Google Gadgets for BLOGGER - Discussion Box

Good morning class of 2009, and happy Oktober Day to you all (in my mind it's spelt with a "k" and it's a special day, okay?)!

Today begins the first of a series of Google Gadget reviews for weblogs (AKA 'blogs).
The first topic to discuss is a "Discussion Box" gadget that I pulled out from here.

(NOTE: for a comprehensive list of all the Google Gadgets I've reviewed so far, check out http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=tuj6iooM7UX6iJax1ZEcUyw&output=html.


This little gadget promises quite a lot; a discussion box that gets placed on your main blog page kind of like a rolling commentary of, well, comments. There's no anonymous posting, so you don't get horridable trolls making stupid remarks, but I don't see any way of controlling or managing general Google ID's from joining in, which poses a slightly potential security risk.

I have to say, I give this gadget a thumb's down, purely because it can work quite great for what I need, but it can also just not work AT ALL, and the erratic nature of the reliability makes it an unwanted gadget :(.

When it works, it looks kind of like this (in fact, JUST LIKE THIS):















BUT when it doesn't work, it looks kind of like this (in fact, JUST LIKE THIS):














I have to point out, the working screenshot is from a FIREFOX browser which is signed into GOOGLE, and the fail screenshot is from an IE7 browser which is also signed into GOOGLE.

If you can get it to work CONSISTENTLY without that traceback error, give me a shout. As it stands, this has to get a thumb's down.