94 replies on “Say hello to Liliputing’s new commenting system”

  1. Hi Brad, I ran across this article and your previous one about contemplating the switch from Disqus to (and you chose wpDiscuz). I’m interested, as I’m contemplating a similar move. I’ve also loved Disqus for a long time… but even more as a rabid commenter, than as a site admin. 🙂

    wpDiscuz is also in the lead right now, should I leave Disqus. You pointed out a few things (and I’ve learned a few things in the comments below) that certainly point me in the wpDiscuz direction.

    I’m curious if you’d care to comment more on your experience so far, either here, or you’re welcome to drop me a private note if not. ( stevew at cgwerks dot com ).

    My main hesitation, even after poking around this page a bit, is the login component. I tried to login with Disqus, but stopped at the authorization page. I’m used to it just logging in on page-refresh or clicking the login, if I’m already logged into Disqus. I suppose that’s because it’s Disqus to Disqus? Anyway, I’m not sure if I like that aspect. (I’m not sure if that’s a wpDiscuz thing, or the social login component you picked.)

    So, I’m leaving this comment as a guest, just to test that way out too. Thanks so much for making your journey on this public! All the best, -Steve

    (PS. the reCaptcha is nice, but for some reason, it ran me through about 4 ‘pick the squares with signs’ type tests… can it just have the ‘check the box’ option? Or, didn’t that fix the spam problem well enough?)

    1. Correct, wpDiscuz has nothing at all to do with Disqus, so the fact that you’re logged into Disqus won’t be enough to log you in here. But wpDiscuz does work with a few different social login plugins for WordPress, which let you give users the option of logging into your site using Disqus, OpenID, Google, Facebook, Twitter, etc.

      As for ReCaptcha, I honestly have little control over the settings. Google uses its own algorithm to detect whether or not to show the puzzle.

      1. Thanks for the response, Brad. I did a bit more reading and digging about the social login after I left that comment. I suppose there’s no way around that, as when Disqus (or others auto-login), it’s because it is really the Disqus site in an iFrame. It’s a bit of a clumsy extra step (in comparison), but once they are logged in, it should remember that until cookies get reset.

        IMO, it still doesn’t match Disqus in terms of UX or all out look and feel… but the pile of upsides keeps growing, and I think that no-sync thing is the straw that broke this camels back. 🙂 Thanks again for sharing your journey.

  6. I just wanted to say thanks for the new comment system because I can read the comments without needing to turn on javascript. I find the comments here helpful so thank you for making my life easier.

  7. Won’t let me log in through Discuss as a new account as it says it already has an account with e-mail address – which is the same as used via the G+ account I tried.
    However if I say to link it to an existing account it asks for a name/password – which I don’t have for any account on Liliputing.

      1. I’m not sure at all if it is purely Disqus or if it is liliputing.com denying me linking that account because it uses the same e-mail address as the G+ account which I had also signed in with previously to comment.

  8. Brad, one question about the new system. Have you tried the Anti-Spam plugin from webvitaly? The captcha on every (guest) comment is a little annoying, and using Anti-Spam might allow you to turn the captcha off. (most comment spammers can defeat captcha’s like this one anyway).

    The plugin has completely eliminated comment spam on my WordPress sites. Admittedly they are nowhere near as high-traffic as Liliputing, though I would still get thousands a month coming in, sometimes.

    1. The only way I know of to disable the default captcha in wpDiscuz is to switch to Google Captcha, which is a premium plugin. I’ll probably do that eventually, but I wanted to kick the tires of this system first.

      I’m also using Akismet for spam detection. It seems a little more overzealous than Disqus but I’ll keep an eye on it.

      1. Well, I had to create an account so I could add this comment. As a guest, I was getting “Invalid Captcha Code” no matter how many times I tried (and got it right). This just started happening today.

        There is a way to turn off the captcha in wpDiscuz if this forum thread is correct:

        https://gvectors.com/forum/how-to-and-troubleshooting/how-to-disable-captcha-typing-in-wpdiscuz/

        Akismet is fine, but I got sick of seeing thousands of spam comments, and decided it was pointless looking through them for anything that had been spammed by mistake. The Anti-Spam plugin checks comment entry behavior to detect bots which seems to work very well. But, hey, I’m not the one running the site, so you need to do what you think’s best. 🙂

        1. Ahh — I think I figured out why it stopped working today. Looks like a setting was automatically changed when I upgraded from v4.0.5 to 4.0.6. Not sure why that happened.

