Amassment Message Board

Hi! Remember good old days back in 2000+ when fansites and shrines were the main go-to sources for fans of any given subject? I associate that time with plenty of visitor feedback, visitor enthusiasm, personal conversations, regular and returning visitors as well as visitor tracking via counters. Most of these things have lost in presence and weight due to the presence of social media and more centralized interactions as well as feedback - for example what we have here at Amassment.

These days, getting people to click on a link to your shrine may not be as difficult due to promotion options via social media, but getting people to leave some feedback is harder. Outside of Amassment, I assume visitor feedback to shrines has become something private, through contact forms or direct emails for example, rather than public responses visible at the respective site. I think that's unfortunate, because people are naturally more hesitant to randomly message a stranger, even if it is to say something nice about their shrine - especially if they have to do so via email and feel like they'd be bothering the shrine creator with trivial things, since receiving an email is the equivalent of being directly spoken to. Leaving a comment on a guestbook, on the other hand, feels more like leaving your thoughts somewhere for the creator to get back to at any time, and one is more encouraged and less hesitant to comment if other comments already exist. They can also be a way to network and to find visitors who enjoyed the same shrines you did.

Todd and I have been talking, and we thought it'd be nice to bring back guestbooks even if they sound old school - precisely because we're a small community and external visitors may not know whether feedback is wanted or know how to contact you. So here it is!

How to Participate

You can do one of the following or both:

• Set up a guestbook for one or several of your shrines or a shared guestbook for your domain and entire network. There are no rigid rules for this. Your guestbook can be a cbox. Your guestbook can double as your contact page. Post the link(s) to your guestbook(s) here in the topic and it/they will be added to the list.
• Leave a nice comment in other members' guestbooks!

We don't want to just encourage making guestbooks, but actually revive them, so making use of them so that they don't look like dead or desolate territory (especially to external visitors) is important.

Guestbook Script Suggestions

I'm new to this and have to look around myself, too, so suggestions are welcome and will be added to this post! If you have Softaculous available, here's the list of guestbook scripts it offers.

Feel free to discuss and compare scripts in this topic!

Camy recommends BellaBlocks as well as Disqus as an alternative to guestbooks!

neo recommends Sign Me 1.55 (example: neo's guestbook) and dug up GBook - PHP Guestbook (example: LadyDB's guestbook)!

Warning: BellaBook has been tested and invites a lot of spam. We don't recommend using it.

Guestbook Directory

If you already own a guestbook or something similar as of this post, let me know and I'll add yours!

• Kotono: Ace of Hearts, Emerald Star
• LadyDB: Network
• Larissa: Network
• Lethe: Network
• neo: Network
• Robin: Network
• Todd: Network

This is an EXCELLENT idea, especially the encouraging posts--nothing is sadder than having a guestbook where NOBODY comments, ever, except for spambots!

The only sad thing is that I couldn't make head or tail of the installable guestbook scripts that are out there currently--I ended up having to do a "sticky page" on my domain's news blog because I r not good with code, LOL. (I only used free guestbooks back in the day, and the one I relied on has since gone out of service ;_; )

The only scripts I would trust nowadays is http://www.jemjabella.co.uk/scripts/bellablocks and http://www.jemjabella.co.uk/scripts/bellabook/

https://disqus.com/ is a good substitute though.

I feel you on that, Robin - the last time I used guestbooks was in 200x and I used free guestbooks back then too (I'd still use them if they worked haha, I remember they were easy to customize). You've come up with a great alternative though! Woot for getting the guestbook up!!

Thank you, Camy, I'll add those! I installed Lazarus yesterday, but customizing its looks seems daunting. Will probably look at Bellabook today!

I think this is a great idea to get visitors more involved!

I have always loved guestbooks. Not just receiving comments, but I also liked viewing guestbooks for other sites I enjoyed. The cbox idea truly isn't a bad one! It really is the same thing.

This is a simple guestbook I made using Sign Me 1.55 (I'm pretty certain the script was fairly easy, it was from planetluc and is available to download here)

There is a guestbook I have always admired, though. Personally, I really like the concept of a multi-site guestbook. I'm almost 100% certain Ethelion's was like this, but it is down right now :(. I think she used Bellabook and just customized a few things herself.

Basically, the "sign the guestbook" form had a drop down option for which shrine/site you were leaving feedback on. Then, when your entry was displayed, it had an icon next to it to show what it was for.

Rudimentary example: http://i.imgur.com/7qUWdfp.png

I'm not sure how to mod the script to be like this, though :(.

Oh wow, your guestbook is gorgeous, neo!! Thanks for providing the mock-up too! *-* I hope we can emulate it somehow and share the code with the community, that'd be amazing.

Edit: Okay well, I know how to do a dropdown list in contact forms, but I'm so lost when it comes to adding optional fields (including the shrine thing) to the guestbook display. <_< I have like no knowledge of PHP.

Seconding Bella scripts!

I love this idea. I'll have to get started on making one.

Oooo @Camy, I forgot about Disqus! I know it works well for comment sections at least ^_^

This is a great idea! :D I'll join in once I've revamped my network!