Trying Out Disqus Comment System – Feedback Wanted

Mar 09

Ask the Readers

Disqus

You may have already noticed the change in the way you comment on the Go MediaZine. Things look different and function differently. That’s because on Friday I installed the Disqus Commenting System. I wanted to try it out and see what it was like. There are a lot of features, maybe too many features to be honest, but I’m not sure. The thing I liked was the feature that would integrate Tweets and Digg comments right into the posts comment’s. ( I don’t think that feature is live yet, because Mashable is using it exclusively right now) And it supported threaded discussion, something the old comments on the zine lacked.

What do you think? I want to know your opinion. Should I keep Disqus or go back to the default system?

Go Media is a creative agency based in Cleveland, Ohio. We specialize in Brand Development, Website Design, and Illustration. We deliver effective designs with legendary customer service, giving our clients an unparalleled experience.
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comments, disqus, zine

This post was written by:

Jeff Finley - who has written 201 posts on GoMediaZine.

I'm one of three owners of Go Media and admin of the GoMediaZine. I've been designing professionally since 2004 and I also play drums. Follow me on twitter!

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  • That depends on whether or not you want the content of the comments to sit on your own server, or disqus.com.

    If you don't need the functionality or layout, it might be better to not use disqus, since if anything should happen to them, you'll lose all your comments + functionality. And if anything happens to you, comments would probably be the least of your concerns :)
  • True, I would hate to lose our comments.
  • Since your using Wordpress your comments sync locally automatically. Also you may export your comments from the admin area. Feel free to ping me if you have any other questions. =)

    Giannii
    DISQUS
    Community Manager
    help@disqus.com
    http://twitter.com/giannii
  • You should have the chance of syncing the WP and Disqus comments back and forth whenever you want, so it shouldn't be too much of a problem I think...
  • Dou you know how or which plugin to use? It would be good point to sync comments.
    What I don't know is what happen to broken login.
    I were not logged to disqus and i were not notified that i have to log in order to comment.
  • man, I think I got it wrong. You can import your previous comments, but there's no automatic sync functionality. In my view, it does look nice, although threading could get a bit ugly for massively commented posts. All in all, I think it's worth keeping for a bit, and then see the behaviour on the single blog. It looks good on yours
  • I had no idea that I had a Disqus account but I did. I'm a fan of keeping it as simple as possible personally.
  • I tried to add an item to the user link feed today and it practically crashed my system just trying to load the page.
  • Oh yeah I forgot about the User Link feed. It's got thousands of comments yikes. What do I do about that?
  • Same as here. :(.

    I guess their system is overload?
  • renkai
    I dont know. I registered last week to disqus. Nothing that hits me like wow this is great I need to switch ...
  • TopherWelsh
    I like how it uses gravatars as well...
  • Well I'm not sure it was so important to switch to something new ?
    The old comment system had its lacks, but it worked fine I think :-)

    And it means you have to register for one more service online etc etc.
  • It's not the the old system was "broken" I thought it would be nice to integrate the social media features of Disqus. Oh and you don't have to register to post a comment I don't think.
  • Video comments are annoying. When looking at comments to an interesting article I like to skim the replies, not read all of them in depth. You can't skim videos.

    On a side note, videos ruin the illusion that everyone I converse with is a Sport Illustrated swimsuit model...

    The voting is nice though, to help keep good comments to the top of the list. Also the ability to reply to a comment is nice instead of doing "@soinso" which gets annoying and hard to follow.
  • Testing... I like the layout and the setup. Let's see how this works.
  • The layout looks great, and some great features.

    Many thanks

    www.terrystradingpost.co.uk
    www.terrysphotographs.co.uk
  • Okay, Gravatars work still, threaded comments could be a big ugly mess or a great way of keeping things organized. I guess it depends on the thread, but so far, I'm for it. Now what would be nice is if there was a way to collapse and expanded threaded comments, similar to the comments on Kotaku.com. Just a thought.
  • Honestly it feels overly cluttered when reading comments. Too many unnecessary features as well. I'd like to see the first person to record a video comment.
  • Looking good. I've been thinking about moving my blog comments over to DIsqus after having lots of problems with Intense Debate. As much as I like Intense Debate, it has way too many Wordpress syncing problems for my liking.
  • Not bad, although I like having the comment form on the bottom of the page, rather than in the middle.
  • If users prefer that, I can actually move it to the bottom pretty easily. Just checking a box in the settings.
  • Tim
    I preferred the look of the old comment system, however I love the fact we have threaded commenting now.
  • TiffanyForrester
    I'm actually testing this out for the first time here.... seems to be good to me
  • TiffanyForrester
    wow- i can see a lot of my old comments up to 8 months ago!
  • I like Disqus. One thing to watch out for though is that some spammers are staring to use Disqus as a way to semi-spam blogs, so be on the lookout for commenters that use just their website name as their name, and say things that aren't fully related to your post. I guess they just search for 'Powered by Disqus' and comment on everything that pops up, and they're doing it by hand so it's technically not spam, but it can get really annoying really quick. I've heard you can just remove some of the Disqus verbage to make it so that your site doesn't show up in search, but I haven't seen anything for sure.
  • phractured
    Seesmic video reply from Disqus.
  • That was cool, but really quiet.
  • Personally I don't like the new system, I prefere keeping it as simple as possible, I don't have to sign up for 10000 services just to have almost the same experience...
  • Hey guys, I'm from Disqus. Just stopping in to say thanks for the feedback. I'll keep an eye on this discussion thread to see how things are working out for this community.

