

About the Author:

I am the founder and editor of Vagabond Journey. I’ve been traveling the world since 1999, through 91 countries. I am the author of the book, Ghost Cities of China and have written for The Guardian, Forbes, Bloomberg, The Diplomat, the South China Morning Post, and other publications. has written 3694 posts on Vagabond Journey. Contact the author.

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VBJ is currently in: New York City

3 comments… add one

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  • Trevor December 23, 2018, 2:02 pm

    Hi Wade.. I just click on any post that i’ve commmented on to see yours or any follow up comments.. i dt have time to leave many comments… too busy …. down time is spent drinking tea and sleeping..

    Happy Christmas !!!

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    • Wade Shepard December 24, 2018, 3:34 am

      That works too. Have a good time this holiday season!

      Link Reply
  • Jack December 31, 2018, 5:15 pm

    I never did like Disqus and I am glad you are back to the regular stock commenting system.

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