To that end, I've decided I do not like Blogger's commenting system. Eventually, I'd like to go self-hosted and switch to Wordpress, but for now, I'm gonna be cheap and stick with what's free. That means I'm thinking about changing my commenting system on this site to either IntenseDebate or Disqus. I've used both of these services on other people's blogs and like them a lot. What I'm looking for, specifically, is the ability for people to reply directly to others' comments, instead of posting a new comment at the end and using an @ to address the specific person.
From what I've been told, I might lose my old comments on old posts, but I guess that's a price I'll have to pay if I want a better commenting system.
Any thoughts, suggestions, and/or advice on this?
**Edit: After a very short time and lots of feedback, I think I'm going to remain as is for the time being and just to a little research. If it seems to be a good idea in a month or so, I may go to WP. We'll see. I may give up on this silly little idea and do absolutely nothing. But thanks for the input!**
9 comments:
I hate them. HATE them. I never comment when people have them because A) I don't want to create an account just to comment on your blog and B) One which allows open ID login never ever lets me log in and usually winds up logging me out of open ID. If you want a new commenting system, I would suggest just exporting everything over to wordpress.
#1 - Thank you from commenting on my triumphant return post -- it's nice to know you're still reading :)
#2 - I had Disqus for a while, and the #1 complaint I got was that your readers have to register for an account in order to post a comment. (Actually, you can post as a guest, but it's not as obvious of an option.) Still, I liked how it threaded comments and how I could respond to each one individually. I ended up un-installing it, but I actually thought it was a great application -- I just didn't think it was a good fit for my blog. Hope this helps!
I just made the switch to Disqus, and personally I like it a lot. The setup on my site (and I believe it's an option for all) is that it initially selects posting as a guest, and from there you can choose whether you want to remain a guest or just log in.
Also, Disqus does have an option to import all old comments. I just made the switch, and I love it.
Disqus is what I use for my Tumblr acct. It's OK. Not great. But ok. I hate that I myself have to sign into it to comment and also if others want to comment, that they might have to sign up. that's annoying (ditto April's comment.
I prefer fewer steps. You've already edited the post, just backing that up. What you've got now works great for me.
Also, speaking of Blogger/Wordpress, there've been problems recently in moving comments from Blogger to Wordpress (self-hosted or wordpress.com). Really this whole spring. I did this professionally for the last few years & would be happy to answer questions you have, just something to be aware of as you test. You can try making a throwaway wordpress.com blog, making it private & seeing how an import goes (be sure to use a url no one would want later since no one else can use it...like crayonsandcylonsohhaitestblog. ;) )
I recently migrated my 30+ blogs over to Disqus and our users love it. We're getting around 5*times the number of comments than we did before and Spam comments is almost non-existent. It's very easy to install into blogger, has great Spam and Moderation options to ban spammers and IP addresses and allows for threaded conversations.
It fully imports your existing comments as well as keeping them in sync should you ever want to remove Disqus.
And best of all it's totally free :)
You can see it in action on my blog here
http://darkufo.blogspot.com/2010/01/new-comment-system-trial.html
You can visit the Disqus site here.
http://disqus.com/overview/
Detailed Install Instructions
http://tvtechgirl.blogspot.com/2010/01/supercharge-your-blog-comments-with.html
I feel the same thing about blogger. I've seen some blogs that make it work though with tons of back and forth comments. I'm considering Wordpress... eventually.
Don't go to Wordpress! You can't follow Wordpress blogs!
I really like Wordpress.com - I'm not a fan of Blogger commenting at ALL, same with Disqus - I think people like things more simple. I did sign up with a disqus account so I could comment on those that did have it, but I'm big on commenting - I know if it's not plain and simple, it may be reason enough for someone not to leave a comment.
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