Disqus vs. Proprietary?

9 points by methodin ↗ HN
Which do you prefer when on a new site that you do not have an account for? Does using disqus change the way you interact with the site at all?

7 comments

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I'm having the same dilemma in trying to decide if I should develop my own internal commenting system for my new site or just go with Disqus.
I wonder if Disqus would promote people to comment or shy them away from it (maybe they don't like disqus for a reason?) Perhaps it makes sense to start with Disqus and if people request it build your own.
This discussion might be of value to you:

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2500716/open-source-comme...

There are also lots of other discussions related to this on SO.

In my opinion: with disqus you get to be lazy. That's fine. I use it on my personal site. I don't think it allows for infinite branching (like on Reddit), but that requires a pretty nifty nosql solution, were you to do it on your own.

If you have a wordpress blog, you can try out Disqus and it will keep your comments even if you disable it.

I used Intense Debate for my Wordpress blog. After some annoyances, I disabled it and switched back to Wordpress' own comments. I'll probably try out Disqus when I have time... It will irk visitors, but you can switch between commenting systems if you want to test.

Probably need more context to give a better answer. Seems like you are asking from a user's point of view. I'll almost always use disqus if it's available to leave a comment, generally because it's simpler.

Not having disqus doesn't change my willingness to contribute, providing I can do so simply..like entering my name and email. If I have to register/confirm/activate forget about it unless it's a site I'm particularly invested in (say, HN).

From the development point of view, unless you have specific needs which disqus doesn't meet, I don't see why anyone wouldn't use them. They've turned the "writing a blog in language XYZ" tutorials into 5 minute exercises. On the top end, they are used by an ever growing and impressive list of people. Finally, since you can export all comments at any times, I really don't see what you lose.

From a user perspective, I find disqus a bit annoying ..

I don't know, it's a bit too "in your face" if you know what I mean? A good UI goes out of your way, disqus doesn't quite do that very well.

That's just my opinion.

I actually use disqus for tumblr, because there isn't much of another choice there.

I really enjoy using Disqus for a number of reasons.

1) Users can easily comment, with or without an account, with their Twitter, with their Facebook, etc.

2) It can create a greater amount of exposure for that particular post + comment (Through Twitter and Facebook broadcasts)

3) Disqus has a very clean look about it and the way it presents posts that I really enjoy

4) You can easily moderate + view statistics of various sites in one central location (Disqus website)

Hope that helps!