Just a quick note to say my flirtation with the DISQUS commenting system is over. While I liked many features, and had only one user complaint, the software had a confusing user interface and never seemed to be able to count comments correctly. This annoyed me and it annoyed at least one of my readers. So, assuming that one reader and I were the tip of an uncomplaining iceberg, I have now reverted to vanilla WordPress comments. If DISQUS ever gets better, do let me know.
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Yay for vanilla! I was too lazy to complain but rooly rooly happy you’ve dropped Disqus
I’m glad you said that Janette (on behalf of the disgruntled-yet-strangely-silent majority). I now feel fully vindicated.
Graham,
If you’re willing to reactivate Disqus I can help figure out why the comment count was off. This sometimes happens due to custom wp theme code or third party plugins
@Kanette, what did you not like about our service? I’d love to hear your thoughts. http://disqus.com/help
Hm. I wonder why we were so silent. I think it’s partly some crusted-on English politeness on my part, plus an irrational sense that Disqus is a bit Big Brother and – you know – might be LISTENING IN and not appreciate criticism…
Or it could just be laziness. Prob’ly just laziness now that I think about it. Ha.
Well Giannii, it seems my sense of Big Brother watching was spot on.
I assume, by the way, that you meant @Janette not @Kanette??
Giannii, Thanks for the offer but I’ll hold off on that – maybe until Disqus has had a couple more releases.
Far from seeming Big Brotherish, I found the fact that Disqus (in the shape of you) takes such a close interest in the user experience is a major recommendation for it.
So, in the spirit of being helpful, I have the following feedback.
1. The comment counting problem was an irritation and it clearly made at least one user concerned that comments were going astray – even though they weren’t. (As you say, that may be fixable.)
2. The header block for the commenter is confusing. It lists the number of comments, ‘likes’ and ‘points’ a commenter has made. Only ‘comments’ makes sense – I don’t know what a ‘point’ is or the relevance of ‘likes’. It counts the comments for the commenter and displays the count very prominently – but I don’t see the usefulness of this information, especially since it looks like it might refer to the number of comments to the post, not the commenter, and thus increases the confusion.
3. The amount of ‘white space’ in the comment layout seems excessive.
4. The use of comment threading is great and one of the features I wanted but I found that, if a comment is made which refers to an earlier comment but which is not entered as a ‘reply’, it seems to be out of sequence in the display because of the display rules Disqus uses. This, too, is confusing.
5. The text box for entering comments is very shallow and there doesn’t seem to be any particular reason for this. I tend to write long comments, and so do some of my commenters. A deeper text box is more comfortable than a narrow slit.
6. I was never confident that the email notification was working properly. Some comments sat around unmoderated for quite a while before I found them. I can’t swear that this wasn’t just my own carelessness, but it didn’t used to happen with the ‘vanilla’ WP system.
7. The moderation options didn’t quite work for me. My favourite is to allow anyone to comment with no further moderation once I have authorised them once. Disqus didn’t offer me that option and didn’t seem to work that way since I did have to authroise the same person several times.
Of course, all of these things are minor and could quite easily be remedied. Also, most of them are a matter of my personal taste. Probably the comment entry header block problems are the really significant ones.
Thanks for showing an interest, though. It is much appreciated.
I agree, Disqus seemed unnecessarily complex, and I noticed one of my comments on your first manifesto post has vanished. Easier to stick with vanilla wordpress.
Hi! I’m confused with my blog. if I have disqus and the comments built-in from wordpress, do they duplicate anything?? I’m using atahualpa and in my homepage, posts are showing 2 comments and 0 reactions although i know there are only 2 comments and I have no idea where or what or how the reactions thingy appeared
help me anyone? Or specifically help me mr. Giannii,
I like disqus because my friends use it…. but too bad it it makes my blog confusing!
please reply to me someone, you can leave a reply at my blog.aaronlecciones.com or at aaronlecciones.com/contact.html
Thanks!