

It’s Time To Disqus (YC S07) Our Community - cwan
http://techcrunch.com/2010/08/30/techcrunch-disqus-community/

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starnix17
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.

~~~
timdorr
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.

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barmstrong
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#Willsearchenginesstillindexmycomm...](http://wiki.disqus.net/FAQ#Willsearchenginesstillindexmycomments.3F)

Can anyone confirm this?

~~~
cstuder
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.

------
hasenj
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
>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
Absolutely. I see no problem outsourcing functional components of your
website- granted, the product you outsource to had better be good.

------
photon_off
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.

~~~
edanm
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.

~~~
photon_off
Absolutely I think forums are great. The biggest thing missing from forums is
the up/down voting goodness that brings the best content to the top.

 _It's important to note that forums and comments facilitate two different
things._ Forums are really, really good at facilitating discussion, whether or
not the best content goes to the top is usually irrelevant (though, I'm
claiming it could be made better). I think SO and HN generally suck at this,
because I don't know when somebody has replied to one of my posts.

However, SO and HN excel at having great content, and having that rise to the
top. I attribute this to moderation and the up/down voting.

I don't think it is impossible to have both features in a commenting system.

> Forums need to be fixed.

Really? There are thriving forums for nearly every topic imaginable. It's
probably not due to forums being difficult to use.

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

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pointillistic
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?

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

~~~
pointillistic
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
I do occasionally find myself wishing I could collapse threads here like on
reddit.

~~~
niyazpk
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-...](http://alexander.kirk.at/2010/02/16/collapsible-threads-for-hacker-
news/)

I really hope pg would add this to the site (given that how easy it is to add
the code).

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cmelbye
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.

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parislemon
nice hacker news shout out in here :)

