Hi all, Andrew from Disqus here. Not only do we think data portability is the right decision for our business, but it's what we believe in on a personal level too. Better options for import and export are in the works, and will be part of our next major release. As for trackbacks, they should be out some time in the next week.
Disqus doubled in size this month as Devin and I joined as new software developers. After we're all up to speed, you can expect improvements at a faster rate.
Jake
· 1 year ago
Native trackbacks, FTW! The hack I got from Daniel (by Steve) is great, but the links are trickling in slowly, not sure why. Rather than muck around to figure it out, I'm stoked to hear you're deploying trackbacks soon. I assume they will pick up all the trackbacks for past posts, and that you're using the blog's trackback db, rather than your own?
Glad to hear about imp/export too. Those are key points. I wouldn't blame you for making it hard to get comments out of Disqus. So, gravy to hear that's on the radar.
Also glad to hear you're growing, which will help close the feature gaps. I appreciate that you guys engage whiners like me with real feedback.
Andrew B.
· 1 year ago
Unfortunately, for this first trackbacks release, we won't be able to detect them for previous posts. Please keep giving us feedback (what you call whining ;) and we'll keep trying to make sure you're happy.
Jake
· 1 year ago
Hrm, I guess I'll keep using the hack for historical trackbacks then, or something. Is this planned? Not a huge deal.
Glad you're willing to listen to my whining. I'll try not to wear out my welcome.
Andy C
· 1 year ago
I appreciate that you guys engage whiners like me with real feedback.
Brilliant ! Signed - a fellow whiner. You have to keep these developer types on their toes :-)
Jake
· 1 year ago
It is a free service after all. I actually preferred when Twitter just went offline for no apparent reason. Now the mystery is gone, and they just continue to confirm how hosed they are.
Anonymous Bosch
· 1 year ago
I've been looking into Disqus too. I think the issue of availability issue is the killer. Should Disqus go down (or go out of business) there go my comments. They do offer an export, but it doesn't seem to be one readable by my blog software, Wordpress. I suppose I could hack something together to slurp them into where they ought to go, but I don't want to.
Jake
· 1 year ago
Spot on, the service has potential, but I think they need to close those gaps first before widespread adoption will happen.
We should all bang on Daniel to get this stuff done. I'd have nothing but kudos if they could address these features. I suspect they're already in development.
megbear
· 1 year ago
Thanks for the @replies suggestion, didn't understand it until I went to Twitter but I'm of the mind if Jake says to do it then I do it (and figure it out later). Snaps to the hack-age that brought in OpenID. I have to tell you that your switch to disqus totally messed me up trying to comment (a bug I know) and somehow I had to sign up for something (again I did b/c I trust Jake) and so on... glad to know it's all worked out b/c I don't want to understand another technology to comment on blogs... seems too much investment for a girl like me.
Jake
· 1 year ago
Agreed, Disqus seems aimed at serial commenters, not casual ones. They do allow anonymous posting I think.
The hack didn't do anything for OpenID. It brought trackbacks back into the post view. WP track comments and trackbacks. Disqus doesn't do trackbacks yet, which is a key gap. The hack allows you to pull from WP's trackbacks list for a post and display it in Disqus' comment plugin.
Andy C
· 1 year ago
I share your reservations about import/export but hopefully the forthcoming Disqus write-enabled API will help to address this.
However, you're right to praise Daniel Ha's proactive attitude to scanning the various channels for Disqus chatter and proactively approaching people offering assistance.
As an aside, you can actually export Disqus comments (Configure-Extras-Export) into XML or RSS 2.0 formats. However, it's not immediately clear how you would import this data into WP, Typepad, Habari (insert popular blogging platform).
Jake
· 1 year ago
Import should be high on their list, obviously export probably not as high.
I hadn't seen the export comments feature. I suppose it must be there for a reason though. Maybe someone will chime in with an answer.
megbear
· 1 year ago
hey -- where exactly *is* the openID?
Jake
· 1 year ago
OpenID would be perfect for you, given "I don't want to understand another technology to comment on blogs... seems too much investment for a girl like me."
