Spec 0.4 not yet finished, just working on it. So far, have a look at spec 0.3 and at the existing feedback in weblogs.

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CommentsTrack - Specification

1. Document History

Version .. Date ..... Name ............... Changes
0.1 ...... 17Aug04 .. Jan Piotrowski ..... First Draft
0.2 ...... 19Aug04 .. Helge Fahrnberger .. Small changes, Workarounds added
0.3 ...... 20Aug04 .. Helge Fahrnberger .. Workaround A3 added
0.4 ...... 07Sep04 .. Jan Piotrowski ..... Complete revision

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2. Abstract

CommentsTrack can help you to keep track of discussions anywhere on the web. It allows you to collect all the comments that you post and what people reply to them. Data of monitored discussions is merged into a format of your choice so you can easily access it.

Discussions could be comments in a weblog or a thread in a discussion board software, as an output format there could be used RSS to be monitored with your favorite feed reader, a thread-like webpage to view with your browser or email to read in your email-application. The CommentsTrack technology might also allow you to monitor discussions without having participated yet. It is a technology aimed to make your life in the web and blogosphere easier and more comfortable, and to make discussions in weblogs more lively.

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3. Terminology

• Thread: Chain of postings on a subject: discussion
• User: Person that comments to a Thread/discussion
• RemoteSoftware: Software that runs that Thread/discussion

• CT: abbr. of CommentsTrack
• PingScript: Software that can connect to CT-Script
• CT-Script: Software that can handle pings/connections from PingScript and modify CT-Feed
• CT-Database: Data base that contains all monitored data, modified by CT-Script

4. Functional Goals and Aims

• CT-Database should contain all comments and replies to comments User has posted anywhere on the web
• Simple usage, also usable for non-geek User
• Comfortable usage, must not affect User (with and without CT)

5. Technical Goals and Aims

• Simple specifications to make implementation easy
• Independence of platform and feed aggregation technology, built on HTTP 1.1
• Independence of centralized services and servers
• Compatibility / implementability with all major weblog and BBS software systems
• Free and Open Source

6. Notes

• Output: Output-format and -design of CT-Database doesn't matter yet, can be changed by later easily
• Security: Not yet considered, first have to find a useable and working technical solution
• Related to and inspired by technologies such as trackback or pingback

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7. How it works, Simple Overview

• Form-field is being added to comments-forms of RemoteBlog
• User pastes his personal CT-Script-URI into that form-field
• RemoteBlog uses PingScript to inform this CT-Script-URI about new comments
• CT-Script publishes these comments into a personal CT-Feed and stores them in database
• CT-Feed can be consumed by User via FeedReader

8. Technical Details

• Unique identifier for CT-Script to allocate data in CT-Feed: permalink, should be unique and persistent
• Transmission of comments between RemoteBlog and CT-Scrip: undecided, see below
• All further technical details depend on transmission solution