Fixing The Threaded Comments Cancel Issue
Brian’s Threaded Comments is one of the best Wordpress Plugins I’ve ever installed on this blog. The Plugin adds “Reply to this comment” link to every blog comments. When you click the reply link, your comment is placed direct under the comment you replied to. However, there is a problem with the Plugin when you want to cancel a reply.
If you click reply to this comment and then decide to cancel, it jazzes up the screen and covers the content with a white block. My solution when first made aware of this bug was, “don’t cancel the reply.” 
Fortunately, Derek over at My New Choice has come up with a more elegant solution to the problem.
In the plugin code, briansthreadedcomments.php you need to edit the following line in the reRoot function:
From: var content = document.getElementById(”content”);
To: var content = document.getElementById(”content-main”);
Once I made this change, clicking the cancel link results in the behavior you would expect.
I’m happy to say it works like a charm. You can now cancel replies without fear of the white screen of death! 
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- 54 comments what's your take?
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Hmmm, since I don’t want to encourage canceling comments, I’ll leave it out for not
Good to know that there is this solution though…Thanks!
Haha well when you click the wrong comment to reply to, it can be a hassle..
I never noticed this problem but I will address it right away.
Jane, I am the same way that I did not want to encourage canceling comments but the *bug* was just driving me crazy knowing it was there.
That is why I had to figure out what the fix was and implement it on my site.
Well, if you want to discourage canceling comments, you should remove the code associated with:
“Click here to cancel “reply”.”
That would make more sense then having a bug that makes your site look unprofessional!
I actually thought about doing that but I like to leave the decisions up to my readers. I’m not a fan of being forced to do something so I choose not to impose that on my readers either.
I agree, leaving it to the readers is the way to go. Since I haven’t heard too many people complaining (actually, none for this particular problem) i’ll probably just leave it for now.
BUT, I have been told that people have had to re-enter their comments because they wern’t showing up. Anyone else have this problem??? If so, what was causing it?
I haven’t had that problem on my site, but I have noticed that John’s is having SQL issues, so I have to enter my comments two or three times – anyone else notice that?!
No Ive found it all working very well, perhaps John has made a modification
Or just refresh the site. Simple enough. Of course, it is better to solve the issue at the root.
There have been times when I would have like to cance a comment, i.e. when I make a stupid mistake, in which case I would re-submit anyway.
An edit feature would be useful
I doubt comments so far has allowed for edit. No one has written the plug-in yet, perhaps.
Well actually
I just realized I don’t have that problem on my site.. and when I went to look for that piece of code, it was not there!!!
I guess mine was an already upgraded version? Cause I installed this AFTER John installed it.
Jeff, this issue may only impact the people using the MistyLook theme that John and I are using on our sites.
Another site I frequent, StephenFung.net, did not have this problem either but he has a different theme as well.
FWIW, I just downloaded the latest version of this plugin tonight from the author and had a few issues with my theme. So it looks like it will be dependent on your installed theme.
True, now that I am not using MistyLook anymore, I am not having this problem – but I upgraded anyway, just in case my next theme doesn’t play nice either!
Thats interesting, I use Misty Look, have you identified the issue with this theme??
I just noticed John, the comments from Matt’s post yesterday didn’t change the top commentator numbers…darn!
I don’t think you’re in any danger of being bump from the list.
Ahhhh…I do like this feature. Thanks for the nice widget.
hehe…just an observation
Admit it, you don’t want to just be a part of the top commentators list, you want to be number one!
hahaha…well, I don’t think I’m going to stay up tomorrow night commenting 50 times to reach that number 1 spot. But stranger things have happened
Think I can do it???
Actually, I have a contest to run tomorrow, so maybe not…or will I???
Jane and I have a competition on who’s going to be higher in the comments rank.
hahaha…bring it Jeff
Looks like I might enter in this competition!
*Laughters. Who doesn’t want to be in the top? Be prepared to be strike off!
Yeah you spend a lot of time keeping on that list Jane, is it worth it??
Ive just got to No. 1 on the list after a furious comment spam fest
I just wanted to see whether it generated any traffic.
I use forums a lot and can touch type so its not that much of a pain for me, but I dont think Ill make a habbit of it.
I could have added a couple of posts to by blog in the same time, which I think would probably be more beneficial.
I suppose tomorrows stats will give me the answer.
That said, given your persistance, there must be some benefit??
Sorry posting again so I can subscribe to replies by Email …
I want to know what _you_ did to break the servers!
And don’t blame it on plug-ins!! Muahaha!
Crazy guy you are Moto!
It wasn’t me! It was all Stephen’s fault!
So Evil, he blames it on others!
That has been bugging me on my site! Thanks for the fix John!!
Actually, I should be thanking Derek!
he is sooooo evil that you end up giving him the credit!!!!
I know, he brain washed me!
John, thanks for the recognition on the fix of this issue and the link over to my site.
I am going to install this on my blog tomorrow, thanks.
I dont think anybody would want to cancel a comment which is for you blog. Editing we may do but not cancelling
What i’d like to know is what causes the ’strikethrough-like’ effect in some posts (in Firefox atleast)? I can see it above in MyNewChoice’s post. That drives me bonkers…is there a fix for it?
I noticed that too but since I changed my theme, I haven’t seen it happening on my site – is this another issue with MistyLook?!
Yeah, I think it is an issue with the MistyLook theme and I will hopefully have a chance to look at this next.
I think the MistyLook is fine, but I started seeing these lines on my blog only after I installed some plugin….which I presume John suggested, since a lot of readers are complaining. . .
not pointing fingers John!
The lines do go away when I refreshed the page though. Not that it shows always, either.
Good implementation. Have you passed this back to the developer to get it implemented for those unaware?
Yeah, I posted the fix to the forums on the author’s website and he replied back.
It does seem this fix is related to this particular theme though. Has anyone experienced the issue with other themes?
I like the treaded comments.. it makes it easier to follow the conversation.
I’ve installed it on my site as well and like it except for one thing. On a heavily commented site like this, it makes it a little more difficult to come to a post and see which comments are new since the last time you viewed.
The new comments can appear anywhere in the list so I find it easier to overlook a new comment.
It does make staying current difficult, but it does encourage comments!
Indeed, I never made a bid for the top commentors list and only posted the odd comment. Due to this I have made a bid for the list.
The only thing I would say is that it encourages quantity rather than quality in terms of the comments.
You are encouraged to post comments to make the list, as opposed to adding comments that themselves add value.
Still, it is fun to play with, I will be interested to see the results of doing this…
Not only that, it does make the site more professional. Easier to see who is replying to which comments, since ‘quoting’ would make the comments page longer than it really is.
I have had more problems with threaded comments than other plug ins, a very good plug in but it can be a pain. In particular I had a conflict between comments and the star rating plug in…
Did you work out a solution?
Not yet, I just turned off the post rating plug in.
You have to add code to index.php and another page (single or something) to get the post rating into pages.
I think changing where you put this code may solve the problem, but I havent had time to play with it yet….
Well, that is truly troublesome to keep up with!
Not necessarily, try the plug in, it will probably work ok, if not just turn it back off again.
It will only take you 10 minutes to try it.
The problem is probably something Ive dont to my template…