    Cheers!
    Daniel
  • Thanks Daniel, can't wait to use the new Twitter and Digg features. When do you think they'll be available for us?

    Jeff Finley
    GO MEDIA
    4507 Lorain Ave.
    Cleveland, OH 44102
    ...........................................
    Tel: 216.939.0000 EXT. 227
    Fax: 216.803.8100
    Office Hours: 10-6 EST mon-fri
    ...........................................

    Design Services & Portfolio:
    http://www.gomedia.us

    Follow me on Twitter:
    http://www.twitter.com/jeff_finley
  • We're cleaning up the features and will have a wide release in a couple weeks.
  • Liza
    It will be nice to put comment form at the bottom, I like reading comments in your blog, lot of interesting people can be found here, but I need to scroll up if want to comment (
  • Also, you have to fix the comment form for the link submit page too.
  • hey that's me!

    i say so far so good
  • I absolutely love Disqus and am happy that you guys are trying it out. I get all excited when I see other websites using Disqus, and it encourages me to leave a comment. :)
  • This commenting system kicks butt. it is so interactive, i'll stop and stay at your site just to go through the comments !
  • I am new to Disqus but i really like it. It is much better commenting than anything i have seen on wordpress or digg.
  • I was finally able to post a comment, this system is nice however most of the people today have a gravatar account and people like me dont like to create another account for some other system, I was able to post this with my facebook acount though was pretty hard, still very cool system.
  • i like the comment system very much.
  • Wow, Cool new feature !
    Will love to try !
  • Wow, Cool new feature !
    Would love to try..
  • Facebook User
    Cool, facebook connect is great
  • testing out disqus with fbook
  • palta
    I think the latest version of Disqus is great. Good addition to the site.

    -Raj
    http://beach-packages.com
  • Gotta love that the Discus guy showed up - "Smart support scours web and seeks blog commentary opportunities to bolster image and address concerns" GOOD STUFF.
  • Checking it out! Looking for a good comment system for my new blog. Thanks for all the good feedback here.
  • Well I'm not sure it was so important to switch to something new ?
    The old comment system had its lacks, but it worked fine I think :-)

    And it means you have to register for one more service online etc etc.
  • More and more webmasters choose this great comment system now, hope it can develop more features in the future.
  • Honestly it feels overly cluttered when reading comments. Too many unnecessary features as well. I'd like to see the first person to record a video comment.
  • testing disqus
  • Disqus plugin tool is great. I don't know what else to say.
  • I switched over to Disqus not too long on GAMINGtruth.com after reading about it here, and things have been going fantastic!

    Great choice!
  • John Parker
    Home Design Directory for Home Improvements, Renovations and Interior Design
     - The Home Design Directory is an online directory of Australian Architects, Building Designers & Interior Designers.
  • Yups !
    Enjoy the power of new social interactive media system .
  • 9450203288
    Towbars -Towbars.
  • I've being trying to setup this disgus in my site but with no luck, any direction on where to get the info? it would be helpfull
  • Janice
    I'm also looking forward for the twitter and digg upcoming features. Twitter had been really popular, in order to keep up wtith the twitter trend i had used this software http://hummingbirdtool.com/ to give me followers, lots of followers pretty amazing it works like magic
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  • 24belvedereestate
    I'm facing sync issues with Disqus. It doesn't import comments with Wordpress 2.8 like before. In fact it simply doesn't show any 'processing' status while importing now. I am not sure but nobody seems to be saying anything about Disqus compatibility with Wordpress 2.8
  • Disqus is really cool.. IT keeps my comment manageable..
  • Comment Spree at Disqus lol



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  • Excellent blog, thanks for the share. I'll be a regular viewer
  • disqus is really cool and good commenting platform. use it or leave it...
  • darekjones
    I like commenting using DISQUS. But I am really confused about the. Like, what would would happen to the comments, when Disqus won't be providing the service anymore?

