Cholinergic Urticaria (Chronic Heat Hives)-Cholinergic Urticaria.net I Get Itchy Heat Hives (Cholinergic Urticaria) When I Get Hot or Exercise

Hello Everyone!

As many of you have probably noticed, I have removed the ability to leave comments on the blog portion of the site. In fact, I don’t have comments enabled on any website I run at the moment (which is unusual, I know). When I first started making sites, they were all in HTML, and I didn’t have the commenting available. Then I upgraded to the blog (PHP) type format which was way better. It had comments with it, and it was a new thing for me. I was used to writing content and not getting replies.

I quickly realized that comment spam is rampant on the web. I would get about 15 spam comments for every 1 real comment-which was shocking. Even now as I have them turned off, I still get "trackback" spam from people trying to sell prescription drugs.

I have mentioned a few reasons why I removed them, and I just want to quickly cover the reasons why I decided to cut it out in the first place.

Why I Removed Commenting From the Blog In the First Place:

1. The main reason that I removed them was due to excessive spamming (it would take a long time to sort through all the spam I would get). This was really annoying and it was sometimes difficult to know if someone was spamming or not. For example, sometimes a comment would come through that said, "great post, i love the site." It looked legit, but then they had also used a URL that said something like: "buy_cheap_drugs_forever-because_I_spam.com". So the time I had to spend each day sorting through real vs. fake comments was getting to the point that I decided it wasn’t worth it.
2. I always try to think ahead, and I realized that eventually I would have more and more pages on the site, which means more and more comments to moderate. So I was trying to realize that commenting itself would be very time consuming due to all the spam and so forth in the long run.
3. I hate "NOT" being able to reply to  every comment, but I realized if I started getting a ton on this site and my others, I eventually may reach a point to where it would be darn near impossible to reply to all of them. I didn’t’ want to come off as being rude by ignoring some people’s questions or comments. Even though I know some people just comment to give their point of view or experience (and don’t necessary need a reply), some tend to ask questions or look for a reply. So I didn’t want to have to pick and choose who would get a reply. I noticed many large websites or successful bloggers only rarely post a comment reply.
4. To reply to a comment, I would have to go to that individual page, and then leave it on that page. If you can imagine doing this 20 times in a row on 20 different pages, you can see how it tends to eat up time. Luckily, they have changed this in the software I use, and you can reply all in one page. But it used to not be like that.
5. Some of the posts I made were about general topics, and I didn’t feel like there would be much to discuss. Granted, some posts have some content which could really use discussion, but some didn’t.
6. Also, since there is a forum on the site and I have a link to it, I figured that it would just be easier to simply have that. That way, if people wanted to comment or talk to others about something, it would be a little easier to manage.

Okay, so you know the whole story about why I removed them in the first place. A few people have suggested bringing them back, so it is something I have been really thinking about recently. My wife has a blog as well, and she loves her comments (she is a nerd though lol). So I wanted to hear everyone’s opinion on a couple of things I can do.

I still haven’t made up my mind completely yet, and I would like everyone’s input. I can’t promise I will bring them back, but I am strongly considering it if you think it will make the site better. So here are a few things I am thinking about doing:

Option 1: Bring Back Comments:

I can simply bring back comments onto the blog portion of the site. If I do this, that means you will be able to add your opinions, experiences, and questions, etc. Here are the pros & cons if I do this:

Pros of Bringing Back Comments:

• People can leave comments as they wish at any time. This could be helpful to add discussion, give tips, and share experiences on posts that isn’t quite worthy of a thread on the forum, but still may be something you want to drop a quick sentence about.
• Some of you have voiced on the forum that you enjoyed the site better when commenting was available.
• I enjoy reading the few "real" comments I get.

Disadvantages of Bringing Back Comments:

• It may make it difficult to keep up with comments and posts over time. For example: Say I write a post today on some great topic, and a great tip is given in the comments. A few months later, this will be mixed in with all the other posts, so it will be difficult to keep track of them. I suppose you can always bookmark a post if you want to see any comments that may be left over time, but this may be a hassle for you since I do try to update more regularly.
• Actually- a majority of people don’t leave comments. I think I heard one time that like 5% of people that read an article will actually comment. Again, some of you like leaving them, and there have been some great information in the comments left.
• The forum itself is a little easier to find threads and topics, and the information is there to be found easily (at least, more so than comments).

So those are a few things to consider. Again, that is one option, I can simply enable commenting again.

Option 2: Have a Link to the Forum After Each Post and Create a Special Board Instead of Comments:

In this option, I could create another board on the main forum page, that says something like, "Discuss a post on the forum." In this board, anyone could open a thread and expand discussion on a post if they wanted. I would have a link under each post on the blog, and it would simply link to the board itself. At that point, a person could open a new thread if they wanted.

