You can comment here from any blog

On my new Thanet Views blog here, you can post comments from the comfort of your own blog or website. In this post, I’m going to explain how this works.

First, pick a post you want to reply to. You will need to be on the post’s unique (permalink) page. If you see the date in reverse order (year, month, day) in the address bar that’s probably the right one.

Second, write your reply for your blog or website.

Third – here’s the key step. You need to use the address from step one and use it to make a link to that page.

Fourth. Go ahead and publish your post or make it live or whatever the process is for your bit of the Internet.

Fifth and final step: Get the permalink address for your own post or page. Put it in the little box under the comments box and press the “Ping me” button.

If everything went as it should, your link is now a pending comment – or a live one – depending on how confident WordPress that it wasn’t spam. Once you have had one or two comments published, it should start to recognise your site and let the comment go live at once.

You don’t need any special technology or script. Any web page can become a mention if you do the ping thing. All you need is the magic link so that WordPress knows which post you are mentioning.

If you change your mind, remove the link and send the ping again. The comment will be removed.

This is all powered by something called WebMention. If this sort of comment method appeals to you, there is a website called OpenMentions.com that turns this concept into a sort of open forum.

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