If you’ve been reading my posts, you know that I’ve had an experiment running for a couple of months to dress up the comments on my WordPress blog by adding a bit of extra functionality. I have now declared that experiment a failure and have gone back to basics. Here’s why.
Almost, But Not Quite
After I switched from Echo to IntenseDebate, I must admit that I was happy for a while. IntenseDebate did a lot of things right and there were only a few little niggles. However, those niggles proved to be more and more of an annoyance. I did not enjoy having to moderate comments twice and sometimes three times.
The reputation manager which was supposed to ease the moderation load never worked as it should. No matter how many times I voted someone up, their comments never got approved automatically. And it seemed to me that I got the slow connection interface far too often (admittedly, that’s probably the fault of my ISP, but it didn’t help).
The Readers Speak
What proved the death knell for IntenseDebate was the feedback from my readers. I asked on Twitter whether they actually used the additional social media integration (the reason I’d installed it in the first place) and was told categorically that they didn’t. In addition, some people had had trouble leaving comments and found that it detracted from the whole experience. They were quite happy with the default WordPress comment box, thank you very much.
What Next For WordPress Comments?
You might think at this point that I would try again with Disqus, but why would I? My readers had spoken. Only a few of them, but those few are people who comment on almost every post, so their opinion counts. So I won’t be messing around with the comments section of my blog any time soon.
While I’m still looking for more ways to integrate social media into my blog (remind me to tell you about what happened with BackType Connect some time), I’m leaving the comment area alone. In fact, this week I’ve made it even simpler by reducing the number of social media buttons under posts. Turns out that, apart from Tweetmeme, not many people use those either. What’s your experience been with comments and social media buttons on your blog?
Very valuable article Thanks
It really is all about what your readers want.
Although I have been thinking about adding a new commenting feature to a couple of my wp sites, I haven't really seen a demand among my visitors – they get by just fine with the standard setup.
I guess you don't fix it if it ain't broke
I tend to use the social media buttons when commenting. I can understand the desire for low hassle comment management though.
I had intensedebate on my blog removed a day ago because it wasn't working properly on all pages (not sure if it's because of the recent upgrade to 2.9). I've also tried diqus, which couldn't import my comments. Like you said, I was trying to add more social media functionality to the comments however it yielded headaches…I'll stick to the original comments facility…thank you very much (though in my case none of my readers had actually complained, I was very annoyed of having to worry about these plug-ins)
I use thread comment…but i've got little error in there…you can see in my post…
I do like the original comment system more, personally. I had looked into another system that basically allowed users to add comments in a chat-style interface (if I remember correctly), but I opted not to go with it after a bit. I tend to get scared of hyped-up products that are being hyped up by their own companies (and not other bloggers). Heck, with as few (non-spam) comments as I get, there's really no point in going beyond what I have.
Thanks for your comments, everyone. Wes and Muzi, your thoughts underline why I switched back.
I have made my blog a DO FOLLOW blog to give commentors some DO FOLLOW backlinks.
I have also installed CommentLuv so that commentors can advertise their latest posts. This one is very popular with commentors.
I also have a 'tweet my comments' but I have a feeling I'm the only one who uses this!
@donpower