I decided to try using disqus to manage my blog comments. Thought I'd share what I know so far:
Why you might want to try disqus:
- It will turn your blog comments into a real conversation! You can reply directly to each comment, and the reply shows up embedded right below the original comment. So much more natural than replying 10 comments later with @whatevername!
- Replying to comments is super easy. You have three choices:
- hit the reply button on the actual comment
- use the disqus dashboard (good because you can see all of the comments in one place)
- reply directly by email (you get an email notification for each comment, and when you reply to the email, it places your reply below the original comment on your blog! Isn't that awesome???)
- it also works for commenters... they get an email when someone replies to their comment... if they reply to the email, it inserts it into the comment section under the reply! Super cool.
- You can link it with facebook, twitter, etc... commenters can log in from any of these accounts, or openID (which blogger uses), or simply with their name and email.
What you need to know to get started:
- Setting up disqus was super easy! Impressively easy, actually.
- You just register on the disqus site, and the rest of the set-up is like adding a widget to your blogger layout... disqus does most of the work automatically
- You do need to import your comments:
- Go to the Admin section (in the blue bar at the top of the screen)
- Go to the Tools tab
- Click Import/Export. Note: it took some time for all of the comments to import, but don't worry, it worked just fine! (I've read that it can take a couple days if you have loads of comments!!!)
- For some reason... when I imported the comments, my email inbox filled up with a notification for every single comment I've ever gotten... ???????
Quirky things that I'm not sure about yet:
- There is a big delay from the time someone comments to when I get notification in my gmail inbox.
- There is an even bigger delay (like 12 hours or more) to successfuly reply to comments through email.
- Commenters are supposed to receive emails when they get a reply to their comment (which would totally facilitate the 'conversation')... so far, I don't think this is working... but let me know if you did get an email when I replied to your comment.
- Comments received via iPhone are not showing up. I know they are there, because they are in my blogger comment moderation page. But disqus isn't showing them. hmmmm... I emailed support and I expect to hear back soon.
What do you think of the disqus comment form?
Like it?
Hate it?
Indifferent?