UPDATE 1: Michael from IntenseDebate saw the tweets about this post and he has not only participated in the discussion, but he's also helping solve the issues I'm having with IntenseDebate. I love real-people-customer-support!
I'm a big fan of commenting systems for websites. My love for them is the features they offer to my website visitors, making it easier for visitors to join in the conversation:
- login with Twitter, Facebook, and other accounts;
- easy guest commenting;
- extra spam protection;
- threaded comments (irrelevant to some themes, such as StudioPress Genesis);
- reply notifications to commenters;
I had been using and recommending IntenseDebate over alternatives for primarily two reasons.
- Made by the makers of WordPress, so integration would seem to be tight.
- Designed to fallback to the default WordPress comments system if JavaScript wasn't available.
But I've been having problems with my website, and I traced them to IntenseDebate.
- If you use LastPass on Google Chrome, then you may have seen my website layout break when LastPass offers to autofill a form.
- When I would receive email notices of new comments, the links would take me to my post—not the actual comment on the page.
Additionally, I think that a comment entry form above the comments makes it more convenient for someone to comment. As opposed to how IntenseDebate places the comment form below the comments. This also made replying to a comment not as intuitive to visitors.
I was also challenged to rethink my decision when I heard Syed Balkhi from WPBeginner mention several commenting systems in his presentation “Facebook and WordPress – A match made in Heaven” at WordCamp Louisville 2011 (I was also a speaker).
So I see two main alternatives, which I have already been testing (as you may have noticed):
I'll write more about my experiences with each of these, and I'd love to hear your thoughts! I know CommentLuv is also a reasonable option, but it doesn't offer some of the primary features that I want a commenting system for in the first place. I know there's also a CommentLuv plugin for IntenseDebate, but that doesn't solve my problems.
What do you like as a blogger or podcaster? What about as a website visitor? Are you more likely to leave a comment with one system over another? What do you like to see on the websites you read?
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Hey Daniel, I was using Disqus on my site for quite sometime and it is a very good system. I recently switched to Livefyre though to allow a tighter social integration with my shows Facebook fanpage. If you want more social “cross talk” I would test out livefyre
Thanks, Rich. I was using LiveFyre for about a week, but discovered a few things that were total deal-breaking show-stoppers for me:
• No HTML formatting.
• Guests can’t subscribe to comments to be notified when someone replies to them.
• And some annoying syncing issues on two separate sites.
Ahh I see. If that is the case then you’ll like Disqus.It works well. I only changed due to the need to try something new.
I do love the crossover between Facebook and a blog with LiveFyre. They know the issues I have with their service, and I’ve promised them to try again when they update.
I would call LiveFyre the service I want to use, but can’t.
That is an accurate description. I had some issues with cross talk due to using url shorteners. Those don’t work well. It hampers my twitter conversations but the facebook side works well. Maybe after I relaunch the site I will give disqus another crack. Keep up the great work. I am fan of your show and have implemented quite a few of tips and tricks. Debuting some new hardware 🙂
This kind of feedback is valuable as we move our system forward.
I have to be vague for now, but we’re working on some very exciting things, so keep an eye out for what we’re doing over the next few months.
One big(!) disadvantage of Disqus: The user must have Javascript enabled for the page/site itself (e.g. theaudacitytopodcast.com) AND for disqus.com AND some others needed by Disqus (probably some google-Domains because of RECAPTCHA). For security and privacy reasons I am one of many who use the NoScript addon for Firefox, which by default blocks all Javascript. As a result, I normally do not even see that a comment system is available. There is no fallback option for Disqus or even a hint that I would have to enable Javascript to see it.
This seems to be no issue with LiveFyre – I can have all Javascript disabled and still see comments on pages using LiveFyre.
Yes, the lack of a suitable fallback is disappointing, and I’m looking into whether I can hack that back to the way it should be.