    Darek from Free Classifieds posting service
  • What a useful post here. Very informative for me..TQ friends...

    Cheers,
    Buat Duit Internet
  • love it! will try the same system on my non profit blot
  • What's cool about Disqus is that it makes it painlessly easy to comment, and does a good job at blocking spam.
  • JabbaJaw
    I like Disqus because I can actually use a lot of sites and people would know me by the same name.
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    Dallas Personal Injury Lawyer
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  • i think DISQUS can get a notification when there a reply only to your comment is very useful for the blogger owners.
  • This good and easy to customize..
  • Disqus is smashing!
  • Yeah definatly is! Since I am using Disqus on my Blog The Comment Spam went down for about 70%!!

    keep up the good work Disqus!
  • nice share, great article, very usefull for us...thank you
    Stop Dreaming Start Action
    Alnect computer
  • Whats with the Digg??

    Yasan (Weight Loss)
    http://whybuyproactol.blogspot.com/
  • nice blog, thanks for the post.
  • Excellent system, one of the best with the current experience,..

    Weight Loss Stories
  • Disqus comment system has really helped our business. It's exactly what I've been looking for.
  • wow, it seems a wonderful program i like it, Weight Loss Diet Pills
  • wow i really found this to be an interesting read; thanks for sharing
  • Thanks for information, I'll always keep updated here!
  • This is so interested! Where can I find more like this?
  • hey franklin....i tried all of your options in trying to get "sync now" option available on the drop down menu...but for some reason it STILL doesnt work....do u have any more suggestions?
  • I think Disqus is the top comment plugin to date. It's very good and has many options.
  • Hi Jeff - this may be a stupid question - I just started using Disqus today, and it was off to a rocky start as the comment importer wasn't working. Im trying to figure out how to display the 'x comments' or 'x comments and y reactions' bit outside of the disqus comment area, for example, on the homepage next to the excerpt of the article. The only was Y i see is to use the API, but that seems needlessly complicated. I see you have this functionality on your category pages (at the very least) - may I ask how you got this up and running? Am I missing something terribly obvious here?
  • I have been reading your blog last couple of weeks and enjoy every bit. Thanks.Pest control Austin
  • I like the fact that Disqus also wants feed backs from its users just to let them know what you think about their service. It also helps them in future improvements of their service.
  • Nice post
  • Its really cool, I came to know this really worth visiting, just bookmarked your site.

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  • Its really cool, I came to know this really worth visiting, just bookmarked your site.

    http://gisnap.com/
    The place where fun never ends
  • good comment system, but it needs to get more popular.
  • I'll post the same information to my blog, thanks for ideas and great article.
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    I also found some useful site: http://www.mesothelioma-informations.org
  • I wanna find more info about this, anybody could?
  • I can’t speak for it today, but hope to be able to report back in the future.
  • Interesting article and nice blog you have too!
  • well worth the read.I found it very informative as I have been researching a lot lately on practical matters such as you talk about...
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  • Definitely keep it.
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    As a Newbie, I am forever probing online for articles that can better me. Convey you

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  • Disqus goes great with Facebook awesome work Disqus.
  • Thanks for the tip. Will definitely check Disqus for my own blog.
  • TopherWelsh
    I like this comment system a lot... pretty rad...
  • masiakowski
    Definitely keep it.
  • Hey Jeff.

    I liked being able to log in instead of having to either type or auto-fill all my general info (name, email, url, etc.)

    Also, don't forget that you can do some customization with Disqus via CSS. http://wiki.disqus.net/CustomCSS

    And the new version (2.7) of Wordpress did add threaded comments as well. Not the only feature you want but it does have it. Also, have you checked out Backtype? It's a great service as well in addition to Disqus.
  • Threaded comments never worked with the zine theme and I never got around to fixing the errors.
  • Kev
    Jeff, check out Intense Debate.com as well. It does have syncing ability with Wordpress. Plus, Automattic acquired them so you can bet they will be around for the long haul.

    They just had a major release: plugins for comments. Huge compared to what Disqus is doing. Pretty soon all the developers are going to load up Intense Debate with every feature imaginable and then some...all configurable with a plugin, just like Wordpress or Firefox extensions. This is gigantic. Who'd a thunk comments would have so much innovation going on.
  • Kev
    intensedebate.com, that is. i didnt want a hyperlink generated above.
  • I think that sounds cool, with all the plugins. Although I've already heard people in this post saying they have had problems with Intense Debate... not sure what to do!
  • It looks good all in all.
  • Wow this comment system is actually pretty nice. I might add it to my site. Its a total digg comment knock off though
  • Really Digg? How so? =P
  • What are there similarity of the digg?
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