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As bloggers, we all are aware of the importance of comments. While it is true that some blogs/websites tend to disable comments entirely, those are special instances where the websites do not essentially require comments. However, in general, comments form an integral part of any blog, be it a personal one or a magazine site. After all, what good is any info unless it provokes a healthy discussion?
All blogging platforms (including WordPress) come with native support for some sort of comment mechanism which seems to suffice for most bloggers. But sometimes, users may require some dedicated or specialized comment mechanism. This is where third-party commenting systems come in handy.
In this article, we will take a look at some of the major third-party commenting mechanisms. But before going any further, let us assess the pros and cons of using or not using such third-party commenting systems.
The advantages of using a third-party commenting system are many, and now we shall take a look at some of the major ones.
The foremost advantage of using a third-party comment system is the support for social networking sites. Almost all third-party comment systems offer excellent integration with social networks such as Facebook or Twitter, and some even go to the limits of carving their own user base along the lines of a social network. This enables users to seamlessly share their comments and the articles they read on their social networking profiles, thereby spreading the word and driving more visitors to your website.
Third party comment mechanisms also offer real-time updates and email alerts, good RSS support allowing users to keep track of their comments and take part in discussions in a more organized manner.
Furthermore, most such platforms support a single sign-in with many IDs, such as Facebook, LinkedIn or OpenID. Naturally, this helps in getting comments from different types of users, as well as wards off spam quite effectively.
And lastly, most such systems allow readers to rate the comments too – you can give a ‘Thumbs Up’ or ‘Thumbs Down’ to comments you like or dislike respectively, and you can flag comments and mark them as spam. Obviously, such ‘community recognition’ of comments goes a long way in helping users take the discussions more seriously.
At times, we simply don’t need (or don’t want) the third-party commenting facilities. For starters, the default commenting facility blends well with the design (irrespective of whether we use a free theme for our blog or a premium one, the default system for comments doesn’t really look out-of-place).
Often times, third-party commenting systems are notorious for increasing the load time. While they do not really take AGES to load, they do slow down the load time, in comparison to the native commenting mechanism. The reason for this is that third-party systems are not integrated within the blog’s design base.
Next, in order to get the maximum out of third-party systems, your users should essentially have an account. Yes, such systems do allow the users to comment anonymously, but if they are to get the optimum out of the mechanism, an account is necessary (this applies most emphatically to Livefyre). While such accounts do help in killing spam, they are often a deterrent. A native commenting system, on the other, requires at the most an email address – you can let Akismet take care of the spam comments!
Lastly, the in-built comments system is hosted, well, as part of your own website. It is not dependent on a third-party server, and you don’t have to worry about their server being slow to respond, and so on.
With the advantages and disadvantages out-of-the-way, we shall now take a look at the major third-party commenting systems.
Disqus is a comments platform built along a community model. It is one of the most popularly used comment mechanisms and is backed by numerous addons.
Disqus
Disqus is used by the likes of CNN, Time Magazine, Fox News and Engadget.
IntenseDebate is a commenting platform from the stable of Automattic, the good folks behind WordPress. It is a wonderful commenting system, that has several good features.
IntenseDebate
It is used by websites such as Infectious Creed and ScreenCrave. Obviously, the user base is not as impressive as that of Disqus, but IntenseDebate is rising at a good (though still not ‘great’) pace.
Livefyre is a real-time conversation platform, that aims to “turn your content into a catalyst for meaningful live conversations.” Ok, that’s good use of English, if nothing else!
Livefyre
Among major websites that use Livefyre, the most noteworthy ones are The Sun, The New York Times, Tennis.com, AOL, M Tv and Bloguin. Clearly, Livefyre caters to some of the biggest names.
ECHO, formerly known as JS-KIT, is another real-time commenting system, that offers several Premium features. Strictly speaking, ECHO is a complete real-time web platform, inclusive of forums, polls, real-time sharing and comments, among other things.
ECHO
However, ECHO is more of an enterprise solution and you can’t simply ‘download’ it for free and start using it. Their website doesn’t actually talk about any pricing, but it does have a Contact Formwhere you can get in touch to learn more.
Major users of ECHO include The Washington Post and ESPN, among others.
If you tend to engage your blog users with Facebook in particular, you can try using Facebook Comments Box plugin for your blog. While this clearly does not beat Disqus or Livefyre in terms of features, it has certain unique benefits of its own.
Facebook Comments' Box
On the downside, FB Comments Box plugin is rendered as an iframe, and many search engines do not crawl content within an iframe. So this plugin might not give you the SEO boost that you’re expecting from the user comments.
With that, we come to the end of this round-up. Which comment system do you use for your blog? How is your experience with it? Feel free to let us know!
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Sufyan bin Uzayr is a freelance writer and artist based in India. He writes for several print magazines as well as technology blogs, and has also authored a book named Sufism: A Brief History. His primary areas of interest include open source, mobile development, web CMS and vector art. He is also the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of an e-journal named Brave New World. You can visit his website, follow him on Twitter or friend him on Facebook and Google+.
Monday, April 30th, 2012 12:01
I have an important question.
I have a website hosted on blogger and i am running Disqus on it as my comment platform. Now suppose i want to move my site to hostgator ( or some other host) and use wordpress. Can i get all my comments back on the same posts when i install that plugin on wordpress site. Or should i move to other comment platform if disqus do not offer this support ?
Tuesday, May 1st, 2012 12:32
I think Disqus stores comments on their own system, not your db, but maybe they have changed system, couldn’t find easily answer to this question. I personally switched away from Disqus, because they are collecting all the comments and back then it wasn’t possible to get away from them and keep comments. But I hope they have fixed this.
