Simple commenting system

August 15, 2008 5:39 PM

Is there a simple PHP/MYSQL commenting system available anywhere on the internets? The Google has failed me.

All I'm looking for is a very simple commenting script, like what you'd see on any given blog, but I don't need all the bloggy stuff. Just a form, a database connection, and output. I'll style everything myself, of course, but I'm too lazy to roll my own (last time I did, it got bombarded by spam). Any suggestions?

PS - Searching google for anything that involves the words "comments" or "commenting" is very difficult.

posted by bjork24 to computers & internet (11 answers total)

Also, the website I'm putting the comments on is a 100% custom job. It's not a blog framework or anything.
posted by bjork24 at 5:42 PM on August 15, 2008

What are the comments going to be attached too? You say you don't want all the "bloggy stuff" If you just want pages where people can comment on, you could always setup a wordpress install and just hide the front page.
posted by delmoi at 6:03 PM on August 15, 2008

The comments will be on dynamically-created product pages.
posted by bjork24 at 6:07 PM on August 15, 2008

I've used Blogkomm on numerous occasions - so easy, never buggy. Doesn't require MySql though. You do need to assign unique IDs to your posts, but don't need to actually blog.

Perhaps you should search using the word guestbook instead of comments, since comments are usually associated with blogs.
posted by iconomy at 6:08 PM on August 15, 2008

My boyfriend implemented PHP/MYSQL-based Talkback for his lab's internal pages (which is why I can't link to them) and is very happy with its performance and simplicity. He said that this was the best commenting system he found. He used it for static pages but it also works for dynamic pages.
posted by peacheater at 6:14 PM on August 15, 2008 [1 favorite]

It seems like a good route to hunt down code like this would be to look for PHP / mySQL samples for the web-based HTML editors that are out there, like FCKeditor. I would think that any basic sample showing how to store posted content to a database would get pretty close to the functionality you're looking for.
posted by XMLicious at 6:30 PM on August 15, 2008

Don't completely rule out rolling your own. I added a ridiculously simple question to mine - "What color is an orange?" - and I haven't had a single spam comment since. Spammers are pretty stupid.
posted by web-goddess at 10:41 PM on August 15, 2008

like FCKeditor. I would think that any basic sample showing how to store posted content to a database would get pretty close to the functionality you're looking for.

I prefer TinyMCE. But commenting is a bit tougher than it looks. You've got to be very careful filtering input or you open yourself to all kinds of XSS and javascript injection attacks


Spammers are pretty stupid.

Or your blog is just too small. The day they figure out the answer to the question will be a bad day.
posted by meta_eli at 9:34 AM on August 16, 2008

You've got to be very careful filtering input or you open yourself to all kinds of XSS and javascript injection attacks

Yeah, and SQL injection attacks, etc. But security analysis is something that should be applied to every web application, not just commenting, even when (some might say especially when) you're using someone else's code or product.
posted by XMLicious at 10:21 AM on August 16, 2008

meta-eli - I was actually getting hundreds of spam comments a day before implementing the change. And this was on a system that I rolled myself, so it wasn't as simple to compromise as simply pointing a bot at a Wordpress or Movable Type blog. Yet adding that one extra field - one that a robot couldn't guess the answer to - was enough to kill them off completely.
posted by web-goddess at 4:09 PM on August 16, 2008 [1 favorite]

There are also hosted commenting solutions. e.g.
instacomment
spipra
posted by kamelhoecker at 5:43 PM on August 16, 2008