Yesterday was a very exciting day for bloggers of all stripes. HUGE things are afoot for every one of us, and most of you probably missed the news.
The global commenting system IntenseDebate was acquired by Automattic, the company that owns WordPress.com and drives the WordPress.org project. This is literally going to revolutionize the way blog commenting takes place on blogs worldwide.
I know that sounds like a bold statement, but trust me, things are changing. You may remember that I wrote a few months back that blog comments are broken. The short version of that post and point is that it’s just too hard to keep up with even a minor amount of blog commenting activity. Over even a short time with even minimal blog commenting, we leave our mark all over the Web but have very little ability to collect and follow-up with those comments. We’re currently in an era of Blog Commenting 1.0.
Here’s what I wrote about the solution to bringing us to Blog Commenting 2.0:
In my mind, the solution lies in a (better implementation of the) global commenting system. I’ve switched my comments to Disqus because I believe they are dang close to being the right global system. Here’s why:
- It works wonderfully and is easy understand, even for the technology lightweights.
- It does a great job of keeping you logged in across multiple blogs, so you’re always ready to go with a comment without having to fill out name, email address, and URL
- Threaded replies
- See all your comments in one location
- Fantastic integration process – it’s super easy to add to a blog, forum, etc.
But those things said, we have to eventually plant a flag somewhere around something. Any global system is only as useful as the number of people using it. Look at how good Akismet, the spam fighting functionality included in WordPress, is at fighting spam. Every user they add helps every other user.
At WordCamp Dallas this summer, I even raised this issue with Matt Mullenweg of Automattic. I asked him flat out if he intended to use the power of the WordPress reach to deliver for blog commenting what Akismet has delivered for spam. My point was that if Automattic was to buy or build a global commenting system and implement it into the open source WordPress software and/or the WordPress.com platform, we very nearly solve the broken blog comment metaphor overnight.
At the time, he said he wasn’t interested.
Whether he was just hiding negotiations or whether my genius question changed his mind, it doesn’t matter. We now have a significant move towards a true global commenting system that will hopefully move us to Blog Commenting 2.0.
It’s a good week for bloggers.
KatFrench
September 25th, 2008 8:01
That is good news! My one issue with Disqus is that it appears to disable your blog's native email notifications that someone has dropped a comment--making it a bit of a hassle for the blogger.
It does seem that just as soon as I get a functional workflow going for my social web participation, something changes and I have to rethink everything. But as long as the changes are heading in the right direction, it's worth it.
Jake McKee
September 25th, 2008 8:06
I get notifications from Disqus via email - are you not? Do you have a toggle set to "off", perhaps?
It'll be interesting to see what this does for Disqus, SezWho, co.comment, etc. Will they suffer as IntenseDebate picks up? Or will this somehow launch an industry.
Oh how I dream that the systems would all play nicely together. Probably but a dream....
KatFrench
September 25th, 2008 8:27
Social Media Explorer, Jason's blog where I contribute, is where Disqus is installed and I don't get emails when folks comment. Probably Jason gets them--but previously, Wordpress would email me as the post author.
Then again, I probably just need to poke around more on Disqus. It's probably a PEBCAK error.
I could easily see a similar situation between Disqus, Co.Comment, IntenseDebate et. al. as has happened in lifestreaming/microblogging platforms this year--hot debate for a while till a clear leader emerges.
Bryan Person, LiveWorld
September 25th, 2008 9:25
Jake:
I heard about this news as well, but I don't know much about IntenseDebate. In your post above you reference an earlier post about the benefits of Disqus (it's one of the reasons I've been thinking of switching comments on my own WordPress blog to Disqus), but you don't go into any detail about IntenseDebate. Could you tell us more? How would you compare Disqus to IntenseDebate? Does IntenseDebate offer everything Disqus does, and more? Why is this such a big move?
I'm not skeptical, just ignorant, Jake. Hoping you can add some more detail!
Bryan Person, LiveWorld
September 25th, 2008 9:26
Kat, I have Disqus installed on a couple of small Tumblr blogs, and I get notified as well when new comments come through. You may want to check your settings in your Disqus account.
Richard Millington
September 25th, 2008 13:04
I personally like Co.comments. It's always worked well for me. But I will be sure to check this one out.
- rich
Lawrence Salberg
September 26th, 2008 23:48
I disagree. This is more like Blog Commenting 1.1 or maybe 1.2. We are a far off from what I envision for 2.0.
This adds a few nice tools (and is worth Automattic's purchase), but the basic system is still broken. I won't go into it here, but suffice to say that Intense Debate's three main features (threaded replies, import/export, and reply-by-email) hardly solve the real and substantive issues with the entire commenting system. Disqus is no better (and both are arguably worse as "closed" systems).
In fact, I don't believe any new external system needs to be created, but that new features must be implemented in all the major blog platforms. Intense Debate's "reply-by-email" feature may be of some benefit, but it sounds like an atrocious way to move more noise into your email box when most of us are trying to push it out.
I have my own proposal, but the more I began to think about it since last year, the more I've thought I should just make my own plugin for W/P rather than explain it, so that there would be a working model. I wouldn't be surprised to see it as one of the highest used plugins after a few short months and later integrated right into W/P.
Chief problems with comments as they are now (and who's solving these?):
Anonymous comments (and I mean no proof that Lawrence Salberg here is really Lawrence Salberg of Melbourne, FL -- I could have easily posted this comment as Seth Godin and on some blogs gotten away with it, especially if I tried to sound like Seth).
Irrelevant Comments (currently only fixed by manual moderation - and not very well on most blogs (ahem! TechCrunch!)
No quick summary of all comments (clarifications, for/against, add'l info left out of story, raging side debate but somewhat still relevant, etc). So you see a story with 100 comments and you have to READ the 100 comments - all of them - to get the gist of whether people think the original post is good, bad, or ugly.
No separate list of resources. Typically, when you find a good post on "The Top 7 Widgets for Gadget X", you have to scroll through 150 other comments to find links that the original author forgot or overlooked. Typically, you find multiple people crying out in anguish over the same forgotten product ("Hey, what about Imeem???!!!???") so that only adds to the noise that further decreases the chance that the one special gem will get drowned out even further. Why not have all links submitted by commenters automatically listed at the top in a "Other Resources Suggested by our Readers" in alphabetical order, etc.
Okay, so I gave away a few hints on part of my solution, but with the economy tanking, maybe it will help to make someone rich. Or at least busy toying around in PHP.
Jake McKee
September 28th, 2008 22:10
We chatted about this in person at BlogOrlando, but my point here was that separate from any specific system there is now going to be an opportunity for literally millions of blog to use a global commenting system by default. This means that when a huge percentage of blog comments are left, two things happen:
1. The "master" profile of the person leaving the comment is attached to their comment. (I'm always logged in as "jakemckee" across multiple sites)
2. Every comment I leave across these millions of blogs is now captured and (potentially) easily referenceable.
This is why I'm saying that we're watching a massive shift take place. Functionality is a secondary point to this primary (and exciting) point.
rob, BtG
September 30th, 2008 10:44
in the meantime, we comment onward, hoping for new information, or at least some more readers. check out-
http://www.blogtogreat.com/2008/09/blog-comment...
johnhaydon
September 30th, 2008 14:24
Jake,
This is great news. Bloggers are always looking for ways to make their comments area more valuable for readers. Hopefully, this will get us there.
John
China Tour
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Different point of view from that post. Interesting to say the least.
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