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Disqus - After 5 Days on Disqus, I’m Turning Back to Wordpress Comments

Submitted by Ryan Spoon on May 15, 2008 – 7:38 pmComments

I’m an avid reader of Fred Wilson’s blog and was tempted to test-drive Disqus when Fred first integrated it onto his site. I finally decided to install it on my blog (which is powered by Wordpress) after Fred wrote his post “Three Reasons to Use Disqus“. It’s worth noting that installing Disqus is amazingly easy.

I installed Disqus on Sunday…
Today is Thursday and I have decided to remove it.

Why?

In concept, Disqus is bold and a clear improvement over static comments. I believe fully that threaded, social and portable commenting is the future of discussion and is certainly empowering for readers. I like being able to follow a user’s activity across other blogs - for instance, I just accessed all of Gabe Rivera’s Disqus comments (here) and arrived on some fascinating blogs (that I wouldn’t have found otherwise).

As a blog owner, though, Disqus simply isn’t empowering enough…. yet:

My core issue is that the content (and it can be argued that comments and discussions are the most important aspect of a site) isn’t truly mine. It’s rendered via javascript on my end and as direct html on Disqus.com. That means that I lose all of the SEO value of the comments (which is significant) and Disqus gains from it. Honestly, that makes me quite uncomfortable. A couple other critiques:

- Trackbacks are critical elements of a blog (SEO, navigation, etc). They aren’t yet available with Disqus and are must-adds.

- Disqus doesn’t provide commenter emails and contact information. Sounds minor, but I have engaged directly with numerous readers and formed deep relationships. Another must-have before I switch back. (update: according to Daniel Ha of Disqus email addresses are accessible; full response in below comments)

- The administration and deep interactions occur on Disqus.com - and consequently off my site. Furthermore, as the admin, there is neither enough transparency nor available configurations.

I think Disqus is close. And I expect that I’ll give it another test-drive shortly. But it’s going to take some additional benefits as a blogger (I clearly see the benefits as a reader); and as I think about services I’m willing to pay, perhaps that’s the solution for Disqus: offer premium accounts. I’d be willing to buy that.

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  • i will used discus thanks
  • You still use disqus ;)
  • Personally, I like Disqus quite a bit and have it installed on several of my blogs. I think the newest release is the best so far.
  • DISQUS allows the blogger to have greater control with comments. It's one of the useful tools that any blogger can have.
  • I actually love disqus. Its system is quite strong to catch spam. I have implemented it on my blog, it saves me 15 min a day which i used to spend in deleting spam.
  • Did you switch back to using Disqus? You bring up some compelling thoughts to ponder before implementing Disqus. Do you still have the same concerns, or have they fixed them? ... Scott
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  • Don't give up on Disqus yet, it is a great tool, they just need to tweak it a little better to control spam, and it will be golden.
  • Data ownership is really a risk, with the current economic climate are you comfortable with the fact that your data is in the hands of others?. We all need to ensure we manage our business risks during these difficult times.
  • I love DISQUS, nice comment system
  • I think Disqus is great and I use it on all my blogs. It really adds a level of interactivity that you don't get with regular comments.
  • The content ownership in SEO perspective is a drawback of Disqus.... But like Juegos noted why you are still have disqus enabled in your site?
  • Personally, I like Disqus quite a bit and have it installed on several of my blogs. I think the newest release is the best so far.
  • I think Disqus is going to be the next best thing in commenting. It's great at stopping spam !
  • why you are still have disqus enabled in your site?
  • Don't ever try to remove disgus, its on of the best ways to control comments and also it create a good social area in your blog.
  • hehe disqus is easy, i see you still use it. hehe
  • hmm, but this blog is still on disqus? You turn it back?
  • JhonGalindo
    Very intersting..... thanks for the info
  • Disqus is a superb anti spam and bots preventer
  • I really enjoy using Disqus. It makes it so much easier to post on blogs that I'm familiar with. I don't have to enter in all of my contact details everytime that I post.
  • I still see you are using disqus for comemnts. Did you change your mind? I am also in two minds whether or not to integrate my new blog with disqus.
  • How to put disus in my video seo blog
  • Gee
    This blog was originally written last year. Since then, things have changed.
  • First you are still with disqus. second I kind of agree with you in the sense that disqus seems to be everywhere, until ultimately everyone will use it.
  • Why are you still using disqus?
  • Disqus is a great system. It just takes some getting used to when changing from wordpress.

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  • Thanks.
    For sharing the great info .
  • wow. Disqus is also good.. Thanks for sharing.. I am new in the discuss..
  • I think disqus is the best! =)
  • Don't ever try to remove disgus, its on of the best ways to control comments and also it create a good social area in your blog.
  • Disqus, no disqus and now disqus, what systems do you want to use?
  • why, you move to wordpress?
  • golfman_story
    What a useful post here. Very informative for me..TQ friends...

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  • gabrielpdansby
    I think Disqus is close. And I expect that I’ll give it another test-drive shortly. But it’s going to take some additional benefits as a mocospace.com blogger (I clearly see the benefits as a reader); and as I think about services I’m willing to pay, perhaps that’s the solution for Disqus: offer premium accounts. I’d be willing to buy that.
  • Guess ure still using it then :)
  • NCC
    disqus rocks
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  • I've been reading along for a while now.
    I just wanted to drop you a comment to say keep up the good work
  • Hi, nice post. I have been wondering about this issue,so thanks for writing. I will certainly be subscribing to your posts.
  • It looks like your still using Disqus. What happened?
  • the coolest feature of disqus is that blogger can have a great control to the comments on their blogs... and comment poster can network all their posted comment,, that's the thing i loved about disqus
  • Hi, interesting post. I have been thinking about this topic,so thanks for posting. I'll probably be coming back to your posts.
  • vikassinghania
    I just joined now and it seems liike a good site but i always cant get on here is that going to keep me from pw like some other sites but i m still use disqus.

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  • Disqus is really superb anti spam and bots prevention
  • Disqus is the best comments system. And you still use disqus :)
  • First time am hearing a problem of using disqus..Soon it should be avoided..It is necessary..
  • sivam
    i too have set up disqus in my blog.. its pretty simple and great to use.. and i heard that disqus is going to integrate the open id feature.. may be its their next plan
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  • I noticed you're still using disqus comments. You are not going back to wordpress after all?
  • anyways all people have their own point of view, some people find disqus very useful because of its features at least you gave a try to use it as i have known disqus had improve their service because of some comments i'm not quite sure about it
  • Thank you for the information, this is really informative.I’m looking forward to here from you.

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  • i found disqus useful to me thats why i stayed using disqus, with all the features they are offering i think disqus is great
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  • disqus comment really rocks... its too good to use it!!
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  • When viewing "source" (and this is what the spiders see) I can see all the disqus comments for this post, so i assume this problem has been solved.

    However, the overlay that appears on hover over the users names seem to be JS generated, I think that's a good thing since most of those "recent comments" are not relevant to this current post anyway and would probably water down the SEO value.

    In terms of being able to contact people, disqus still provides the users facebook, twitter, etc. contact info ... these types of contacts are they way to go I think and is of more benefit to you and people.

    One of the reasons I'm even posting here (id say 30%-40%) is that you have disqus enabled and it so easy to leave a comment. I don't need to fuss with anything else, at least it feels that way.
  • Can you post a link to your article on why you decided to re-enable Disqus?
  • Disqus comments
    get you lots of free traffic for your site
    now with disqus your visitors can tweet your post while comment
    so you can get more free traffic from twitter
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