123guestbook is shutting down on July 1, and existing guestbooks will become read-only. So let’s discuss alternatives.
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I don’t have many details to share yet but this is something the Technomancers are looking into building.
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I think @fLaMEd was asking about guestbook options on the Discord like … two or three days ago? So there might be a list in-progress, and it feels weird to just copy and paste the list someone else is probably working on.
Are you specifically looking for something that is hosted? Are there other requirements?
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What i’m doing is trying to understand what guestbook people are using, what they like/don’t like about it. what they want in a dream guestbook.
we’re looking to build something for the community.
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Smart Guestbook https://www.smartgb.com/ works on my personal blog.
I have more under Hosted Tools.
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I use this!
Here’s what my guestbook looks like, but you can style yours to look entirely different!
The css is fully customizable, you can even customize the js if you want (and you know what youre doing unlike me). The main downside is that it depends on google sheets/forms (I know many people in this community are interested in degoogling) ^^; Another downside is that it doesn’t work on new neocities sites unless they are supporters but you’ve been on neocities for a while Manatee so you should be fine ^^
You can even use it as a small chatbox if you dont like cbox, htmlcomments, or ishoutbox. It also automatically generates different comments if the same script is put on different pages! (Nice if you want a chatbox, guestbook, comments on your blog posts, comments on tutorials, etc without the comments repeating ^^)
Before ayanos comment widget I used bravenet’s guestbook. Here’s my old guestbook. Not very customizable but it did its job. I didn’t like the limegreen header that 123guesbook had on every guestbook that used it so I chose bravenet over that one
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I personally use Guestbook - Kalechips – requires the ability to run php however.
A potential option for some people may be to sign up for a free tier at https://teacake.org/ just to host your guestboook, then use an iframe display it on your site.
If it included a way to transfer all my old messages from 123guestbook to it, I’d be a happy manatee.
I dont know how easy or possible that would be for the Technomancers, but it sure would be nice.
Dimden just released a guestbook service in response to 123GuestBook’s EOL. It’s called Atabook! Here’s a link to Dimden’s Reddit post about it.
Personally, I also use Kalechips’ guestbook, but not everyone has access to PHP. Plus, it’s a little complicated to set up. It’s nice to have plenty of options for sure.
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dimden is doing some impressive shit
he has neocities “clone” (nekoweb)
he now has the guestbook thingy
he also made old twitter extension (makes Twitter desktop look liek 2018 Twitter)
and he also works on Twitter clone (whispy.org)
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I’ll throw my hat in the ring: download my guestbook | baccyflap.com - a delicate blend of bakelite and fear
It’s PHP and it’s as simple as I could make it. Just one index.php and one data.txt that needs CHMOD 666 permissions; I’ve been using it since 2015 and it’s worked without a hitch.
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I use Grounded Wren’s guestbook widget:
For my own guestbook page, I tweaked some parts of the code.
This guestbook widget depends on Discord webhook and Google Sheets, but if your website is a static site like mine (so using PHP isn’t an option), and you’re familiar enough with HTML, CSS and JavaScript that you prefer to have as much flexibility as possible in customising a widget for your site, this widget has been the best option I’ve tried.
I had written a blog post about my search for an alternative to 123Guestbook after learning that it is shutting down:
you can transfer a static site to hosting
there is a built-in guest book, simple gallery, and blog
the domain will end with .oldcities.org or other
and there’s a lot more interesting stuff there
a guest book or blog service is inserted by inserting a simple line anywhere on your page
you can even make links to blog posts as you like, that’s how I do it