Disqus: Scoble, Winer and Fred Wilson Like it, Why I Don't

http://blogbusinesssummit.com/2007/12/disqus-scoble-winer-and-fred-wilson-like-it-why-i-dont.htm

by nickb • 19 years ago

17 24 19 years ago

Ruh-roh, Shaggy. Someone figured out that embedded iframes on your webpage doesn't make it your webpage anymore.

bootload3• 19 years ago

"... Jason showed Disqus to me a few weeks back, and I seriously considered using it -- until I figured out that you don't own your comments anymore. ..."

A quick check of the faq, blog and api disproves this. You do own your comments and better still you can extract them via xml.

- http://disqus.com/faq/#faq-7

- http://disqus.com/developers/#api-methods

- http://blog.disqus.net/2007/11/05/export-comments-to-xml-com...

So you own your comments, can get access to the data. The only real data disqus can claim ownership is the right to infer from your data. It's this distinction that makes me think using the disqus service is valuable because they give you the ability to take your data away.

alaskamiller3• 19 years ago

I've interpreted his concern as two folds:

1) He's worried that the comments no longer are in his control, ie, on his server.

2) He's worried that because the comments no longer being his server, can not be cached by Google. He wants that Google juice, but when the comments now reside on the disqus.com domain, it's harder to connect the two.

The second one is a biggie. For the power users, they won't like this at all. The blogspot/wordpress.com folks wouldn't care, but the ones that make it their business to blog professionally would.

danielha5• 19 years ago

+! for Scooby Doo sarcasm, however comments are not displayed in an iframe.

Posting to our server is.

mattmaroon• 19 years ago

I think this is a problem they are working on and will solve in time. And it's one I'm willing to put up with since in return I get kick-ass threaded comments that I can read and reply to via email.

steve____• 19 years ago

As long as I can download and/or sync my comments elsewhere and have the ability to completely remove my comments from their site, I'm happy.

For me the huge plus is receiving blog comments via email. Currently they are not sending the MessageID in the Reference field so messages aren't showing up as threaded, but they are aware of this. IMO blog comments should be handled like mailing lists/news groups.

tocomment2• 19 years ago

I emailed Daniel about this. One feature I'd really like to see is a way to "reuse" the user accounts I have on my own site. I don't want to tell users, oh if you want to comment you have to sign up for a new account over here..

I haven't given it enough thought to know if that is possible though :-(

tlrobinson5• 19 years ago

If both Disqus and your site used OpenID you would get that for free :)

Unfortunately it appears that neither does :(

Anyone developing a new website should take the little extra time to support OpenID authentication, it would make the world a better place.

However, one nice thing about Disqus (like OpenID) is that you only have to register with Disqus once, and any blog using Disqus can use that one account.

danielha5• 19 years ago

We like OpenID and you'll see it show up soon.

tocomment2• 19 years ago

I always hear people talking junk about openID, so I figured I should wait until the next standard comes along. But per your comment I'm going to look at it again with hopefully an open mind.

tlrobinson5• 19 years ago

Personally, I don't really care where the comments show up on Google searches.

What I do care about is the fact that it took about 30 seconds to sign up and add the Javascript snippet to my site's footer template. It couldn't have been easier.

Removing as many hurdles as possible is key.

rontr• 19 years ago

Problem is Google penalizes pages with duplicate content by lowering their PageRank. If comments are duplicated on your blog as well as on discus.com, your blog could pay a price.

tlrobinson5• 19 years ago

But they aren't duplicated, since the comments show up in a JavaScript generated iframe (although I admit that's not ideal)

The Googlebot doesn't execute JavaScript, or count iframe'd pages as part of the original page.

jey2• 19 years ago

Even if this guy had a point to make, he sure as hell did not make it with that example. That example seems to indicate that Jason's site isn't even indexed by Google, so of course it doesn't show up.

tlrobinson5• 19 years ago

The point is the comments aren't indexed as part of your site because they are displayed in an iframe from Disqus's servers. They show up as belonging to Disqus, not you.

jey2• 19 years ago

That makes much more sense, thank you.

danielha5• 19 years ago

Comments are not displayed in an iframe.

Search engines do not index included JavaScript properly.

cosmok• 19 years ago

after having trouble integrating Disqus with sansj, I started using http://js-kit.com/comments/?wow and they claim that search engines index the comments on your site.

danielha5• 19 years ago

Sorry for the trouble - would love to hear about it though: daniel@disqus.com

Btw, search engines access j-kit's comments by indexing the RSS feed. You could probably fiddle with a DNS CNAME to have the RSS appear as if from "your domain."

This is far from a solution.

Disqus: Scoble, Winer and Fred Wilson Like it, Why I Don't

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