JS-Kit: Site Review
This article was originally written for Site Scrutiny, a blog I wrote that has since ended. This has been merged here as part of the consolidation process.
I always love good plugins and code snippets for websites. There are tons of sites that offer free javascript or PHP or whatever code, but JS-Kit seems to offer something different. I discoverd JS-Kit by chance. I was actually looking for a self-maintained commenting system for Simply-Basic.com. I was too lazy to code one myself and too cheap to hire anyone to do it for me. I found several PHP database driven commenting systems, but I wanted something easier. That is just what JS-Kit is.
They actually offer several different applications for your site: comments, polls, ratings, comments+ratings, and one called "Top Rated". The titles are pretty self explanatory. Even better, all but the "Top Rated" application are free and with out ads. The design of each widget, if you will, is sleek and polished. They all look very professional.
A very attractive feature is the ease of implementation. Integrating these into your site is just as easy as copy and paste. If you are familiar with Google’s Adsense, it is the exact same idea. As long as your web host lets you use javascript functions (a few of you on free hosts may have trouble) you can place these widgets pretty much wherever you like.
So, with all the good things I’m saying, why did I only give it 3 stars? Well, unfortunately JS-Kit is in need of some back end administration tools. Right now there is none. So how do you moderate your comments or administer a poll? Well, when you sign up you are required to insert a snippet of code or upload a blank web page to your site’s main directory. This verifies that you are the operator of your website. This is fine until you use another computer, clear your cache, or whatever. Then you have to repeat these steps. Once you are authenticated you have to physically go to the page that the comments are on to moderate them. This works fine for sites with only a few pages but doesn’t work for anything else.
If they had a membership system that allowed you to access all your comments or polls from their website, this easily would have gotten a four or even five stars. But it is still a great resource. Simply-Basic.com still uses their commenting system until I stop being lazy and switch it. Try it out. If you have a small personal website, this will be awesome and save you loads of time.
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This article was written by John Kolbert on August 8, 2007 and filed as Reviews. Get the latest articles by subscribing to the RSS feed. This article, including images and attachments, is property of John Kolbert and is not to be republished or translated without prior written permission.
I thought you might be interested to know that, as you suggested in your post, JS-Kit has added a powerful set of moderation tools around our commenting and reviews services. We now have full pre and post-moderation capabilities in place. I’d value your feedback.
Cheers,
Eric at JS-Kit dot com
Eric,
Thanks for stopping by! I actually just noticed quite a few changes over there at JS-Kit. I’ll be trying them out in the next few days and be posting my thoughts about them. Keep up the good work!