          But the good news is you’re right — that link does show how to turn off Captchas, and I’m commenting as a guest without entering a code right now.

          I’m doing that for now. Wish me luck. 🙂

          I’ll probably upgrade to the Google Captcha plugin next week though.

          1. Thanks — good luck – and a final nudge: try the Anti-Spam plugin before you go with Google. I can’t guarantee it will keep the spammers at bay, but I suggest it’s worth a try for a day or two.

  11. Alright, I’ve updated the login options. Now you can also login with a Github, StackExchange/StackOverflow/Yahoo, or Reddit account… or even a Disqus account.

    Microsoft/Live account logins are being a bit finicky, but I might add those later.

  12. This is a test. This is only a test. If this had been a real comment, I’d probably have actually said something.

  14. These comments do look better and definitely load faster than Disqus. Glad you were able to try something new and hopefully make things better for yourself and the Liliputing community.

    I would also like to see the Yahoo authentication added.

  18. The guest account will be enough for those(like me) who don’t comment very often. It will do just fine.

    1. Oh yeah, sooo much better! Adios Disqus – you and your layers and layers of scripting Bloat will NOT be missed 🙂

  21. Every time I’ve considered commenting on a post for the last year, the requirement of logging in or signing up would ultimately kill that desire. I’m not signing up for lifetime spam just to have a voice on the site.

    Nice to see it’s not a strict requirement anymore.

    1. I have always managed to comment as a guest with the old approach… in fact I stopped logging in to disquss because of that.

    1. Another advantage of this is that the comments appear immediately on the web page when it is loaded and one does not have to go throught the “Disquis is taking a long time to load” / reload syndrome everyr time …

  24. Well – I’ve tried signing in via Twitter and via G+. I am getting no e-mail notification of replies to my comments. No notification of any kind anywhere I can see.
    If I click on my name where it says “You are logged in as” then it always comes up with nothing even after I make several comments under that name.
    Perhaps it won’t notify me of replies made by myself?

    Anyway the threaded comments are nice but without any kind of notification working that’s of very limited value. I’m happy to try something else or take any advice re: Twitter or G+ login settings. Though I won’t join Facebook. I have limits.

      1. Nope. Nothing in the gmail account associated with that G+ account and nothing in G+ either. Checked the spam folder too. And made sure I clicked the ‘notify of replies box’ under the above comment earlier too.
        I know when I first logged in via G+ it asked permissions for my e-mail and basic profile, which I granted. So the plugin should be getting my e-mail address via the G+ login I’d think.

        1. Well – signing in via Twitter gives me no notification of any kind that a reply has been made to a comment. The 2nd Test above was to be sure I had checked the box to notify me of comments.
          I expect this is about Twitter and no this comment system though.

  28. LOL – “We’ve come up with a solution! We are turning that feature off.”

    Anyway – can I display a pseudonym if I log in via G+? Or will it show my G+ name?

  30. I kinda liked how I could get notifications about ongoing conversations regardless where I was, but I do understand the problems with Diqus what you described. I sure won’t turn on e-mail notifications, since I use a Pebble, and I don’t really need a notification on my wrist about comments, so I guess I’ll be in ‘comment and forget’ mode until I figure out how to integrate this into my life.

    1. i just used some filters on my email-inbox that automatically mark mails regarding “new comment on X” as read and move them to a subfolder.

      So no notifications about those for me. For none of the sites I comment on, also not for those Disqus-Mails that are pretty much the same.

  32. Alright, so here’s what I’ve learned in the last few minutes:

    1. You can login with social media and if you do that, you can edit any comment you’ve left within 15 minutes.

    2. You can also login as a guest with just an email address. You can received email notifications for follow-up messages if you do this, but you cannot edit comments.

    3. Providing an option to just let you sign up for a Liliputing/Wordpress account would be a hassle (for you and for me), so I’m not planning to do that right now.

    4. But if Facebook/Twitter/G+ aren’t good enough, I can add Microsoft, Yahoo, Reddit, LinkedIn, StackExchange, Steam, Twitch, AOL, or a few other options. Let me know if you want one or more of those and if there’s enough demand I’ll dd some more.

