From b2da535fecafa7a81feee2dd5b19eb1fffcc9a94 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: MinchinWeb <w_minchin@hotmail.com>
Date: Tue, 20 Aug 2019 19:39:14 -0600
Subject: [PATCH] Set default content status to a blank string rather than
 `None`.

Fixes
#2558.
Fixes issues encountered by comment plugins among others

c.f. [1](https://github.com/bstpierre/pelican-comments/pull/4),
[2](https://github.com/Scheirle/pelican_comment_system/issues/8),
[3](https://github.com/Scheirle/pelican_comment_system/pull/7)
---
 RELEASE.md          | 7 +++++++
 pelican/contents.py | 4 +++-
 2 files changed, 10 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)
 create mode 100644 RELEASE.md

diff --git a/RELEASE.md b/RELEASE.md
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..dccbdff8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/RELEASE.md
@@ -0,0 +1,7 @@
+Release type: patch
+
+Set default content status to a blank string rather than `None`. Fixes
+[#2558](https://github.com/getpelican/pelican/issues/2558). Fixes issues
+encountered by comment plugins among others
+([1](https://github.com/bstpierre/pelican-comments/pull/4),
+[2](https://github.com/Scheirle/pelican_comment_system/issues/8)).
diff --git a/pelican/contents.py b/pelican/contents.py
index 9292f14f..74524d60 100644
--- a/pelican/contents.py
+++ b/pelican/contents.py
@@ -141,7 +141,9 @@ class Content(object):
 
         # manage status
         if not hasattr(self, 'status'):
-            self.status = getattr(self, 'default_status', None)
+            # using None as the default here breaks comment plugins (and
+            # probably others)
+            self.status = getattr(self, 'default_status', '')
 
         # store the summary metadata if it is set
         if 'summary' in metadata: