The CragBaby

I recently integrated a new plugin on both my blogs called Disqus (pronounced discuss).  It is a service that ‘makes commenting easier and more interactive, while connecting websites and commenters across a thriving discussion community’.  I wanted to try the plug-in as I had heard through my tech friends that it has helped create further communications on their blogs.  But really I wanted to try it because it is a portfolio company of a venture firm, Union Square Ventures, that I truly respect.  =)

When I first saw the service (actually on one of the first sites to implement it, my friend Charlie’s blog) it required that a commenter register in order to leave a comment which I found incredibly annoying and resulted in me almost leaving the site without posting a comment.  Sometimes I just get so tired of registering for services, increasing the odds of getting more spam.  But the company has improved the product giving the commenter the choice to register or not. If you register, you will be notified if the blog writer responds to your comment.  If you don’t register, it is just like leaving a normal comment without any notification.

As the writer of the blog, so far I like the service because:

1. It allows me to reply back to individual comments, being able to create a handful of conversations within the comment thread
2. It creates a community page on Disqus where I can see all my comments
3. As a commenter on other blogs I can see all the blogs on which I have commented.  Pretty cool.

I will admit that the integration of old comments into the Disqus system was trickier than it should have been.  There weren’t any straight forward directions and the forum was quite convoluted.  I finally solved the problem by swapping tweets with Daniel Ha, Disqus co-founder, on Twitter.  The key is you have to enable the plugin, then go into manage and then import.  This didn’t seem straight forward to me as once I enabled the plug-in, my comments disappeared and so I thought I would have to export or import prior to enabling.

Basically, though, I am writing this post to see if any of you readers have any thoughts about this new comment system.  Do you like it?  Have you even noticed the change?  Have you seen it on other blogs?  And is this a post that truly should stay on the my tech / business blog of the Wasatchgirl? =)  I thought I would post here as the WasatchGirl has been quite dormant since I hit the road.