6 ms·

It’s Time To Disqus (YC S07) Our Community

44 points by cwan 16y ago

parislemon 16y ago
nice hacker news shout out in here :)
samratjp 16y ago
Kind of surprised it took them this long to include Disqus. Then again, sometimes I wish HN had Disqus.
- pointillistic 16y ago
  HN, is the best commenting on the Internet, not even close. The minimalist design and usability is superb, there is no match for HN comments period.
  - commandar 16y ago
    I do occasionally find myself wishing I could collapse threads here like on reddit.
    - niyazpk 16y ago
      I do too. BTW If you didn't know already, this is a nice tool to solve this problem: http://alexander.kirk.at/2010/02/16/collapsible-threads-for-hacker-news/ http://alexander.kirk.at/2010/02/16/collapsible-threads-for-... I really hope pg would add this to the site (given that how easy it is to add the code).
    - ritonlajoie 16y ago
      You can use ihackernews.com
starnix17 16y ago
I like Disqus and how easy it is to implement, but does anyone else feel like it is cluttered? I don't want a commenting system that allows me to "like" comments, vote them up or down, subscribe via email, etc. To be fair though, I'm sure all of those features can be hidden via CSS and Javascript. If you look at some custom Disqus implementations (like Engadget) they do a good job of this.
- pointillistic 16y ago
  The fact - hackers often neglect usability and graphic design, sadly Disqus is an example. Clean minimalist design separates them from a killer app.
- timdorr 16y ago
  They can be hidden via CSS very easily. .dsq-options { display:none } Boom, gone! Their implementation is very clean. Especially compared to past implementations, which were rife with buttons and links and all manner of interface foolishness. Every comment has only a few elements to it now: A user header, the comment itself, a like button, and a reply button. The reply screen is fantastically simple and can be further stripped down via CSS if you would like. I don't get what you have against liking comments. It's the same thing as what goes on here, just without a downvoting mechanism. It surfaces quality content to the top in a democratic way. Look at it in the context of the whole page. TechCrunch, like a lot of blogs, has a ton of "stuff" going on throughout the page. Compared to the ads on the article, the Crunchbase boxes, and the multiple areas of navigation on the site, the comments are relatively benign and simplistic. They've done a great job packing a lot of complex functionality into a clean package. I think it's already the killer app.
- chriskjennings 16y ago
  We work hard to improve our default theme offering, Narcissus, with every release. Narcissus is designed to look good and perform well in all situations. A consequence of this all-encompassing approach is that in some situations the look can come across as a bit cluttered. However with only a few lines of CSS you can transform Narcissus to fit the needs of your site--just like Engadget, Thoughtbot and many others have so eloquently done. Saying this, we hear you. There is definitely a need for a minimalist theme at Disqus and we have some time set aside in the near future to make it happen.
pointillistic 16y ago
So let me just understand this. They are going to hire someone to forge a community by tweeting back with the 1 mil followers? First Twitter destroyed community by allowing people the insane number of followers through the Suggested Lists and now they what to mine a community in that spam pool? Really now after all the years?
sasare 16y ago
so who cares? My boyfriend thinks the same as I do. He is eight years older than me, lol. We met online at agegaplove``.com a nice and free place for younger women and older men, or older women and younger men, to interact with each other. Maybe you wanna check out or tell your friends.
- dsil 16y ago
  downvoted in spite of the irony.
hasenj 16y ago
I find the notion of using a third-party service for commenting a bit ridiculous. The commenting system and the way it works is an essential part of building a community around a website; treating it like a commodity is just wrong. The way your comment system works is part of what defines your site, and if that part is not under your control, you'll be just an average website with an average community. Think of all the VB/phpBB/IPB powered forums. Treating commenting systems like a commodity scream "I'm an average website", or "I'm not a technology site". For the same reason, I never use a CMS. If I want to build a website, I will build it from scratch. CMS powered sites tend to all look a like, you can often tell right away when a site is using a certain CMS; by the lack of polish in its design and the familiar menu to the left, or the familiar urls, or the familiar clutter and noise that always accompany sites powered by X (where X is some CMS). Tumblr does a good job of providing high quality designs, so your tumblr blog will always look polished and professional. But it will also look like the other thousand blogs that use the same theme you're using. You can make your own theme, but if you're a control freak, you'll soon run into walls where there are certain things you want to do with your blog but you just can't.
