I previously blogged why I was leaving the IntenseDebate commenting system. Now, I'll review an impressive newcomer called LiveFyre.
LiveFyre was founded in 2009 and it their commenting systems boasts some impressive features and functionality.
This is another free commenting system plugin for WordPress. But here are some of LiveFyre's unique features.
- Pulls conversation from Twitter and Facebook and displays on your blog.
- Commenters can tag Facebook or Twitter friends in comments.
- Real-time commenting displays new comments as soon as they're submitted.
- Claims to be the only search-engine-friendly commenting system.
- And then most of the same features as other commenting systems (spam protection, moderation, social sign-ons, comment subscriptions, etc.).
I had heard a lot about LiveFyre from Syid at WPBeginner.com, so I gave it a try.
Yes, I was impressed with its smoothness and liked its design. But then I started finding its shortcomings, which are deal-breakers for me.
- Currently doesn't synchronize comments back to WordPress on a WordPress Network. This has many of my comments lost or held hostage inside of LiveFyre, and I can't get them back until the developers figure out a fix. I've been in contact with them for a couple weeks about this.
- Comments are visible without Javascript, but you can't comment. Maybe this is another WordPress Network glitch, or a WordPress 3.3 conflict. But when I visit my site without Javascript enabled, LiveFyre will show me the comments, but it's impossible to post a new comment.
- No HTML in comments. While this may seem like a security measure, it's also a huge inconvenience and annoyance. I'm a web designer and a writer. You'll notice that I never post raw URLs (or even use “click here”) and I frequently bold or italicize words for the appropriate emphasis. LiveFyre doesn't allow any of this. I recently wrote a carefully crafted reply to someone, included several hyperlinks, and posted, only to find all of my formatting and links completely stripped.
- No subscriptions for guests. If someone wants to leave a comment and subscribe to a reply, they must either use a social-media account or create a LiveFyre account. Requiring someone to have an account in order to comment is bad ethics on the Web. This isn't quite what LiveFyre does (they do have a guest option), they hinder what guest commenters can do.
- No email addresses in email notifications. If someone leaves a comment on my site and I need to respond privately, LiveFyre completely hides the email address, disallowing the private conversation through email.
Just any of the first three of these issues means LiveFyre is dead-on-arrival for me. I love their live commenting system, tagging, and cross-commenting from Facebook and Twitter, but I must pass them up for now. When LiveFyre can fix these issues, I'll try them again.
Now I'm anxious for them to fix the synchronizing feature so I can get back my lost/hostage comments from The Audacity to Podcast™ as well as my Once Upon a Time podcast (which still uses LiveFyre).
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I use the WordPress native commenting system enhanced with CommentLuv Premium to reward commenters and combat spam. It works like a dream! I’m not a fan of Disqus and the only place I installed Livefyre is on my Tumblr blog. If you want to read more about why I’m not using Livefyre on my WordPress blog, please take a look at my post – Why I’m Not Installing Livefyre on Basic Blog Tips.
http://basicblogtips.com/not-installing-livefyre.html
Thanks for commenting, Ileane! I’ve read your post a couple times, actually. Honestly, part of it seems as if you don’t like LifeFyre just because it doesn’t carryover everything from CommentLuv. However, I think I now realize part of the “lost links” problem since LiveFyre strips HTML (including hyperlinks).
I like a commenting system because of the extra functionality it provides: social login, real-time updating, enhanced moderation, and a mobile-optimized version.
A problem I have with CommentLuv Premium is that the guy with the accent over-promotes it in the video, without explaining what it actually does. It’s a little too much like a landing page with a huge marketing push, in my opinion. But I’m willing to give it a try, too.
I like that IntenseDebate offers a CommentLuv plugin (I’m using that on the Ramen Noodle), but IntenseDebate is too outdated, in my opinion.
I’ll rerereread your post, again. 😉 Maybe I’ll look into other plugins to provide a “social login” without having to use a commenting system.
thanks for the livefyre points! Using simple comments on http://winedinedaily.com but looking into other systems.
Such a pain that they use all these measures, only making it less user friendly for the real people who use it
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Great point about losing any new comments, which stay in the database of LIvefyre, and not your own native WP database. I talked to LIvefyre a while ago and they have been working on a fix for that.
There are things that are drawbacks to all of the 3-party commenting systems. It’s better when you can make the comments fit the rest of the site. There is a way to style the comments section of Livefyre to fit your website:
http://www.lockedowndesign.com/blog/customize-styles-on-livefyre-comments/
These are two variant types of commenting and I am sure that it’s because of the difference in interfaces that we are not possible in making use of both in a single occasion. But I would suggest that if we use them independently, it can almost help in easy completion of all our tasks.
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Hi!
Are there any alternatives to livefyre, so it will be possible to get comments from Twitter/Facebook into the WordPress blog?
I thought Disqus could do that, but it was rarely important enough to me to thoroughly test or setup.
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livefyre. It seems to be gaining a bit of popularity. https://www.change.org/organizations/walk_in_showers
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Thanks for sharing information about LiveFyre. It will be useful to everyone. Now i can install LiveFyre easily. Social Media Trends For Business