Anonymous Blogging Platform
Whilst working on a recent project, I was asked to set up a blog so that users could submit bugs, comment on features and suggest additional features and functionality as they tested their new system. A simple task I thought...
Unfortunately, after setting up a Blogspot through Google and sending the details to the project manager, it became apparent that he wasn't keen on the fact that people had to log into Google to add posts and comments.
Further searching on the internet for a pre-built anonymous blogging platform proved fruitless and it was decided to develop one.
A(non) Blog
A simple blogging platform was created that allowed users to add posts and comments without having to be logged in. Of course, this meant that attention needed to be paid to thwarting spammers as much as possible, and so posts and comments had to be protected. A simple CAPTCHA element and a hidden honeypot combination were chosen to do this.
Aside from this, the blog does store certain user details, such as Name, Email Address and IP Address. This was done simply to provide some sort of trail as to who was doing what.
Simple configuration settings are stored in the database to enable the blog to be easily transferable between clients. This also means that when an admin system is developed, it can easily access and modify this information.
Future Development
The A(non) Blog was developed in 2 days and having implemented the system on several projects, it has become clear that some additional functionality would be nice.
- A built-in XML sitemap for submission to the search engines.
SEO-friendly URLs for the blog posts.- RSS feed integration, enabling users to follow the blog.
- Admin system to administrate posts, comments and setup details.
In Conclusion
A(non) Blog has been a great success and provides for a very simple blogging platform. If you are looking for an anonymous blogger and would like to try out A(non) Blog, then get in touch and I will provide you with the code.