- commandar 16y ago
  >Treating commenting systems like a commodity scream "I'm an average website", or "I'm not a technology site". Depends on the focus of the site. Fact is, packages like VBulletin are very good at what they do, and I find I generally have a more pleasant experience on VB/phpBB powered sites that behave like other forums I visit than I do on sites that try to reinvent the wheel and end up lacking basic functionality just to be different.
  - sliverstorm 16y ago
    Absolutely. I see no problem outsourcing functional components of your website- granted, the product you outsource to had better be good.
- Devilboy 16y ago
  The big selling point for Disqus is the back-end management system. Disqus is AWESOME at managing your commenters, killing spam and the like. If comments are not your core competency (e.g. Digg or Reddit or HN) then Disqus is a very attractive option.
photon_off 16y ago
Commenting is a ridiculously underserved market. It's so pathetic that I still enounter old barely usable bbs systems that are still thriving. How is there not a decent, usable threaded comment system, outside of forums? I've said it before: there needs to be a ubiquitous commenting system and it should work like a forum. Disqus only scratches the surface of this and still has seen remarkable success; somebody needs to take it to the next level. If disqus is the best we've got, there's certainly opportunity here. Add up/downvotes. Even YouTube comments have been made bearable by this. Show/hide children. Easy registration. Multiple threads. Notifications when someone replies. It's 2010 and commenting systems have barely advanced beyond guestbooks.
- thedz 16y ago
  FWIW, at Disqus we've tried making registration as easy as possible. You're also able to show and hide children, though not all sites enabled this. We're also looking to improve notifications, so that area is definitely on our radar.
  - photon_off 16y ago
    Disqus has done an amazing job at improving their feature set. I remember when you guys just started that I couldn't believe you were gaining traction. (Tangent: If I could suggest anything, it would be having up/down buttons instead of the "like" button, which is both button hidden alongside the "reply" button, and is an important/risky looking form button. I've noticed that only a small percentage of users use the "like" feature, whereas probably a large percentage of people have a strong enough opinion about a comment to take action. I believe the solution would be to make up/down buttons (arrows, actually), putting them in a more visible spot, and making them look risk-free.) Great job so far, but I just see potential for a much better way to comment and browse comments.
- edanm 16y ago
  You look at forums as a good example? IMO, forums are the first thing that needs to be fixed. Stack Overflow/Hacker News have shown us how much better information is when it's organized using tags, comments and the like. And yet, every day, I stumble into some old phpBB, which is terribly organized and impossible to find information in! Splitting up a forum into 10 different areas is so terrible - before I even start seeing information, I already have to understand how everything works and is organized, etc. I've been waiting a long time for some startup to implement a modern forum system that actually works.
dotcoma 16y ago
How can we - politely, at first - tell Techcrunch to stop linking to us?
cmelbye 16y ago
Really, moderators? I'm aware of the compulsive need to prepend (YC xxx) after every Y-Combinator company name, but it just seems like a bit much to do it even for word play like this title.
barmstrong 16y ago
One potentially bad thing for TechCrunch: it looks like their comments aren't indexable by search engines right now! I read up on Disqus and their FAQ says if you use their API (through the Wordpress plugin) it can generate indexable comments. But from viewing the source on TechCrunch it looks like they are using just the normal Javascript comments, which means they aren't indexable. http://wiki.disqus.net/FAQ#Willsearchenginesstillindexmycomments.3F http://wiki.disqus.net/FAQ#Willsearchenginesstillindexmycomm... Can anyone confirm this?
- cstuder 16y ago
  I remember reading a comment on Hacker News about Google waiting for 5 seconds before indexing the current DOM. I couldn't find any confirmation for this, other that the current Google Bot, Caffeine, is interpreting some of the Javascript code found on webpages.

