Well, that didn’t work.
Those of you who’ve been around for a while know that I recently switched from WordPress to Disqus for commenting. I explained why in more detail here, but the gist of it was that I was getting overwhelmed with moderating the number of spammy, “trolly” (is that a word?), hostile and unproductive comments.
Disqus seemed to be a perfect solution. It would allow comments, but people would have to register first – which would dramatically cut down on spammers and trolls. It would also allow readers to flag an inappropriate comment, and after two flags the comment would be automatically deleted.
Sounds good, right? The only problem is Disqus sucks. It’s totally unreliable, doesn’t sync with WordPress well, often duplicates comments and is just harder to work with overall.
So I’m going back to standard WordPress comments. New visitors will have to have their first comment moderated, which I hope will reduce some of the nonsense.
I’d still appreciate your help in flagging inappropriate comments. There’s no way to do this automatically, so you can just send me an email through the contact form.
I’m not checking in on comments as much as I used to simply because of how busy I am. I do try to respond to genuine questions when I’m able.
Thanks for your understanding and support!
{ 16 comments… read them below or add one }
This is good info. I was getting ready to switch over one of my sites to Disqus.
Wow, that’s too bad you had problems with Disqus. I’m using it on my blog without issue, although I can appreciate that everyone’s experiences can be different. I’m just happy you still have comments, as I find them one of the more enjoyable and sometimes even informative parts of websites.
Chris:
I was using Disqus as well and had to switch back. However, my service providers and developers wrote their own WP comment plugin that uses WPs native comment database, and not one in the cloud, like Disqus. I’ve been on it well over a year now with never a single problem.
It’s called Thoughtful Comments, from Foliovision.
http://foliovision.com/seo-tools/wordpress/plugins/thoughtful-comments
Thanks, Richard. Will definitely check it out!
Thanks! I have not had problems with spammers per say but a few comments were marked as spam when they should not have been. If I see it happening again I will check that plugin out. Good deal.
Dsiqus can be a PITA sometimes. There are some anti-spam techniques for the WP comments. You could also ultimately install a captcha. None of these offer you full protection thou. You need to hire a VA or someone you know and willing to help to go through those and comb it down a bit. and only left relevant content. I dont have this problem on my blog (yet) but I’m already planning for it…
My husband David Chu is a web developer. Here’s what he has to say:
Here’s what we’re using on our blogs. It’s beautifully simple, and has stopped about 6000 spambots on one blog since mid-March. The only small downside is that the developer has recently announced that it will not be updated regularly anymore. But it works great and even lowers traffic on your blog. I will be using it until I find something better.
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/nospamnx/
There is also a service called Intense Debate, from, wait for it, http://www.intensedebate.com.
Hi Chris,
I loathe Disqus and Intense Debate as well. Gave us no end of trouble on client sites. Using either service, you are compromising page load speeds and your Google rankings.
Decided to do something about it and wrote Thoughtful Comments:
* gets rid of abusive commenters
* lets you moderate comments in the front end
* no slowdown
* invisible to users
Works a treat, even on very busy political sites.
You could add FV Antispam and you won’t even face any more machine spam to wade through
PS. Richard Nikoley of FreeTheAnimal.com sent us. Thoughtful Comments is in action on his site as a replacement for another failed Disqus experiment.
I think that’s a tad over the top regarding Disqus and Intense Debate causing page load speed issues.
Jon,
I’d recommend you do your own testing then.
On a properly configured site on good hosting, Wordpress built-in comments will outpace Disqus and Intense Debate by a large factor.
Making the web work for you, Alec
Hi Lonnie,
NoSpamNX and FV Antispam are the best of the simple antispam plugins. It’s a pity NoSpamNX won’t be developed anymore. FV Antispam will. So if you ever run into issues, with NoSpamNX feel free to try FV Antispam.
Making the web work for you, Alec
such a pity it didn’t work. We will be here checking out crazy/hostile messages.
Hah! I used the same picture in one of my blog posts. great pic!
strengthfoodlife.blogspot.com
I just installed disqus, i heard there is a spam filter but i found no settings for it.
I switched to disqus recently and it has been great. I didn’t have any issues although I don’t have a many comments on my blog as you do.