I thought I would try out the Disqus commenting system, as a replacement for Blogger comments (that are just infuriating sometimes!). It seems like Disqus will provide not only a chance for great richness in the comments (some tagging is allowed), but it appears that it is better-integrated with your other social networking activities.
I'm interested to know what, if anything, any of you think of this change?
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First Discus comment. I haven't worked out how to edit my profile as yet, so my understanding is rudimentary, to be sure... this has got to be better than Blogger though!
So I can reply to a specific comment, and my reply is threaded directly to it, keeping a particular conversation organized... still can't edit my profile yet... need to find a page listing the functions discus, so I'll be back later.
So we can post youtube video, pictures... respond to comments directly from email... these sound like major improvements over Blogger comments. Just need to figure out how to do it.
Sounds like a thumbs up, so far
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pretty hard to login... you can't use a name if it's already taken, editing my profile is frustrating... this aspect is proving inflexible thus far
For example, I have edited my google profile, but discus does not recognize the changes
Agreed. You are also required to use a name that is >= 3 characters.
So, just for example, DP is impossible. :-D
Still... I figure perhaps it's be worth the trouble of reinventing myself, imaginatively, as D_P (or, indeed and inadvertently, as darenpa when I reply by email like this...). I should just become darenpa and make myself easy shouldn't I? It's just that I've always been "DP", for years and years. Still, I've also been darenpa for years and years too, so what's the difference...
No-dupes policy when it comes to names is probably A Good Thing in the long run.
No more "There is another John, I'll sign off in future as JohnW" etc.
Fortunately for Captain Goodvibes, I'm pretty sure he won't have a problem.
The Disqus system is very much not-Blogger-specific, it just happens to be easy to integrate with your blog (among other things). It also integrates tightly with your Facebook and Twitter accounts, and in fact even if you have a bespoke website you could integrate it with that fairly painlessly too I believe.
So you write a comment on the Disqus comments at your blog, then some comments at someone else's Disqus comments on their bespoke website, and they are related because you use the same Disqus account to make the comments. The comments you write in those places also can be setup to show in your Facebook and Twitter feeds, so your Friends can see what you are doing even beyond the FB/T realms.
The integration with Blogger is fairly sophisticated, it will go as far as synching the Disqus and Blogger-internal comments (I can see all these comments in the Comments tab of this blog now). But the account you use when logging into Blogger, and the one you use when logging into Disqus, are very much discrete from each other. Even if the names are set the same, they are still different accounts and are unrelated beyond that common name.
It is certainly making a break from Blogger, to change to this system instead. A new paradigm, which will require a little effort and patience I think, to adjust from the paradigm that went before! :->
I've left the settings on default, to show the latest comment first, which is the reverse of regular Blogger comments. Do you think this is better, or worse? Now that I see it in action, and given the target audience are mostly people coming from other Blogger sites, or failing that they'll probably be Facebookers, I'm thinking it would be better the other way around.
(You will have realised by now, probably, that I've changed that setting, and also put the comment box at the bottom rather than the top)
True, CG won't have competition, but neither will he have continuity.
I never would have guessed I'd have so much to say, or I would have used a consistent identity from the start (when I started I didn't have anything but questions, mostly the same as everyone else's).
Having trouble installing the code, as Flow won't appear as an option as one of my blogs, which is also why I don't have them listed in my Google profile, as Flow doesn't appear.
I have installed code via html gadget, but there is something missing, and in the meantime all existing comments have disappeared, so I've uninstalled it again.
I think the feature needs to be easier for non-programmers to troubleshoot, and for commenters to transfer their existing profiles... if it just used my blogger profile it'd be fine, but it has to use the google one, in which edits do not feed through to disqus. My time is at a premium anyway, so I may give this away for now.
I had a little trouble myself, when I first setup my account back in October and tried to follow the simple instructions. The second time though, recently, I found that it worked just fine and was incredibly easy to integrate with Blogger. I think I found it worked by pushing it at the Disqus account end, rather than inserting a code gadget at the Blogger design end. In the first attempt, I think I misunderstood and was trying to paste in HTML code at the Blogger design end, copied and pasted from Disqus. I think you administer the site in the Disqus admin panel, and click on the Blogger option there and get it to login and do it for you. I'm a big hazy on it for now, unfortunately.
If you like, since I am by day an IT consultant specialising in global systems and network administration plus end user support, I can arrange with you a mutually convenient time to remote control you at your PC (I can only do this by you visiting my appliance on the web and requesting it, so you wouldn't need to worry that I will then have a secret backdoor into your computer in the future -- you have to request assistance any time you want help, it is very secure I assure you :-) ). Let me know if you might like me to share your screen with you and try to assist any time... ;-)
BTW I have today realised that the "username" (that you login with) doesn't have to be the name that is displayed on your comments/activities. So, for example, my username is still "darenpa", but I have changed my "Full name" in the profile to "DP" -- and this is now what is displayed on all my comments.
So, you could have a Disqus username of "blondiesheroot" (or whatever you like...) but set in the profile the Full Name to be "Blondie" -- and you could be free: free... to be who you wanna be... (This is also retrospective -- your change your fullname and ALL of your comments are adjusted)
Of course, this means that after all John and John might have to qualify which... John... they are. But, at least it is really easy for them to reinvent themselves as JohnW and JohnDoe.
Got it up and running pretty easily this time, thanks in large part to this comment (and not being in a hurry).
Looks like a much more powerful commenting system, that's for sure... I guess I'll need a new post to encourage some feedback though.
Looking forward to reading it in due course. You never know, I might even have some comment that I feel is worthwhile! Or... at least a like I'm sure... :-)
username is still "darenpa", but I have changed my "Full name" in the
profile to "DP" -- and this is now what is displayed on all my
comments.
So, you could have a Disqus username of "blondiesheroot" (or whatever
you like...) but set in the profile the Full Name to be "Blondie" --
and you could be free: free... to be who you wanna be... (This is also
retrospective -- you change your fullname and ALL of your comments are
adjusted)
Of course, this means that after all John and John might have to
qualify which... John... they are. But, at least it is really easy.................
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