@e6cb3ac87f7df0c4ca15c39bc2cc774c:disqus By default the comments sync back to WordPress, and we actually allow them to display if Javascript disabled in that case. @theRamenNoodle:disqus If you’ve intended to have comments sync but need some help just let us know.
Hope you don’t mind my stopping by. Just wanted to point out that with IntenseDebate you can move the comment box to the top by adding some CSS to your Custom CSS page. We have a great guide here . You can actually do a ton of CSS customization using our CSS documentation.
Thanks for the heads-up on the LastPass layout issue. We’ll dig into that along with the comment link issue.
CommentLuv is pretty cool – there are some awesome people working on it. They made a CommentLuv plugin for IntenseDebate which you can access in your Plugins page.
Hope to see you back some time.
Thanks for dropping by, Michael! I’ll take another look at the CSS for moving the post window up.
I had already emailed support about the LastPass issue, and the response seemed that it wasn’t something IntenseDebate was interested in fixing. However, I’ve also noticed the problem doesn’t occur on other sites running IntenseDebate. It’s probably something I have setup in my ID options. I’ll continue to test on one of my other podcast sites.
Ah, I see we’ve already chatted about LastPass. Sorry about the confusion on my end.
Hello Michael! From your post I gather you know a lot about Intense Debate. I have a problem I don’t know if you can resolve for me. I recently moved my site to HTTPS and Intense Debate apparently is serving unsecure content now by calling for an unsecure image located at http://static.ak.fbcdn.net/rsrc.php/v1/zL/r/FGFbc80dUKj.png. Is there a resolution for this so I don’t have to remove comments from my site?
Man you’re fast! That’s strange that it doesn’t happen on other sites. I’m not sure which of our options would cause that, but we can always take a look and test it out. I’ll take this offline and drop you an email. Cheers!
Been thinking about switching from the native WP commenting system to either disqus or intense debate. I prefer the latter only because it integrates with commentluv; however, I have been reading about other bloggers’ bad experiences about it (unintentionally of course – I’m not out looking for negative reviews on the commenting system but seem to keep bumping into them).
So for now, I think I might have to stick it out with the good ole WP commenting system.
As you can see, I’ve opted to switch to Disqus until IntenseDebate upgrades to more modern options.
[…] 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 […]
Umm nice.
Hi, Omar! I couldn’t quite tell what this is referencing. Would you care to expound?
which commenting system is this
i want to apply one on http://www.financialcell.com
That site is using Disqus, which is the same thing I’m using now, though I’m considering trying the new version of Livefyre.
I had say you should stick to it…because commentluv is missing in it and blogging community loves commentluv…i prefer platform with commentluv…moreover disqus is slower to load than commentluv
Sure, CommentLuv is nice, but it’s really not as ubiquitous as its creator seems to claim. If someone wants to leave a comment on my site for the purpose of adding to the conversation rather than promoting themselves, I doubt they would turn away because I don’t have CommentLuv.
I would rather have a commenting service more user-friendly than one that lures people to comment in exchange for linkbacks.
Yes, and I hate that about Disqus and Livefyre. But I also hate that IntenseDebate has been updated in a while and is stuck using techniques that are several years old.
Helpful
I am going to test in on my site for few days, it look good to use
nice article
Now it’s Disqus I see…why?
IntenseDebate hasn’t been updated to meet the modern web demands. After comparing LiveFyre’s and Disqus’s latest updates, I decided that Disqus was the best choice. LiveFyre is cool, but does some annoying things.
I have just gave IntenseDebate a try, and I could not approve the comment by email. I had to wait until I was in front of the PC, log into the dashboard and approve one by one.
I am also working with Disqus again.
this is a test.. sorry, but need to try some where
Good article
Yeah, yeah…
After going through reviews, feature sets and thinking for some time, I’ve also added Disqus on my new site. It’s a little slower, but it’ll improve.
just trying the comment box
Daniel, has InstenseDebate improved to the point where you’ll consider recommending it. Or are you sticking with Disqus?
Thanks. 🙂
Looks like IntenseDebate still hasn’t bee updated much. I’m sticking with Disqus.
