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Disqus

Disqus (pronounced “discuss”) is a unified comment system for blogs (and my tumblelog). I’ve been playing with it on and off for a while now and I think I’ve finally made the decision to use Disqus as my main comment system.

Downsides

At first glance, it may seem like a no-brainer to go with Disqus, so why was I so hesitant to use it? Disqus easily drops into my blog and seamlessly replaces the comment system. It also opaquely lays on top of the comments that already exist in Wordpress’ comment system. For me, this is a critical behavior because I frequently re-read comments for reference. An import feature is on it’s way but it would be nice if Disqus just mirrored the comments out of my database via some control in the admin panel.

Disqus Logo

Another Disqus behavior that I don’t much care for is that when a comment is written into the Disqus system, it does not mirror back into my blog’s comment system which is being masked. If I, some time in the future, decide to not use Disqus anymore, all my comments will be lost (or backed up in a non-related XML file) and not stored along side the respective posts. Also, if I use Wordpress’ export feature, the comments will not be included in the backup with the posts.

  • Disqus doesn’t import non-Disqus comments (yet).
  • Disqus doesn’t mirror Disqus comments back into my blog’s database.
  • Disqus mirrors my blog posts on it’s discussion page which may confuse users.
  • Disqus doesn’t have a rich text editor for non tech-savvy users.

Upsides

So why am I using Disqus? The benefits far outweigh the downsides outlined above. I have 16 plugins (including Disqus) enabled on my Wordpress install. Five of those plugins (30%), the largest percentage of my plugins, are for the comment system! Disqus cleanly abstracts all that management (users, spam, moderation, reputation) away from my site while, at the same time, providing a much richer blogging community. Also, my blog and tumblelog can share the same comment system.

  • Disqus cleans up comment management and “leaves it to someone else.”
  • Disqus shares my sites’ comments.
  • Disqus connects my comments to the rest of the web-wide blog community.

Daniel Ha

Daniel Ha, Disqus founder, has been very active in the community (as a community-application developer probably should be), and has done some great interviews that really lay out what Disqus is all about. Like any great community-driven application, this will take users to become truly valuable. Do your part. Join Disqus.

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  • Well done. I hope others enjoyed this as much as I did.
  • I was able to disable six Wordpress plugins with the switch to Disqus! Nice.
  • I just tested out Intense Debate. It has comment importing and exporting directly to and from my Wordpress database which is nice. It also doesn't duplicate my blog posts onto a discussion page like Disqus does. Intense Debate's notification setting are cleanly displayed in the control panel as well.

    Disqus on the other hand looks much nicer (I only had to add two CSS lines to get it to match my site theme). Also, and probably most importantly, Intense Debate is teeth grinding slow and blocks the page from being loaded while the Intense Debate comment counts are queried. Disqus is non-blocking and much faster.

    It would also be nice if Disqus had a rich text editor. Possibly sometime down the line?
  • A text editor would be a nice option for websites. We started some work on that earlier but, honestly, it hasn't been completed. Sometime down the line? Yes. :)

    About import/export... our functionality would be available now but we're making sure it's reliable enough. Just talking to a number of people who've tried the other system's feature, it seems that there are some issues there. We want to be extra careful with people's data.

    Did you have trouble finding the notification settings?
  • It's good enough for me to just know that these features are in the pipeline =).

    I found the notification settings because I read about it first on your tumblr. It feels unnatural that there are settings available via tabs (which is nice and clear) and there are more settings available, not in sub-tabs, but in links off the tabbed content. Basically it is outside of the standard navigation used for the rest of the site.
  • Thanks for the feedback on this. However, if you're referring to the <a href="http://disqus.com/settingsSettings page, there is no tabbed navigation there. Am I mistaken?
  • You are correct but the dashboard has tabs. It just seems a bit inconsistent.

    Anyway, it looks like the comment I'm replying to here is cut off by the "reply" link in both the forum and on my blog. "Thanks for the feedback on this. However, if you're referring to the reply" is what I see.
  • Wow, that's odd. I must have closed the link incorrectly, though it shouldn't have done that.
  • So awesome to have you on board with Disqus, Luke!

    What's our goals right now? Knocking down everything in that Downsides list, that's what. :)
  • Well, what I've hoped to convey is that these downsides are nothing compared to what Disqus adds. What really sold me came to me while I was trying to sleep: how much time I spend updating my comment system with Wordpress plugins.
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