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Replace "No Comments" With A More Friendly Caption

Ever since Blogger improved the comment count caption / link, they have gotten criticism.

They just replaced the vague 0 comment count, that was originally part of the link to the comment form, with a more indicative caption "No Comments" (or whatever language equivalent may apply, on your blog). But they cannot please everybody.
People think I don't want comments, what can I do?
I think the old saying
Don't try to please everybody!
applies here, in spades.

So people ask, periodically, in Blogger Help Forum: Learn More About Blogger, about template customisation.
How do I replace "No Comments" with something more reader friendly?
And the first question needs to be
Are you comfortable with editing the template?
This can be a rather forbidding question, to some blog owners.

If you don't like "No Comments" (or whatever local language variant your blog uses), you can replace the "No comments" caption with any phrase that pleases you.

This may be better if your reader population is concentrated around one language - and if you are able to edit the template. Blogger wants the residents of different countries to read "Comments", and "No Comments", in their local languages.

The comments link caption is accessed, in your template, as "post.commentLabelFull", in pre "Responsive" class themes.

You will want to find

<data:post.commentLabelFull/>:

and replace it with

Dude, hit me with a comment!

Or whatever friendly greeting you have in mind.

Here's the theme code, from my blog that uses "Picture Window":

<b:if cond='data:post.commentSource == 1'>
    <span class='cmt_count_iframe_holder' expr:data-count='data:post.numComments' expr:data-onclick='data:post.addCommentOnclick' expr:data-post-url='data:post.url' expr:data-url='data:post.url.canonical.http'>
    </span>
  <b:else/>
    <a class='comment-link' expr:href='data:post.addCommentUrl' expr:onclick='data:post.addCommentOnclick'>
      <data:post.commentLabelFull/>:
    </a>
  </b:if>

And there is your target. Just a simple change is all you need, for most templates.

<b:if cond='data:post.commentSource == 1'>
    <span class='cmt_count_iframe_holder' expr:data-count='data:post.numComments' expr:data-onclick='data:post.addCommentOnclick' expr:data-post-url='data:post.url' expr:data-url='data:post.canonicalUrl'>
    </span>
  <b:else/>
    <a class='comment-link' expr:href='data:post.addCommentUrl' expr:onclick='data:post.addCommentOnclick'>
      Dude, hit me with a comment!
    </a>
  </b:if>

Search diligently! Some templates may have more than one instance of

<data:post.commentLabelFull/>:

With "Responsive" class themes, you will similarly find "data:messages.postAComment".

Here's the theme code, from this blog:

<b:if cond='data:post.numberOfComments > 0'>
              <b:message name='messages.numberOfComments'>
                <b:param expr:value='data:post.numberOfComments' name='numComments'/>
              </b:message>
            <b:else/>
              <data:messages.postAComment/>
            </b:if>

As always, I suggest that you backup the template - before and after you make this change.

Just please keep in mind that you will be editing the post template - and the post template is subject to update, by Blogger. If your change causes a problem, you may end up having to reset the post template, and start over.

Comments

Andy said…
A few years back I change mine to "comments so far". Is time for The Real Blogger Status to make a change? :)
kc bob said…
Thanks Chuck. I do like it better.

Any way to display that message only when there are no comments?
Nitecruzr said…
Andy,

Dude, hit me with a comment! I just got that working, in this blog!!

But thanks for the reminder!!!

Bob,

I'm not seeing any XML differentation. I fear that "No", as opposed to "1", "2", etc, may be within the code where "post.commentLabelFull" is setup.

That said, it's not impossible to check for "No comments" - and only then use the "friendly" caption - but that will be a LOT more work than simplay replacing "<data:post.commentLabelFull/>:" with "Dude, hit me with a comment!" (or whatever you like).
The Admin said…
finally found the right code!! this one worked for me. i changed the "h4" tag to "p" and replaced the line with a google ad instead. :) worked like a gem!

btw, that line appeared three times in the template but replaced only the two with no "a" tag. thanks!
Stefanie said…
Thank you!!! I've been searching a lot until I finally found a solution to the problem!!!!

Happiness Treasures // www.happiness-treasures.blogspot.com
Thank you so much, this worked great for me I appreciate it.
OK - I am totally not a pro at this. Can someone help me out? I cannot find the data:post.commentlabel etc. in the code. Can you point to the code line to help me out?
Nitecruzr said…
Hi Laurent,

I'll try - but I need to ask some questions - and my answers need to be readable. This will go a lot easier if we discuss this in the forums.
Unknown said…
This comment has been removed by the author.
Nurul Hikmah S. said…
Thankyouuuuu :D
Joy McNally said…
Thanks! Just what I was looking for.

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