44 points by cwan 16y ago

parislemon 16y ago

nice hacker news shout out in here :)

samratjp 16y ago

Kind of surprised it took them this long to include Disqus. Then again, sometimes I wish HN had Disqus.

pointillistic 16y ago
HN, is the best commenting on the Internet, not even close. The minimalist design and usability is superb, there is no match for HN comments period.
- commandar 16y ago
  I do occasionally find myself wishing I could collapse threads here like on reddit.
  - niyazpk 16y ago
    I do too. BTW If you didn't know already, this is a nice tool to solve this problem: http://alexander.kirk.at/2010/02/16/collapsible-threads-for-hacker-news/ http://alexander.kirk.at/2010/02/16/collapsible-threads-for-... I really hope pg would add this to the site (given that how easy it is to add the code).
  - ritonlajoie 16y ago
    You can use ihackernews.com

starnix17 16y ago

I like Disqus and how easy it is to implement, but does anyone else feel like it is cluttered? I don't want a commenting system that allows me to "like" comments, vote them up or down, subscribe via email, etc. To be fair though, I'm sure all of those features can be hidden via CSS and Javascript. If you look at some custom Disqus implementations (like Engadget) they do a good job of this.

pointillistic 16y ago
The fact - hackers often neglect usability and graphic design, sadly Disqus is an example. Clean minimalist design separates them from a killer app.
timdorr 16y ago
They can be hidden via CSS very easily. .dsq-options { display:none } Boom, gone! Their implementation is very clean. Especially compared to past implementations, which were rife with buttons and links and all manner of interface foolishness. Every comment has only a few elements to it now: A user header, the comment itself, a like button, and a reply button. The reply screen is fantastically simple and can be further stripped down via CSS if you would like. I don't get what you have against liking comments. It's the same thing as what goes on here, just without a downvoting mechanism. It surfaces quality content to the top in a democratic way. Look at it in the context of the whole page. TechCrunch, like a lot of blogs, has a ton of "stuff" going on throughout the page. Compared to the ads on the article, the Crunchbase boxes, and the multiple areas of navigation on the site, the comments are relatively benign and simplistic. They've done a great job packing a lot of complex functionality into a clean package. I think it's already the killer app.
chriskjennings 16y ago
We work hard to improve our default theme offering, Narcissus, with every release. Narcissus is designed to look good and perform well in all situations. A consequence of this all-encompassing approach is that in some situations the look can come across as a bit cluttered. However with only a few lines of CSS you can transform Narcissus to fit the needs of your site--just like Engadget, Thoughtbot and many others have so eloquently done. Saying this, we hear you. There is definitely a need for a minimalist theme at Disqus and we have some time set aside in the near future to make it happen.

pointillistic 16y ago

So let me just understand this. They are going to hire someone to forge a community by tweeting back with the 1 mil followers? First Twitter destroyed community by allowing people the insane number of followers through the Suggested Lists and now they what to mine a community in that spam pool? Really now after all the years?

sasare 16y ago

so who cares? My boyfriend thinks the same as I do. He is eight years older than me, lol. We met online at agegaplove``.com a nice and free place for younger women and older men, or older women and younger men, to interact with each other. Maybe you wanna check out or tell your friends.

dsil 16y ago
downvoted in spite of the irony.

hasenj 16y ago

I find the notion of using a third-party service for commenting a bit ridiculous. The commenting system and the way it works is an essential part of building a community around a website; treating it like a commodity is just wrong. The way your comment system works is part of what defines your site, and if that part is not under your control, you'll be just an average website with an average community. Think of all the VB/phpBB/IPB powered forums. Treating commenting systems like a commodity scream "I'm an average website", or "I'm not a technology site". For the same reason, I never use a CMS. If I want to build a website, I will build it from scratch. CMS powered sites tend to all look a like, you can often tell right away when a site is using a certain CMS; by the lack of polish in its design and the familiar menu to the left, or the familiar urls, or the familiar clutter and noise that always accompany sites powered by X (where X is some CMS). Tumblr does a good job of providing high quality designs, so your tumblr blog will always look polished and professional. But it will also look like the other thousand blogs that use the same theme you're using. You can make your own theme, but if you're a control freak, you'll soon run into walls where there are certain things you want to do with your blog but you just can't.

