Ask HN: Should I use disqus for my start up?

6 points by philtar 11y ago ↗ HN

I'm going to be starting something that's like giphy/imgur/gfycat etc. Is using disqus fine? Or would that negatively impact the 'value' of my start up? I'd like to hear ideas/thoughts/opinions on this as I googled and googled but not one seems to be able to answer this question.

6 comments

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shash7 11y ago ↗

I have used disqus in the past and I would say, go for it! Pros and cons:

+ Highly customizable

+ Loads of moderation options(whitelists, blacklists)

+ Active community

+ Easy to use admin tools

- Seems to load slowly sometimes

Also, the most compelling reason for using it is that you don't need to waste time coding your own commenting system. In the future if you decide to make a commenting system of your own, you can always export comments from disqus.

rayalez 11y ago ↗

Personally I dislike disqus. I guess there's nothing wrong with it, but if you have a kind of service users will need to register with anyway - why not create your own system that you can customize however you want, and keep your own data, etc, etc?

On the other hand if you are just working on MVP, and comments are not your main value prop, and you just don't want to bother with implementing your own system - sure, whatever, go for it. There's nothing too horrible about disqus, it's fine.

vikp 11y ago ↗

Disqus is good for an MVP. It's easy to embed and works well.

If you're worried about "owning" the data/community, you could host your own discourse (http://www.discourse.org/) instance and use their embed feature (http://eviltrout.com/2014/01/22/embedding-discourse.html).

Embedding is sadly missing inline commenting, though.

philtar 11y ago ↗

What do you mean by embedding is missing inline commenting? What's inline commenting?

TheLoneWolfling 11y ago ↗

If you do, know that I won't be using it. It's a single data point, I know, but I felt I should mention it.

I don't like enabling semi-arbitrary JS from one place among all the sites I visit.

MalcolmDiggs 11y ago ↗

If the comments have any SEO value to you, then no I wouldn't use disqus, I'd make sure the comments actually lived in the DOM of the page.

But if the comments are just an add-on with little SEO value, then sure, quick and easy.