From Jimdo Help

Contents 1 Setting up a Guestbook 1.1 Create a New Page 1.2 Add a Guestbook 1.3 Settings 1.3.1 Comments or Guestbook 1.3.2 Moderate 1.3.3 Email Notifications 1.3.4 Captcha 1.3.5 Discussion Active 1.3.6 Avatar Pictures 1.4 Deleting Comments

Setting up a Guestbook

Create a New Page

You want to interact with visitors to your website, right? A guestbook is a good place to start. First off, log into your JimdoPage, click on "Edit Navigation", and add a new page where you want your guestbook to be.

Add a Guestbook

Now click on the "+" symbol and then on "Guestbook".

Settings

Now a box will appear offering you several choices for settings. It looks like this:

• Comments or Guestbook lets you set the order of the posts from new to old (Guestbook) or old to new (Comments).
• Moderate lets you decide whether you want to approve the posts before they go live
• Email Notifications lets to choose to get an email whenever someone posts in your Guestbook (or not)
• Captcha is self-explanatory (choosing "Yes" generates a code to identify humans and prevent spam)
• Discussion Active lets you deactivate specific comment threads (or an entire Guestbook); if you go on vacation, for example, or just want to end a discussion.
• Avatar Pictures gives you the option of displaying the profile picture of Jimdo users when they post in your Guestbook.

Comments or Guestbook

The difference between the two is really just in the order: Comments are listed on the page old to new, so readers can follow a discussion from the beginning. A Guestbook, on the other hand, is displayed with the newest posts at the top and the older ones at the bottom - which lends a sense of topicality to a website, and makes sense if the posts do not build upon one another.

So to sum up: Comments make sense for a blog, a Guestbook is more of a standalone page.

Moderate

Together with the Captcha option, this can help you eliminate spam and unwanted posts on your website. If you tick "Yes" here, comments or guestbook entries will only go live once you've approved them.

What visitors to your website see when they post something:

What you see when you click on the Guestbook to moderate the post:

Choosing to moderate your Guestbook or Comments may make a lot of sense from a control perspective, but before you choose to do so, think about how much effort you want to expend here. You'll have to approve or reject each comment or Guestbook entry individually, and if you are not online very frequently, this can become a herculean task.

Email Notifications

If you tick "Yes" here, you'll receive an email every time someone writes in your Guestbook or comments on your blog post or website. This can help you to stay in the loop on what people are writing on your JimdoPage.

Captcha

A Captcha is an image or sound test for telling humans and machines apart. By adding one to your website, you can cut down on spam considerably.

Discussion Active

The default setting here is "Yes", meaning the Guestbook or Comment area is open to new posts. For comments especially, it is sometimes helpful to be able to close a thread after a certain amount of time has passed but keep it on your website. In this case, choose "No" here.

Avatar Pictures

Here you can choose whether your Guestbook or Comment section should display the avatars of other Jimdo users when they post something here.

Deleting Comments

If you want to delete a specific comment, log into your website and go to the Guestbook element. When you scroll over a comment, a "Delete comment" box appears:

This is important: only use this button to delete a comment, do not click on the trashcan next to the Guestbook. Otherwise, you'll delete the entire Guestbook - and once you've done that, you can't get it back.