Tuesday, April 24th, 2012 11:28
Never heard of ECHO and Intense Debate, now i think i should try them
Wednesday, April 25th, 2012 04:19
Intense Debate is more popular, and Disqus of course is the most well known system. But be vary what happens of comments, where they are stored, when you give all the power to those commenting platforms.
Sunday, April 8th, 2012 03:41
Now a days I find Facebook Comment Box in most of the blogs :) This gives a feeling like we are in Facebook Social Network Site with our friends and family members.
Monday, March 26th, 2012 15:24
The Facebook Comment widget allows your site visitors to leave a comment on a page for your Showit website. This widget requires that you have a Facebook account and that you create a Facebook Application to associate the comments with so that you can moderate the comments.
Monday, March 19th, 2012 20:31
I Really Wanted this Article from so long thanks for sharing …!! :-)
Sunday, March 11th, 2012 18:07
I think its nice to have choice of options when it comes to commenting on a blog post. I personally prefer the standard format.
Wednesday, February 29th, 2012 11:21
I think you’d missed one comment platform, commentluv. There are two variants: free and premium. I hope you’ve come across this comment platform.
Tuesday, February 28th, 2012 18:14
Is there one of these platforms offering Single-Sign-On (SSO) like Disqus but for free? I really can’t find anything like that.
Tuesday, February 28th, 2012 17:55
I like using the Livefyre system and being able to reply via the email notifications that come in.
Tuesday, February 28th, 2012 07:15
I used disqus… because of the interface. It looks more professional.
Tuesday, February 28th, 2012 05:43
Thanks Admin very nice collection!
Monday, February 27th, 2012 12:27
Am using Facebook on my blog – I DO NOT like commenting platforms that force you to sign up to them (or to log in)… be warned commenting platforms that restrict won’t get the right people commenting, they’ll only get one group of people commenting.
Monday, February 27th, 2012 20:56
This is why I personally prefer Livefyre. :-)
While it does help fight spam, still, anonymous comments shouldn’t be neglected totally. FB comments plugin should incorporate this feature.
Monday, February 27th, 2012 12:23
I prefer to use Facebook Comment because its help branding (spread) my blog on the social media through comments left
Monday, February 27th, 2012 20:58
Perhaps that’s the main USP of FB Comments — helps promote your blog in a big way!
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Jim
Tuesday, February 28th, 2012 18:14
Is there one of these platforms offering Single-Sign-On (SSO) like Disqus but for free? I really can’t find anything like that.
Tony Greene
Tuesday, February 28th, 2012 17:55
I like using the Livefyre system and being able to reply via the email notifications that come in.
Harry
Monday, February 27th, 2012 12:23
I prefer to use Facebook Comment because its help branding (spread) my blog on the social media through comments left
Sufyan bin Uzayr
Monday, February 27th, 2012 20:58
Perhaps that’s the main USP of FB Comments — helps promote your blog in a big way!
Manuel Garcia
Tuesday, February 28th, 2012 07:15
I used disqus… because of the interface. It looks more professional.
Kadin
Tuesday, February 28th, 2012 05:43
Thanks Admin very nice collection!
Guy Hoogewerf
Monday, February 27th, 2012 12:27
Am using Facebook on my blog – I DO NOT like commenting platforms that force you to sign up to them (or to log in)… be warned commenting platforms that restrict won’t get the right people commenting, they’ll only get one group of people commenting.
Sufyan bin Uzayr
Monday, February 27th, 2012 20:56
This is why I personally prefer Livefyre. :-)
While it does help fight spam, still, anonymous comments shouldn’t be neglected totally. FB comments plugin should incorporate this feature.
xarzy
Wednesday, February 29th, 2012 11:21
I think you’d missed one comment platform, commentluv. There are two variants: free and premium. I hope you’ve come across this comment platform.
Warren
Sunday, March 11th, 2012 18:07
I think its nice to have choice of options when it comes to commenting on a blog post. I personally prefer the standard format.
Dave Sharma
Monday, April 30th, 2012 12:01
I have an important question.
I have a website hosted on blogger and i am running Disqus on it as my comment platform. Now suppose i want to move my site to hostgator ( or some other host) and use wordpress. Can i get all my comments back on the same posts when i install that plugin on wordpress site. Or should i move to other comment platform if disqus do not offer this support ?
Dainis Graveris
Tuesday, May 1st, 2012 12:32
I think Disqus stores comments on their own system, not your db, but maybe they have changed system, couldn’t find easily answer to this question. I personally switched away from Disqus, because they are collecting all the comments and back then it wasn’t possible to get away from them and keep comments. But I hope they have fixed this.
Nick
Tuesday, April 24th, 2012 11:28
Never heard of ECHO and Intense Debate, now i think i should try them
Dainis Graveris
Wednesday, April 25th, 2012 04:19
Intense Debate is more popular, and Disqus of course is the most well known system. But be vary what happens of comments, where they are stored, when you give all the power to those commenting platforms.
Dexter
Monday, March 19th, 2012 20:31
I Really Wanted this Article from so long thanks for sharing …!! :-)
Sammon
Monday, March 26th, 2012 15:24
The Facebook Comment widget allows your site visitors to leave a comment on a page for your Showit website. This widget requires that you have a Facebook account and that you create a Facebook Application to associate the comments with so that you can moderate the comments.
Geekyard
Sunday, April 8th, 2012 03:41
Now a days I find Facebook Comment Box in most of the blogs :) This gives a feeling like we are in Facebook Social Network Site with our friends and family members.