A Note on Comments

Many years ago, Rich (@rmanalan) and I decided to try out Disqus for comments, and I’ve been using it here happily since then.

Disqus aims to aggregate comments across all blogs and web sites by a) providing an easy way for site owners to add the Disqus commenting plugin and b) allowing commenters to create a centralizing profile that can be used on any site that has added their plugin.

It’s a good idea for frequent commenters who participate in discussions on different properties, allowing them to consolidate their comments in a single place. I’ve used my Disqus identity on other sites over the years, and it’s been nice to avoid creating new identities for each site. Having a central profile lowers the bar for discussion, which is, for the most part, a good idea.

This may sound odd to some, but back in 2008, people actually read blogs and commented on posts before Facebook and Twitter consumed all that discussion.

I’ve been happy with Disqus, and their team has been great providing support on rare occasions when their service is having issues.

However, today, I’m turning off Disqus and going back to the standard comments. No worries, comments have been duplicated locally over the years, so I don’t think any have been lost. If any have fallen through the cracks, they’re probably so old, no one will notice.

Why?

In December, Disqus began adding links via their plugin, a feature called Promoted Discovery. These links were appearing above the comments in a section called Recommended Content, maybe you noticed. I didn’t, until I read this post.

To be fair, I believe they did notify me of this new feature, but I obviously ignored it. They also provide an option to turn off the feature.

As I said above, I’m happy with Disqus and understand the reasons why they are pushing new features. It’s a business. However, I can’t have any ads here, lest somehow they be construed as endorsement by me or my employer.

Mostly though, I’ve turned off the plugin because I’m a control freak by nature. I’ve learned from the demise and neutering of other services that it’s often better to own my own data, or at least pay someone to manage it.

FWIW, I’ll still keep my Disqus handle, so I can use it on the rare occasion that I decide to comment elsewhere.

Anyway, if you notice that comments are less functional then they were, this is why. I hope that doesn’t ruin your day.

Find the new-old comments.