Poll: Do you like the new commenting system?

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I’ve been fiddling around with my comments section lately. The wordpress comments system is great, but I wanted my readers to have a better experience. Here are some things that made me unahappy with the native wordpress comment systems:

  1. Page needs to be reloaded when you submit a comment
  2. Can’t vote up or vote down comments
  3. Can’t reply to comments via Email

The first one is the most important by far. I’d like users to have an immediate feedback that their comments have been posted. I tried several Ajax plugins to achieve this but none of them worked properly. So I decided to implement a third party commenting system. There were two and I tried them one by one – Disqus and IntenseDebate. As of this date, I’m using IntenseDebate for the reason given below, but I’d like your feedback on which commenting system you like or if you’re totally happy with the native wordpress comments.

Problems with Disqus Comments

A lot of the things that are important to others are not important to me. For me, Disqus was great because it allowed the comments and replies to be posted immediately without a page refresh – very useful for slow Internet connections.

The problem with Disqus was that people who post as guests don’t see the “Name” “Email” and “URL” fields easily – and it requires a separate click to enter the URL. I realized this when I saw Sraboney’s comment on my Climate Change post without her usual “URL”.

I didn’t want to have potential commenters drop out because of this so I chose IntenseDebate instead which shows all three fields clearly. That’s what you will see below this post. I really need some feedback on which one you guys like. So here are two screenshots – you choose which one you’d feel more comfortable using:

Disqus Screenshot:

Disqus Screenshot
Disqus comment form - See how the "Name", "Email" and "URL" fields are missing - you enter them after posting the comment

IntenseDebate Screenshot:

IntenseDebate Screenshot
IntenseDebate comment form. The input fields are clearly visible beforehand

Any more feedback would be welcome in the comments.

[poll id=”21″]

Along with your answer, do let me know your reasons for any of the three answers…

What do you think of this post?
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20 thoughts on “Poll: Do you like the new commenting system?”

  1. I like Intense Debate much better. I tried using Disqus at one point, but I kept having problems with it for some reason. Also I don't understand why you have enter the information after you comment. And with Disqus for some reason when I do enter my information, my email address username become the same? O_O

    Reply

  2. I use Default WordPress pattern for commenting. Because on the comment part , there is only one risk i.e. spam comments. But I have managed to block spam comments on my blog with the help of some plugins. Its true that those plugins works very perfectly.

    Suggest you to follow default wordpress pattern.

    Thanks

    Reply

  3. While, I don't remember finding IntenseDebate and Disqus significantly different, I voted on keeping original WordPress theme for a simple selfish reason – I comment using Java-based cell phone (using Opera Mini) many times, and it is extremely cumbersome to comment using IntenseDebate, having to reload the page several times. I don't remember for sure, but Disqus is perhaps better on that count.

    Using cell phone, the best to comment on is Blogger, but of course I really hate the fact that one cannot append one's reply below the intended comment. Problem with WordPress had been that if the page exceeded certain length, then commenting using cell phone was not possible as the page would simply reload without registering the comment.

    Of course, perhaps people who comment using primitive device like mine must be exceedingly few, but thought I better discuss my predicament anyway as you had asked for it. :)

    Perhaps, small advantage (if I remember that correctly) with Disqus is that it allows people to log in using more platforms like Yahoo!, twitter, etc. If you like Disqus better, you could still incorporate it, leaving a small message for the reader indicating that the comment interface would allow them to submit their URL after posting the comment.

    PS: Above comment was posted from desktop.

    Reply

    • In reply to Ketan

      Good points Ketan. I'm planning to try a new tool for cellphone users which will make it easier to comment for them. Let me know if you think this is a good idea – it's based on IntenseDebate which changes its form to suit a mobile.

      You're right about logging in – but most wordpress commenters don't care about logging in (or so I think) – the fields in IntenseDebate are automatically filled out when a visitor returns so they're as good as logged in.

      I was experimenting with some new stuff when you were commenting so you must not have seen the IntenseDebate form at the time – what timing!

      Reply

  7. I was using blogger default comment system on my blog firstly then i came acrostis Disqus which looked cool as the best thing was page need not to be refreshed when posting comments and implemented it on my blog.
    But after this i came across Intensedebate which i liked more so and when my friend wanted suggestion from me to choose which one i advised Intensedebate.
    Also with Intensedebate i have seen Comment luv but haven't yet across any of those in Disqus.
    I am still using Disqus , have a question for you that if i opt for Intensedebate will my old comments will be shown too ?
    Disqus have added a button for liking the post which i found cool, intensedebate doesn't have that i guess.
    But yes Disqus need to do something with the the email and link button for guests which is separate.

    Reply

  10. I’ve gone back to the native wordpress comments for reasons of speed. But I implemented an Ajax plugin for commenting without a page refresh…Best of both worlds.

    Reply

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