Comments Script Version 6 - it's here

Today is Tuesday, April 30th, 2024. That will change tomorrow.

Version 6 of the comments script is ready. It's debatable whether the changes qualify for a new release number or whether it should merely be version 5.3 or 5.4 or whatever, but I'm going to call it Version 6.

What's good about Version 6?

Since it's still a work in snail-like progress, the list below may not be complete. At least it gives a few clues:

Fixing (or attempting to fix) issues with apostrophes, php version 4/version 5 and server settings differences
An overhaul of the comments editor that will include options to 'bulk approve' or 'bulk delete' comments
An extended set of country flags (with some improved to be better recognizable)
Much better images used in the 'response' pages - a hint of Web 2.0 (whatever that means)
comment display format change to make ratings align nicely regardless of how long the date string is
Adopting GD to generate captchas rather than using the 'random' 10 in Version 5. Yes, you will need GD installed, but it's 2008 and that seems very, very, common now. That will allow script users to have captchas that fit their site theme.
A collection of php snippets you can (figure out how to) use on other pages - show # comments in past month, past year; show #countries from which you've had visitors; show the average rating of all pages (in a separate page); and so on.
Code clean-up and some bits and pieces I can't recall at the moment

What's not so good about Version 6?

The real change is that the not only have there been lots of changes to many of the scripts, but there's been some reorganization of the folder structures. Unfortunately that means you need to replace ALL of the files to be sure everything's OK. The good news is that the Version 5 database will still work without any changes.

A minor change is that some flag images are renamed so things work nicely with the 'list of visitor countries' snippet, etc.

What else?

In case you haven't found it, there's a forum where you can discuss the scripts.