This series is designed to help people to understand modern technology, and become more confident in using computing devices. It is not designed to educate experts.
The author is involved in tutoring older students at SeniorNet, a New Zealand wide organisation. SeniorNet hopes that students will feel more confident in using their computing devices as a result of the learning opportunities offered. This series of articles shares that hope.
The BFD and Disqus
I’ve been asked if I can make sense of how The BFD and Disqus work together. Let’s see if I can unpick it.
When you visit The BFD site by typing TheBFD.co.nz (Uniform Resource Locator (URL) or web address) into your browser your computer sits there and scratches its head. Computers are dumb, and can’t make head or tail of language, so your browser sends this URL off to another computer that runs as a domain name server (DNS). Its sole job is to convert what you typed into something the computer can handle: numbers. So the DNS converts the name into a numeric address (an IP or internet protocol address).
Here are TradeMe’s URL and IP address:
URL: trademe.co.nz
IP address: 122.252.191.120
The BFD uses an extra security system to protect against the idiots who infest the internet and want to create havoc. This protection is provided by a company called Cloudflare. You can visit their website here. The DNS system funnels the traffic through the Cloudflare system, and you may have seen reference to Cloudflare occasionally on The BFD site, so now you know why.
Your browser now asks The BFD for the page you want (typically the home or landing page), and The BFD computer springs into action and assembles this page, and sends it to your device for display. The BFD is built using a content management system called WordPress. WordPress is a free and open-source content management system that powers a large slice of the world’s websites, and for those who have been following along you will have read my article on open source software here.
(Before you think I’m revealing anything sensitive, most of this information is readily discernible from an examination of The BFD page source code).
And here is part of that page.
You will see that I have circled a couple of items. (Editing of this image was done using GIMP which you can read about in my recent article).
The larger is an advert. These are shown to generate a very small part of the revenue to defray the costs of bringing this site to you.
The second item is a link to enable you to subscribe to The BFD, or to log in if you are already a subscriber. The benefits of subscribing are the adverts disappear, and extra valuable content is unlocked to you. Click the “subscribe” link and see the plans and extra content available. You WILL be impressed. The subscriptions help cover the considerable costs of running the website.
The delicious Mcdonalds KiwiBurger includes a 100% pure beef pattie, egg, beetroot, tomato, lettuce, cheese, onions, ketchup and mustard in a toasted bun. Forgoing two of these a month will more than cover the investment in a Bronze BFD subscription (the subscription I, a poor old pensioner, use). You owe it to both your waistline and brain, so take the plunge and subscribe.
Now that you understand the benefits of becoming a subscriber, let’s move on to you commenting on the articles you’ve read. You will have seen the comments at the foot of many of the articles and no doubt have wanted to participate. It’s easy.
The comment portion of The BFD is supplied by a separate web business called Disqus. Disqus supplies the commenting system of The BFD and many other websites, and their system is quite separate from the BFD subscription system discussed earlier. It’s a service The BFD subscribes to and pays for.
This means that you must have a Disqus account to comment, whether or not you have a BFD subscription. Many people have trouble getting their head around this distinction.
Getting a Disqus account is simple, and you can do it from here. I do not recommend using your social media account; that just sinks you deeper into the mire of interconnected advertisers wanting to sling adverts at you. Use your email address. In a forthcoming article I will show you how to see if your supplied Gmail address has been sold by a website you’ve supplied it to.
Once you’ve signed up with Disqus and confirmed your account, you’re good to go for commenting on The BFD, BUT, and it’s a big BUT, make sure you read the commenting rules first. The BFD moderates the comments to keep it user friendly, and there is little tolerance for idiots. So make sure you read and understand the commenting rules, and keep the site a place where all people and opinions are respected.
To comment you need to log in to your Disqus account and complete a Captcha picture puzzle (this is used to prevent bots from entering the comment system and abusing it). Once you’ve logged in to Disqus you can proceed to comment and add value to The BFD.
I use a password manager to fill in the login data. You can read more about this here.
Use the comment section of this article to tell me what you think of my efforts to bring enlightenment to the masses.
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