There a lot of users that think that the default template of CompojoomComment is bloated.On the other hand there a lot of users that love the default template and don't want anything else. As you can imagine changing something will make some users happy and other unhappy :). Anyway the template is just a template - you can change it anytime. Some of our users like Ronildo Costa have made their own templates. Just look at this lovely thing:
Creating a template for CompojoomComment is super easy (a little html + css knowledge is required), so don't let the default look fool you! The comment system is never going to look like an alien on your web site! We've asked our friends at joomlapraise to create a new cool looking template for CompojoomComment and here we have 2 screenshot of the template:
As you can see this template is super duper clean. The only things you see about the comment is the author avatar, name, time of the comment, voting options and the actual comment of course :) When you hover your mouse over the comment then addition information appears - such as reply,quote (edit, delete for moderators) + IP, usertype etc. Inspired from youtube :) The comment form concentrates on the most important - the title and the comment itself. If you don't like the emoticons or the ubb icons, then you can turn them from the backend and get even cleaner template.
We are also making a new template for mobile devices such as Iphone or HTV Evo :). Here we will have a new option in the backend - you will be able to select a mobile template if you wish, or leave the standard template.
As you know compojoomComment includes around 7 templates, 15+ language files, around 10 integration plugins in the default package. Once we make a new plugin, then we normally update the whole package and release it. This leads to big zip files and is actually not that practical. We are currently working on a plugin installer for compojoomComment that will allow you to install plugins, emoticons, templates and language files(something like the plugin installer in CommunityBuilder). This means that once we have a new plugin, you can just download that single plugin (20k) and install it on your site. This should help us improve the speed with which we deliver integration plugins for other joomla components and we will then release new version of compojoomComment only when we make changes to the core.
Another thing that we've added to the list with TODOs for the next version is cookie support. When an anonymous user writes a comment and enters his name and e-mail they will be saved in a cookie and when he returns to the site he won't have to enter them again. A small, but very nice improvement I think :)
Some of you don't like the fact that when you post a new comment your view is automatically centered on the comment (we use anchors). Here I want to ask you the following: "Do you want to completely remove this behavior or to just make a smooth scrolling to the anchor?"
As usual any feedback is appreciated! We value your opinion, so leave us a comment and let us know what you think!