06Apr2006

Blog Comment Design Showcase

Total: 66 blog comment examples

Recently I posted some tips to improve the comment section of your blog.

I thought it might be useful to pull together a showcase of great blog comment design, to provide some ideas and inspiration to anyone having difficulty coming up with a good look for their comment section.

Hopefully, I've provided a good roundup - it's interesting to see the diversity of designs while at the same time noting the common themes that show through.

I was also taken by the ingenuity of a few of the designs in particular, given that there really is only so much styling you can do with a blog comment.

So, enjoy the comment showcase, and check back in the future — I plan to update it as I come across new examples worth including.

Also, if you need some inspiration for your comment form, check out my blog comment form design showcase.

Add Your Site

Do you know of a blog that has a well-designed comments section? Drop me a line and I'll check it out!

35 Comments Posted

Wow, what a great resource! I think it's both sad and cool that I recognized about 90% of them without hovering to see the URL ;)

1. Posted by Mike Rundle on February 04, 2006

Mike - a lot of them are from the 'usual pool' of web designer bloggers (you get a couple of honorable mentions yourself), but I did try to cast my net a little wider as far as time allowed.

In actual fact, a handy source turned out to be the 9rules Communities page - I was surprised at how many good looking blogs are in the 9rules network. Now there's a great resource for blog design!

2. Posted by Christian Watson on February 04, 2006

Nice work Christian.
Unfortunately, the comment sections are an often negelected part of a design which is especially strange considering the importance of discussion in blogs. In fact, I'm probably guilty of leaving them to the last minute (which is why I was pleasantly surprised to see mine in there).

"I think it's both sad and cool that I recognized about 90% of them without hovering to see the URL ;)"

Likewise. I think I actually managed to recognise all but one:)

3. Posted by Phu on February 04, 2006

Hmmm, I'm a little disappointed that these sites appear to be so well known - quite a few of them were new to me.

Seems like I'm going to have to cast my net a bit wider when I do future updates!

4. Posted by Christian Watson on February 04, 2006

Nice, my site was listed. I stole the comment design from a previous project I was working on (that wasn't released). Go 9rules.

5. Posted by chris rhee on February 05, 2006

I think its great that you are show casing these comments but could you point toward any resources we can use to actually stylize our comments for the non-html folks? (I'm a semi-html person...still learning)

6. Posted by Darnell on February 06, 2006

Darnell - that's a good question, but a big thing to ask!

There are many resources on the web for those new to web design; however, one tried-and-true method is to look at the code of a page you like. You'll need to look at the HTML to see how the page is marked up (i.e. how the styles are applied to the page) and then at the stylesheet to see how the design is created.

An excellent tool for this is the Firefox extension - web developer toolbar .

This tool allows you to both view the source code of a page as well as to easily view the stylesheets that are being applied to that page and even to edit them on-the-fly.

This is an essential tool for me - I use it many times every day. Hope this helps!

7. Posted by Christian Watson on February 06, 2006

great job on the gallery. tons of inspiration for future blog designs. i have just recently realized how important aesthetically sound comments sections are to the overall presentation of a weblog.

8. Posted by .derek on February 06, 2006

Slick showcase, Christian!

Having them all on one page really gives you an idea of how many of these comment sections inspire eachother and yet are unique in their own respect.

Also, the Firefox Web Dev toolbar is hands down one of the greatest assets in a web designer/developer's "tool" shed, so to speak. It's got everything you need and then some.

9. Posted by kartooner on February 06, 2006

A nice collection and case study area for comment design.
I'd like to see one beside another. :)

10. Posted by Joerg Petermann on February 07, 2006

funny I have a del.icio.us tag just for these when I noticed a few really inspiring ones a while back. One I like that I didn't see is this site .

Sort of a combo of a few of those already shown, but looks nice.

11. Posted by Doug on February 07, 2006

kartooner - You just can't beat the Web Dev toolbar. How do web designers manage without Firefox?!

Doug - thanks for the great tip; I've added it to the showcase.

12. Posted by Christian Watson on February 07, 2006

Cool little post! Thanks for taking the time to compile the list. I also recognized more than 50% of them: great taste can't be denied!!! ;-)

13. Posted by Emile on February 07, 2006

Nice gallery - although I'm not sure how truly different most comment designs are. Check out www.alwaysbeta.com for another (IMHO) well done comment section.

14. Posted by Brian Shih on February 07, 2006

Good gallery in terms of a summary. Still, I'm not sure that 'a showcase of great comment design' is the right term... maybe 'a showcase of 9rules comment design' would be more accurate.

