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Here's a slightly different perspective. I'm part of a group blog with an active community, and we've experimented with various commenting systems. Our problem
by mikeleeorg 14y ago
Here's a slightly different perspective.
I'm part of a group blog with an active community, and we've experimented with various commenting systems. Our problem hasn't been getting user engagement, it's getting quality engagement. The nature of our blog (a cultural blog) unfortunately invites a lot of trollish and abusive comments.
We've experimented with our blogging platform's native comment system, Disqus, LiveFyre, and Facebook. Right now, we've got Facebook Comments active. The number of abusive comments seems to have decreased, as have the number of good comments (most probably because of the barriers of using Facebook). So the jury is still out on which is best for us.
Looking at TechCrunch's comments, it doesn't look like Facebook Comments has helped their quality level that much - though it's much better than Disqus.
So I'd advise understanding your audience before deciding which comment system is best for your site. Each system has its pros & cons. You just have to determine if the cons are worth the pros for you.
- pytrin 14y agoOne of the commentators on my blog (I'm the author of the article), said that ever since TC changed to Facebook comments, he noticed a reduction in critical comments and changed the feel into a "Yes man" type discussions. I guess it depends on how you define quality comments - I prefer people voice their opinions without fear of repercussions. Obviously, this thinking is not appropriate for all cases - if you want product comments for example, by all means Facebook comments might provide the best type.
- mikeleeorg 14y agoFortunately, we haven't gotten any "Yes man" type discussions on our blog yet. Many of our most vocal commenters (who often state contrary opinions to ours) took to the Facebook Comment system well, though we've lost a few too. So far, none of the abusive trolls have come over yet. Unfortunately, I haven't seen the lively discussions we used to get when using LiveFyre. So there's definitely a trade-off. We're definitely not sold on Facebook Comments yet; it's just our most recent experiment.
- MartinCron 14y agoI'd advise understanding your audience before deciding which comment system is best for your site. Yes! When you frame it like that, as in "different technologies/providers may be better in different contexts", it seems so simple. Yet people get hung up on the "always do X and never do Y" approaches.