Thank you, Daniel, for the quick reply.
Interestingly, Chris Lema wrote an short article in November of 2014 entitled, “Why I Killed Disqus Commenting on My Site”. You can read the article at http://chrislema.com/killed-disqus-commenting/. Does his perspective resonate with you, or does his perspective seem to you to be a low-priority concern?
Thanks again. 🙂
I’m not concerned, because that is addressed in Disqus’s privacy policy. And Disqus users may opt-out of such tracking.
I use intense debate, after moving to it from Disqus. Although Disqus is better looking and it’s control panel is a lot easier to navigate around and use, it ultimately didn’t give me what I wanted. My content isn’t something that is ideal for commenting on, so I needed something to reward readers who wanted to make a comment, and intense debate offers that. You can make backlinks, and even embed your youtube videos in your comments if you activate the corresponding plugin. It’ll ultimately mean a lot of moderation, but at the same time readers have an insentive to comment which will also help give you content. It’s also great to have conversations and debates in comments, something which can be hard to get started with comment plugings like disqus, purely because there isn’t any reward and it’s a hassle having to have an make an account with it. Intensedebate has some problems, and it feels like it hasn’t been updated in forever, but I still prefer it over disqus.
That’s nice, but there’s something shady to me about someone who wants to comment only for the incentive or backlink they would get.
Apparently LiveFyre dropping out of the free commenting systems and as a result of new found power Disqus is planning to also change so that you get charged or have to show their ads. Not good. imho
Hey Daniel… just wanted to test out commenting with Disqus without having to login to Disqus… to see how it works. 🙂
That’s odd
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Great post Club Outfits(20)
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Dwlete
Great Post Home Tips
Hey Daniel, I know its a bit outdated, but what service you are using right now? on this post
Hi, Naz! I was on Disqus for a while, but they started missing comments and I didn’t like how heavy their plugin was. I’m now using the native WordPress commenting system and added a replyable.com subscription to give the email notifications.
I use intense debate, after moving to it from Disqus. Although Disqus is better looking and it’s control panel is a lot easier to navigate around and use, it ultimately didn’t give me what I wanted. My content isn’t something that is ideal for commenting on, so I needed something to reward readers who wanted to make a comment, and intense debate offers that. You can make backlinks, and even embed your youtube videos in your comments if you activate the corresponding plugin. It’ll ultimately mean a lot of moderation, but at the same time readers have an insentive to comment which will also help give you content. It’s also great to have conversations and debates in comments, something which can be hard to get started with comment plugings like disqus, purely because there isn’t any reward and it’s a hassle having to have an make an account with it. Intensedebate has some problems, and it feels like it hasn’t been updated in forever, but I still prefer it over disqus.
I use intense debate, after moving to it from Disqus. Although Disqus is better looking and it’s control panel is a lot easier to navigate around and use, it ultimately didn’t give me what I wanted. My content isn’t something that is ideal for commenting on, so I needed something to reward readers who wanted to make a comment, and intense debate offers that. You can make backlinks, and even embed your youtube videos in your comments if you activate the corresponding plugin. It’ll ultimately mean a lot of moderation, but at the same time readers have an insentive to comment which will also help give you content. It’s also great to have conversations and debates in comments, something which can be hard to get started with comment plugings like disqus, purely because there isn’t any reward and it’s a hassle having to have an make an account with it. Intensedebate has some problems, and it feels like it hasn’t been updated in forever, but I still prefer it over disqus.
basically i like discuss. also like IntenseDebate, looks like old today 2020.
For privacy and performance reasons, I’ve dropped third-party commenting systems and now use WordPress-native comments plus https://replyable.com/ to enable email notifications and replies. (I’m approving and replying to your comment from my email inbox!)
Does IntenseDebate have charges or advertising?
I don’t think IntenseDebate has been updated in years. I switched to Disqus for a while and even paid for it before switching back to native WordPress comments with some enhancements.