One for your toolbox: discussing DisQus

At first glance you might be fooled into thinking that Disqus (pronounced ‘Discuss’) was just another commenting system – but… you’d be mistaken. I thought the same, 9 months ago. Actually, if I’m being honest I originally installed it because it looked better, asthetically speaking, than any of the other options. But now I wouldn’t use anything else… why?

Simply put, it joins the dots between your original blog post and the online conversation that continues within the comments you and your readers leave; posting a link back to the comment left to your social networks when a new comment has been made. Now some might say that this is and has been achieved by RSS for a long time – which would be correct but nothing wrong in increasing you’re visibility

Disqus Benefits & Advantages

Social Network Integration.

Anyone can leave a comment in the traditional way:

• Fill out their name & email
• Website (optional)
• Post their comment

BUT they can also login to Disqus using their Facebook, Twitter, OpenID details and in doing so will not only show links to their profiles, but also include their profile photo

If you register with Disqus as a commenter, then you can have links to your blog AND social networks show up on your comment.

Individual Comment Features

Your readers can ‘like’ other comments that people leave, find the social networks of a commenter, report inappropriate comments and easily repost comments.

Another great user function is that your readers can see other comments left by anyone, subscribe to them across ALL the blogs they post on.

Also, if you want to delete a comment (not recommended – better to post a retraction than to delete IMHO) you can from Disqus or edit/moderate them.

How to Use/Setup Disqus

• Register for an account with Disqus (free)
• Download the Disqus Comment System plugin
• Install it from your WordPress dashboard
• Finally, from the Settings link in your WordPress dashboardDisqus:
  - choose your display options and rules
  - make simple styling modifications,
  - and import your other comments.
• When you’re done, Disqus will remove your existing commentplugin and replace it with Disqus. ‘Simples’ – thank you Alexandr

And finally…

It’s very easy to miss setting up of one of the best features of Disqus: linking your comment posts to your existing social networks. To find this little golden nugget do the following:

1. Go to http://disqus.com
2. Click on your user name at the top right of the page next to your Avatar picture, if you’re logged into Disqus this link will take you there

Click on your user name at the top right

3. You’ll see a list of networks that you want to post to your comments to – select the ones you want

4. Now when you write a comment, before you post, roll your mouse over ‘Share on…’ and check the social networks you want to post a link back to your comment post

Roll your mouse over the 'Share on...' to get a list of social networks to post a link of your comment to

And if you want to try it on my Disqus comments below then that’s cool with me

Some quick links to Disqus plugins and don’t forget to follow @disqus on Twitter

• Disqus for WordPress
• Disqus for Joomla
• Disqus for Movable Type

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Tagged as: comment sharing, Disqus commenting system, joining the dots, One for your toolbox, social media tools, twitter