This too has a few pros and cons:

Pros:

• It would allow anyone to open a thread on a post if they wanted to discuss. They can do that now too of course, but it would add a link to direct them to the main board dedicated to discussion on posts, and then they would simply have to open a thread.
• It bypasses a lot of comment spam, and may be easier to navigate
• It may encourage more people to join the forum (maybe, maybe not)

Cons:

• Some people may not want to go through the time of joining the forum just to post an idea or simple comment. It seems more people leave comments instead of posting on threads.
• It may be hard to keep everything organized. For example: all posts related to the blog would be under 1 board (the "discuss a post" board). So If I posted a theory about Cu, it would end up in the "Discuss a post" board instead of the "theories" board. So it may get less organized over time.
• Not all posts are worthy of a thread, yet they may be worthy of a comment. Some people may just want to post a quick, "I tried that and it didn’t work" type of comment, and they don’t feel like starting a whole thread just to say that quick point.

So basically, I would just add a link to the forum and create a single board where people can open threads to discuss a particular post if they felt the desire to do so, but leave commenting off.

Option 3: Do Both Options Above:

Of course, I could always do both, which is bring back comments, and create a new board on the forum with a link on each post. I don’t really think that would be necessary, and I think either option 1 or option 2 would be enough. That way people could either leave comments, or go directly to the forum. I feel like doing both would be kind of pointless. If the comments are there, since people can already open a thread any time they want.

But I do definitely agree with your input so far, and I should either add commenting again, or add a clear link at the end of all posts to allow people to go to a board and open a thread if they wish.

Tell Me What You Think:

Okay, so tell me what you think in the poll below. Here are the options again:

Option 1- Bring back comments only and allow people to leave comments on the blog posts I make.

Option 2- Don’t bring comments back, but add a link and create a new board on the forum so people can open threads if they want to discuss a post.

Option 3- Do both options above.

I suppose there is one more option: Don’t change anything. I will throw that in there just to see how many like it the way it is now.

(NOTE: you may need to have your Javascript on in your browser if the survey doesn’t show up below)

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Hello Everyone!

In case you haven’t been to the cholinergic urticaria forum lately, I have made several changes. I thought I would go over a few of the changes quickly:

1. I have added several new board topics. This is an effort to organize the forum to make it a little easier to keep up with certain topics. I have been planning this for a while, and finally got around to it. Rest assured that all posts are still intact. I have simply moved them to the category I felt they fit in best to make it easier for searching and posting the topic of your interest.

2. I added a few “rules”  under the first board. Basically they can be summarized as: Don’t spam, Don’t post medical advice or dosages, Don’t be rude or harass people, and Don’t post copyrighted content. The reason for the “rules” is not to be on an “ego” trip or anything like that.

Instead, it is simply me trying to protect against harm, and also to keep in compliance with 3rd party program policies and terms and conditions that I participate in with the website. It is really nothing big, and basically everyone that posts regularly always follows those rules anyways.

3. I will also be adding a couple more changes over the next few days. Nothing significant, but just a few changes so please don’t freak out when you go there and notice some things have changed.

Also, there was an incident a while back where I deleted a post because someone had recommended certain medicines, they gave dosage recommendations, and also gave a link on where to buy it. I had to remove it. There are just too many things that could happen with those sorts of situations. Someone could take that and die, and I personally don’t want that kind of responsibility on me. I have to delete those sorts of things, simply because I am the one who is the most responsible for that if someone got hurt.

I didn’t mean it in a rude way at all, but the person was upset. For that- I am sorry because I feel like they misunderstood what I was doing and took it the wrong way. But at the same time I HAVE to regulate those sorts of things for the safety of everyone. This is a public forum, and people can stumble on it from the web of all ages. There are not just adults that visit the forum, and I feel like I have to act responsibly to ensure everyone understands that we aren’t doctors and to see a qualified doctor for medications.

As far as my hives, they are still being a little better. I am not quite as reactive as I was a while back, however, certain things still cause a reaction. For example, today I ate some beans, rice, chicken, and some salsa on top. The salsa wasn’t that hot, but I almost immediately started getting little prickly sensations on my cheeks and nose. It wasn’t terrible, and I cooled down and everything was fine. Other than that everything has been well.

Tomorrow is supposed to be the coldest day of the season so far…bbbrrr. So I will try and bundle up and stay warm. I can’t wait until summer and warmer weather gets here. I honestly feel like I will be able to eliminate my hives (at least for the summer months). So I am looking forward to living life normally again.

Well it is almost time for American Idol to come on, and my wife is wanting me to go watch it with her. So I am going to call it a night. I get to go watch Simon Cowell go be mean to people lol.

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