OpenID does away with registering and maintaining credentials for web sites; think SSO for consumer web. You register once with an OpenID identity provider and then you provide the URL to your OpenID. The web site does the rest w/the provider. Wikipedia entry may help: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Openid
Not sure what "where" you mean. OpenID isn't a single place; many different providers exist.
Andy C
· 1 year ago
I suspect 'export' is there purely to say 'Look - you are free to export your data anytime, anyplace, anywhere. We don't own your comments.'
Jake
· 1 year ago
Heh, probably true and again understandable since they're not in the "leave Disqus" business.
Anonymous Bosch
· 1 year ago
They aren't of course. But nor are they in the "erect a barrier to using Disqus" business.
Jake
· 1 year ago
I'm happy with what Andrew says in his comments about data portability. I'm content to wait and see new features for now.
Michael
· 1 year ago
New Disqus user here...both as blogger and commenter. Looks like they did get the trackbacks in place but we still don't have an import tool for Wordpress blogs to get old comments in. Not huge for my tiny blog but I can see how that's a show stopper for many. Hopefully that'll be added real soon...
Jake
· 1 year ago
Yeah, trackbacks are nice, but not historic, e.g. this post has a couple that won't be captured by the Disqus feature. So, I'm keeping the WP plugin for now.
They say im/export are coming soon, and they're pretty responsive to feedback. So, we'll see.
laurusnobilis
· 1 year ago
OK, trackbacks are OK, but there are lot more nice features on Disquss, like reply to comment.
Jake
· 1 year ago
Why is this post getting so much "attention" lately? We still use Disqus, so . . .
Brandon Cameron
· 8 months ago
can i use facebook login? for disqus?
Jake
· 8 months ago
Yes you can, just turned on the Facebook Connect integration.
jon
· 7 months ago
I have been considering installing DISQUS I have a gadgets blog / site with very few commenting activity, I was hoping the "conversation" nature of disqus would entice visitors to comment
Thanks also for pointing out the good and the bad of this plugin
Seln
· 1 month ago
Yeah, trackbacks are nice, but not historic, e.g. this post has a couple that won't be captured by the Disqus feature. So, I'm keeping the WP plugin for now.
Jake
· 1 month ago
Sure, especially considering they didn't have trackbacks when we switched :) I probably would have stayed with WP's comments, but it's a bit late for that now. I suppose we could switch back, but who knows what would happen. Sleeping dogs for now.
All Comments
Disqus doubled in size this month as Devin and I joined as new software developers. After we're all up to speed, you can expect improvements at a faster rate.
Glad to hear about imp/export too. Those are key points. I wouldn't blame you for making it hard to get comments out of Disqus. So, gravy to hear that's on the radar.
Also glad to hear you're growing, which will help close the feature gaps. I appreciate that you guys engage whiners like me with real feedback.
Glad you're willing to listen to my whining. I'll try not to wear out my welcome.
Brilliant ! Signed - a fellow whiner. You have to keep these developer types on their toes :-)
We should all bang on Daniel to get this stuff done. I'd have nothing but kudos if they could address these features. I suspect they're already in development.
The hack didn't do anything for OpenID. It brought trackbacks back into the post view. WP track comments and trackbacks. Disqus doesn't do trackbacks yet, which is a key gap. The hack allows you to pull from WP's trackbacks list for a post and display it in Disqus' comment plugin.
However, you're right to praise Daniel Ha's proactive attitude to scanning the various channels for Disqus chatter and proactively approaching people offering assistance.
As an aside, you can actually export Disqus comments (Configure-Extras-Export) into XML or RSS 2.0 formats. However, it's not immediately clear how you would import this data into WP, Typepad, Habari (insert popular blogging platform).
I hadn't seen the export comments feature. I suppose it must be there for a reason though. Maybe someone will chime in with an answer.
OpenID does away with registering and maintaining credentials for web sites; think SSO for consumer web. You register once with an OpenID identity provider and then you provide the URL to your OpenID. The web site does the rest w/the provider. Wikipedia entry may help: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Openid
Not sure what "where" you mean. OpenID isn't a single place; many different providers exist.
They say im/export are coming soon, and they're pretty responsive to feedback. So, we'll see.
I have a gadgets blog / site with very few commenting activity, I was hoping the "conversation" nature of disqus would entice visitors to comment
Thanks also for pointing out the good and the bad of this plugin