The reason I am writing about this topic is very simple. When I was using the Thesis theme I had Disqus active for my commenting system. When I switched to the Canvas theme I really enjoyed the styling of the standard WordPress commenting system. The reason I use Disqus first was so people could comment using Facebook, Twitter, Yahoo or any OpenID account. From what I have observed please tend to comment more when it is easier for them.
When I made the decision to reactivate Disqus on the Canvas theme I found that a bunch of comments were missing. I submitted a ticket with Disqus and posted a tweet about it. Soon later the issue was resolved (and very easily I might add). The following day I noticed that a new comment didn’t show. I followed the instructions that Disqus told me and it fixed the problem. Will it happen again? I do not know.
A Quick Comparison
- WordPress
- Free
- Built-In
- Threading
- Disqus
- Free
- 2-Way Sync
- Social Commenting
- Likes
- Javascript
- Multimedia
- Quick Support
- Independently Owned
- Intense Debate
- Free
- 2-Way Sync
- Social Commenting
- Javascript
- Comment voting
- Owned by Automattic
- Echo
- Paid
- Real-Time
- Social Commenting
- Javascript
- Multimedia
- Independently Owned
I might have missed a bunch of features from the commenting systems but I have only used the default WordPress and Disqus systems before.
Please share
So here is my question to everyone. What comment system do you use and why? Are you using Disqus, Intense Debate, Echo or the standard WordPress commenting system. Why are you using it? What do you think the advantages are over the others? Please share your thoughts by commenting below.
Thanks for reading,
Scott
Thank you for reading the Scott Wyden Imagery blog. I am a Manalapan, New Jersey Photographer sharing my passion for photography any way I can. I am also the Community & Blog Wrangler at Photocrati, teaching other photographers on how to increase business with their website.
Join me on Twitter, Google Plus or Facebook and lets talk photography.
Comment Policy: Your words are your own, so be nice and helpful if you can. Please, only use your real name and limit the amount of links submitted in your comment. Critiques and conversations are encouraged, however negativity will not be tolerated.
24 Comments
I'm using the standard WordPress commenting system right now. It works well and is easy but I'm thinking about switching to another system. Echo really interests me. It aggregates social comments in the blog post which really adds value to the content. It is a paid service so that's why I haven't made the switch yet although I'm seriously thinking about it. One thing about it being a privately owned paid service is at least they have a business model and hopefully the revenue is enough to keep them going and improving their product.
Trevor,
Thank you for your thoughts on the subject!
to be honest I am pretty new to these but have signed up for Disqus and Intense and am assuming that it makes it easier to comment on a blog if you are signed up to the service that the blog is using?
Both of those systems allow you to use your Twitter ID and Facebook account to comment. That does make it quicker.
do they help prevent spam? I use the WordPress commenting system on my blog with a spam math filter but I still get some
Yes they do. When I use Disqus I get a lot less spam come through. Also, Disqus uses Askimet for extra protection. I'm not sure how the others do it.
Disqus, of course. :-)
Hey there, just want to throw another commenting system into the mix: Livefyre. We are: free, super simple install, social, threaded comments, javascript, universal ratings, privately owned, comment syncing, LIVE…the list goes on :)
We’re in private beta right now, feel free to sign-up at livefyre.com. I’ll send beta invites to anyone interested. Feel free to ask me any questions. Thanks!
Why is Disqus your favorite?
Jenna,
Looks very similar to Disqus and Intense Debate. I see there will be paid versions as well? How do you compare your loading time front end and backend to the others?
Currently in the private beta we are offering our free blogger version. In the future we will have paid publisher and white-label versions with added benefits. You can check them out here: http://livefyre.com/features
Our front load time is very quick, and the messages are sent over XMPP, the open-source chat protocol making the backend extremely efficient.
Thank you for sharing Jenna!
On Livefyre we don't have spam because users have to create an account to be able to comment. We make this easy with Twitter and Facebook signups. Connecting to social profiles also helps weed out additional spam since in brings accountability to the users.
i use discus. i've had no problems with it and it's dead easy to use.
Thanks for sharing your opinion!
I'm making this comment on my iPhone through the Disqus Mobile Theme. It's pretty cool.I use Disqus on my Joomla! powered blog. Disqus has to be good or they are simply going to disappear. It's the one thing that they do. Joomla! does have a couple of commenting systems and until recently I didn't like any of them. For now I will stick with Disqus since it's as good as anything that's out there. If they should decide to become a paid service down the road I'll have to make a business decision which will be based simply on income vs expenses of the blog site it's being run on.I think that Disqus has contributed to the popularity of my blog because of the integration of the social media platforms. I tend to be loyal when I find something good that works so it's unlikely I'd jump to another commenting system unless forced to because of either Disqus ending their service or another system coming along which disrupts the industry the way Google disrupted search engines.
Thank you for sharing your opinion!
Lots of reasons! I helped work on it and continue to do so with a great team. And I know we really care about what we do.
I dunno Jenna — Disqus approaches it similarly and plenty of spammers still try to post all the time!
It’s a real nasty world… sometimes. :)
Looks very similar to Discus and Intense Debate. I see there will be paid versions as well.
What looks similar to Disqus and Intense Debate?
Love this! This is amazing!Beyond brilliant.
Yes Livefyre looks interesting. I tried it in september. But it was so slow that I uninstalled it immediately.
I’m giving it another try. I hope it will encourage discussion, even if the lack of authentification via Google/Yahoo/OpenID looks like a big lack to me. Facebook is often blocked in the workspace, and everybody doesn’t have twitter.
Since writing this post I have removed all commenting systems and not use the default WordPress system. I did activate CommentLuv which is a nice way for commenters to share their latest blog posts.