15. Posted by eric on February 07, 2006

Brian - thanks for the suggestion; that's a great site and a worthy addition.

eric - Although it's true that I did pull quite a few of the examples from the 9rules community, that was mainly because the 9rules communities page makes it so easy to browse a good selection of blogs.

There are only so many hours in the day to spending surfing the web looking for examples of good comment design!

If you know of any sites that I missed that should be included, please let me know. I'd love to add them in.

16. Posted by Christian Watson on February 07, 2006

Hey, I appreciate you featuring my site! My comment display is pretty spartan compared to many of the other great designs out there, but I felt in my case, the simpler the better. My little "author" tag was born more of laziness than anything, not wanting to create an entirely new style for my own responses. Again, thanks. :)

17. Posted by Nathan Smith on February 15, 2006

Excellent showcase. Lots of fantastic designs there. Blogged on www.thewebdesignblog.com

18. Posted by Cheyne on March 04, 2006

I would definitely like your input on the comments here:

http://www.christianmontoya.com

I'm still working on it and I'm open to ideas :)

19. Posted by Christian Montoya on March 06, 2006

Christian - funny you should mention your site, I came across it just the other day and marked it down to add to my list in a future update. I really like the way you've done your avatars!

Small niggle - do you think that each comment is a little close to each other? It's a little hard to separate one from the other.

20. Posted by Christian Watson on March 06, 2006

Thanks very much for the feedback, I'll take that into consideration as I continue to work on it. For the time being I'll add a little more space between comments. Thanks again!

21. Posted by Christian Montoya on March 06, 2006

thanks, nice collection
what I found saddening is though why we keep on reinventing commenting systems, or am I just to bad in googling. I have been looking for a reusable php/mysql based comment component, which I just can plugin, now is it something you have come across, if so please let me know if there is any such...

22. Posted by Gobezu on March 21, 2006

Gobezu: No one is reinventing them, all the ones you see come packaged with free content management systems. Look into Wordpress or Textpattern or Movable Type or Expression Engine. They are all free.

23. Posted by Christian Montoya on March 21, 2006

Wow. this is quite a collection. good work on it !

Thanks
Sadish

24. Posted by Sadish on April 10, 2006

what about my comment section? at http://dandyland.org

25. Posted by dandyna on May 14, 2006

I'm interested in one point about comment section. Why is it difficult to make a spelling check tool?

26. Posted by Helen, design manager on May 18, 2006

Helen - I don't know about making one, but there are commercial ones you can use. I've installed one from Wintertree Software before and it works great.

It's probably too expensive for personal use though.

27. Posted by Christian Watson on May 18, 2006

Great article. No body seems to think about the design of the blog too much. I see hundreds that are the default (which is what I have done in the past), but it makes a world of difference to customize it to your own site.

Thanks for the tips!

28. Posted by Hoodia on May 21, 2006

Just found your home page its great, it looks like you folks do great service keep up the good work.
So interesting site, thanks!
Alleen onder Glamour versta ik wat anders maar dat moet kunnen. So interesting site, thanks!
It�s my first visit to your website. After just a quick browse, I�m really impressed!
Hello there! Just want to say that I find your site enough interesting for me. Usefull information and all is good arranged. Thank you for your work. I will visit your site more ofter from now and I bookmarked it.
Hello there! Just want to say that I find your site enough interesting for me. Usefull information and all is good arranged. Thank you for your work. I will visit your site more ofter from now and I bookmarked it.
Great website! Bookmarked! I am impressed at your work!

29. Posted by Ken Carr on June 23, 2006

Door Mats

30. Posted by Helga Baus on July 17, 2006

I hope it provides some useful food for thought!
Of course, I'm well aware of the irony that the omment form on my own site has absolutely no additional design whatsoever.

31. Posted by tim on July 20, 2006

Great idea!
Check the comments at el utilitario.
http://www.elutilitario.net/165/hosting-de-multiples-imagenes/

thanks

32. Posted by karramarro on July 26, 2006

Thanks for showcasing all these comment designs. Great for inspiration and shows just how many different ways there are to design the same thing.

And I have to admit that I also leave comment design to the last. But glad to know I'm not alone in this ;-)

33. Posted by Erum Munir on August 03, 2006

Hi - I'm very new to Blogging (and The Web too) but trying to learn fast.
Thank you for your brilliant site and advice
Yours sincerely

34. Posted by Sal Bobo on February 05, 2007

A nice collection and case study area for comment design.

JACK - http://www.chinabboss.com

35. Posted by chinabboss on February 16, 2007