Last year at some point, I stumbled upon the new disqus commenting platform. I only got around to installing it recently, but I’m glad I did.
I was at first slightly confused when I flicked through their website, coming across this post about SSO (single sign on) support. For this new plugin, they were charging $99/month, so I thought there was no way disqus could be free to install – but turns out that it is. I’m getting slightly sidetracked here but as far as I can see, they are creating a plugin which lets you merge the WP and disqus logins, so it’s a bridge, effectively. In my opinion, $99/month is pretty steep, but I guess they have to make revenue somehow, with a free product.
Anyway, obvious improvements over the wordpress comment system were the abilities to comment using other web profiles, like Google accounts. Until recently, Facebook was not one of them, and I wasn’t too bothered by that since I wouldn’t use my facebook account to post comments on webdev sites, so I’m hoping others have the same idea. I know for a fact that Google/Twitter accounts are more popular within this niche, and disqus is growing in popularity (specifically within this niche) meaning people are more likely to comment on my blog. Anyway, disqus now supports sign on with either a disqus, Google, Twitter or Facebook account. I know there are other available WordPress plugins that let you sign on with Google or FB, but none have caught my eye like disqus did – it’s slick, professional, and simple. (more…)