commandar 16y ago
>Treating commenting systems like a commodity scream "I'm an average website", or "I'm not a technology site". Depends on the focus of the site. Fact is, packages like VBulletin are very good at what they do, and I find I generally have a more pleasant experience on VB/phpBB powered sites that behave like other forums I visit than I do on sites that try to reinvent the wheel and end up lacking basic functionality just to be different.
- sliverstorm 16y ago
  Absolutely. I see no problem outsourcing functional components of your website- granted, the product you outsource to had better be good.
Devilboy 16y ago
The big selling point for Disqus is the back-end management system. Disqus is AWESOME at managing your commenters, killing spam and the like. If comments are not your core competency (e.g. Digg or Reddit or HN) then Disqus is a very attractive option.

photon_off 16y ago

Commenting is a ridiculously underserved market. It's so pathetic that I still enounter old barely usable bbs systems that are still thriving. How is there not a decent, usable threaded comment system, outside of forums? I've said it before: there needs to be a ubiquitous commenting system and it should work like a forum. Disqus only scratches the surface of this and still has seen remarkable success; somebody needs to take it to the next level. If disqus is the best we've got, there's certainly opportunity here. Add up/downvotes. Even YouTube comments have been made bearable by this. Show/hide children. Easy registration. Multiple threads. Notifications when someone replies. It's 2010 and commenting systems have barely advanced beyond guestbooks.

thedz 16y ago
FWIW, at Disqus we've tried making registration as easy as possible. You're also able to show and hide children, though not all sites enabled this. We're also looking to improve notifications, so that area is definitely on our radar.
- photon_off 16y ago
  Disqus has done an amazing job at improving their feature set. I remember when you guys just started that I couldn't believe you were gaining traction. (Tangent: If I could suggest anything, it would be having up/down buttons instead of the "like" button, which is both button hidden alongside the "reply" button, and is an important/risky looking form button. I've noticed that only a small percentage of users use the "like" feature, whereas probably a large percentage of people have a strong enough opinion about a comment to take action. I believe the solution would be to make up/down buttons (arrows, actually), putting them in a more visible spot, and making them look risk-free.) Great job so far, but I just see potential for a much better way to comment and browse comments.
edanm 16y ago
You look at forums as a good example? IMO, forums are the first thing that needs to be fixed. Stack Overflow/Hacker News have shown us how much better information is when it's organized using tags, comments and the like. And yet, every day, I stumble into some old phpBB, which is terribly organized and impossible to find information in! Splitting up a forum into 10 different areas is so terrible - before I even start seeing information, I already have to understand how everything works and is organized, etc. I've been waiting a long time for some startup to implement a modern forum system that actually works.

dotcoma 16y ago

How can we - politely, at first - tell Techcrunch to stop linking to us?

cmelbye 16y ago

Really, moderators? I'm aware of the compulsive need to prepend (YC xxx) after every Y-Combinator company name, but it just seems like a bit much to do it even for word play like this title.

barmstrong 16y ago

One potentially bad thing for TechCrunch: it looks like their comments aren't indexable by search engines right now! I read up on Disqus and their FAQ says if you use their API (through the Wordpress plugin) it can generate indexable comments. But from viewing the source on TechCrunch it looks like they are using just the normal Javascript comments, which means they aren't indexable. http://wiki.disqus.net/FAQ#Willsearchenginesstillindexmycomments.3F http://wiki.disqus.net/FAQ#Willsearchenginesstillindexmycomm... Can anyone confirm this?

cstuder 16y ago
I remember reading a comment on Hacker News about Google waiting for 5 seconds before indexing the current DOM. I couldn't find any confirmation for this, other that the current Google Bot, Caffeine, is interpreting some of the Javascript code found on webpages.