A Comment On Comments, Served Up As A Post

Posted on Comments

by Smitty

Breitbart has a post concerning their comment system. That’s not terribly notable, except that it’s the same one this blog has used for a year-ish. So maybe Stacy will give me a little credit for technology choices, and even ponder some of my other suggestions, for example, TweetDeck.

Third party comment systems like Disqus facilitate more comments by making it trivial to log in using Twitter or Facebook accounts. I commend the use of such systems to all bloggers who would like more comments on their posts. In fact, I’ll venture to the bulk of the WordPress blogs that you’re taking it on the chin. Blogger is a bit less tedious, for me, as it lets you log in with a Google account. I would share more of my vibrant wit with any number of WordPress blogs, but YetAnotherBleedingLogin has all the attractiveness of Arianna Huffington sporting a three alarm hangover.

Then again, you might consider fewer one-liners from me a feature.

Update: Daily Pundit wants inline (non-nested?) comments. I think you can set that, in fact.

26 comments

  1. I freely admit that, aside from open blogs and one invite-only blog, I’d rather deal with disqus. I cannot remember my wordpress password. It won’t stay saved. I have to use my Google password every day, so (even when I change it) it’s always going to work.

    So this is a good thing. 

  2.  Well Admiral, might you enlighten an illiterate computer user like myself in these new technological advances you’re bragging about.  I think my blog might already be linked through twitter and facebook. I mean, every time I post, it goes to both. What else can I do…except perhaps write like you, Stacy and Bob Belvedere. ( That’s called sucking up for all you rookies out there. ;)> )

  4.  You can save the WordPress password by not completely clearing the cache, and using SpyBot and AdAware to clean the unwanted tracking cookies instead.  But whenever the browser updates to a new version, it seems to wipe the slate clean.  Very annoying.

  6. So maybe Stacy will give me a little credit for technology choices

    Don’t pat yourself so much. Check this recent “Call Me a Cynic” comment thread. Looks like someone(s) have posted comments spoofing Smitty, you(!) and perhaps ‘gg’. Or not. Please clarify.

  7.  Me too! Especially, to use a specific login for a lowly blog like TOM is not worth the effort, unlike say if I were commenting on HuffPost. I post as a guest and don’t even remember the fake email I enter in the comment form, I just let the browser cache do the work for me until the cookies are inadverdently deleted by choice or by haste, and then I start afresh with a new fake email.

  9. I’m not sure I get the gripe…..it’s always been the same complicated login with Disqus stuff, at least as far as I can tell…..

  10. Me, I hate the Disqus thing, and would prefer a straight site-specific login, like on the other blogs I post on (PW all the time, and LI on occasion), as well as on various forums.

    Never wanted a Google ID (and refuse to use Facebook or Yahoo), but now I’ve got one just to use this place.

    Biggest complaint: the threaded comments. It’s fine if you want to read all the comments on a thread once and never again. But if it’s an interesting topic, you come back a few hours later, and new comments could be displayed anywhere — you basically have to skim through all the comments looking for unfamilar text.

    Gimme a straight single list of comments, with the newest at the bottom… hell, even Charles Johnson got that right, before he went mad. 🙂

    If that can be changed while still keeping the Disqus system, I withdraw most of my complaint. If not, Disqus can go die in a fire, as far as I’m concerned.

  11. posted comments spoofing Smitty, you(!) and perhaps ‘gg’.

    Sorry! I thought this blog post was written by Wombat-socho!

    You know me, I have no complaints against you Smitty 🙂

  14. Disqus has grown on me.  It still has it’s hiccups every now and again [yesterday it kept logging me out for about a half hour], but, overall, I like it.  I do wish, however, they had kept the feature where whoever first hit ‘Like’ on a comment got the credit; I want folks to know it’s me liking them.

    Bravo Smitty, and for also urging me to use TweetDeck.

  15.  I agree. Personally, I like  the guest commenter feature the most on Disqus.

    For the record, I’m the first person to like your comment above.

  16. I have two WordPress blogs – one personal and one group.  Both use an open system meaning anyone can comment, and there’s no need to log-in.  The only caveat is that your first comment is automatically put in moderation.  Once we determine your not a troll, you pretty much have carte blanche after that.  I think it’s a decent system. 

  17. It’s possible to use Facebook and Twitter logins with WordPress (I assume there’s some extension or whatever…I’ve never worked directly with WP).  In particular, I’ve used that on http://wattsupwiththat.com and http://judithcurry.com .

    But I like the discus system.  One nice feature is the ability to look at the comment history of other commenters, including at other sites.

  21. I’ve never had much trouble using DISQUS’s login system and there are other sites I occasionaly visit that use it. What I still don’t understand is why this blog changed the comments format or whatever back in November. The way it was formatted before (similar to the way it still is at rightscoop) was much more readable and didn’t have all these superflous arrows or the painfully narrowed columns the compound replies become. 

  22. Looks like someone(s) have posted comments spoofing Smitty, you(!)[Smitty] and perhaps ‘gg’. Or not. Please clarify.

    True. Someone posted comments under my handle ‘gg’, and very likely under Smitty’s and Wombat’s handles as well in that thread.

  24. Dying in a fire sounds pretty painful. Fortunately we’re improving threading considerably in the next iteration of our embed, which we’re beta testing now: http://blog.disqus.com/post/19693554817/disqus-labs — would love your feedback if you want to join our labs and help us test!

    And thank you for the candid feedback.

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