    1. StackExchange might be cool, especially since I also don’t want to link my social media account to my comments around the internet (I’ll never understand the things some people feel comfortable saying in a comment that is linked to their real name!). I’m not a fan of the captcha, though

    3. Yahoo’s openID would be nice… specially if I get rid of the captcha code!
      My current “spam allowed” account is in there :), I have used yahoo’s id in SE and other places without any issues…

  33. I guess it’s ok, we’ll see how it turns out. Do email notifications work for guests? I don’t feel like creating another account for something, adding to the hundreds of other accounts I have.

      1. It doesn’t appear like I’m getting any email notifications as a guest even though I checked the box to have it notify me of new replies. If you could add Microsoft account support though, that’d be great since I use that on other sites like Windows Central.

      1. Weird, it gives me an edit button right next to the comment. Maybe that’s just because I’m the admin. Still learning as I go.

        Nope… editing should be enabled, allowing you to edit comments for 15 minutes after you post.

          4. yap, guest can’t edit… too bad but I guess implementing this would be too complicated. I can live with it…

      1. Glad to see you not using Disqus.

        But please, PLEASE don’t use reCAPTCHA. Their CAPTCHA system is hair-pulling and frustrating to navigate as a regular user. I find myself having to redo the same CAPTCHA multiple times on an alarmingly regular basis, and even switching to the audio version to get away from the “Select all images with mountains.” picture one that I’ve been plagued with for MONTHS.

        (Ask a person from a part of a country that is flat to define a mountain, and anything with a height formation will be a mountain to them. What they define as a mountain and what I define as one will be different.)

  40. I deleted my Disqus account a few years ago and have had to comment on Liliputing as a guest since. Glad you’ve ditched Disqus. They are a horrible company. The only thing you have to watch for now is the flood of WordPress hacks and problems from plugins. Have fun, WordPress is a mess of a CMS.

    1. Oh, good point… let me look into that. This plugin detects if you already have one and I think it creates one through social logins. But right now new users only get a guest option. Huh.

    3. Upon further inspection/reflection, we’re not going to do that. So you can login via Social media or as a guest.

      I can also add options to login with a WordPress.com account, Yahoo, LinkedIn, StackOverFlow, Reddit, Microsoft, or a few others. Maybe I’ll run a poll to see what the most popular options are soon. Now I’m going to edit this article and go make some dinner.

      Still trying to figure out why ya’ll aren’t seeing the edit button though 🙁

      1. I’m gonna have to make a throwaway social network account, I don’t link anything to my Facebook

  42. Great move, as a commenter I don’t like it thats DIsqus has a database of all the comments that I made over *different* sites. I don’t necesarily like it that someone has a central database of all site that I like most. It’s *never* good to be on a list!

      1. So how does this work? can you back these comments up and do the comments only exist on this site?

        1. Yup, this is basically a plugin that extends the functionality of the native WordPress comment system. Everything is hosted on our server.

          1. Joy everywhere 🙂
            Makes you wonder what the actual advantage of Disqus is, huh?

          2. Disqus provides a free comment system that many visitors already have accounts on, so they do not have to register an account at yet another website, thus considerably lowering the bar for people if they want to leave comments. A good, healthy comment system is one of the best way to keep visitors coming back, which is why websites like it. (Also, maintaining your own system, dealing with the spam, and other stuff that goes wrong, can be a pain at times.)

            I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve wanted to leave a comment on a site only to find I have to register first, and I am less likely to come back as a result. Sites that use Disqus don’t have that issue, which is why commenters like Disqus. I definitely comment on more sites than I would have otherwise, if they didn’t use Disqus. It also has some nice features that help you follow up on old comment threads you may have lost track of.

            It’s not perfect, but there are definitely advantages to home grown solutions.

          3. Only problem was disqus was a typical .com following the underpants gnome economic model of 1) collect eyeballs with free service, 2) ???, 3) profit. Eventually the venture money dried up and they started flailing around for a real step 2 and appear to have annoyed almost everyone in the process.

            This system seems to work fine, two clicks to link to g+ and done. Disqus was probably easier to initially setup, a little easier for users, etc. But once they added some friction to the transaction they are discovering the free service they offered wasn’t really all that valuable. Yes they became more valuable the more sites used them but they never managed to make themselves irreplaceable before they started monetizing.

          4. > I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve wanted to leave a comment on a site only to find I have to register first, and I am less likely to come back as a result. Sites that use Disqus don’t have that issue, which is why commenters like Disqus.

            but then there is a way to leave feedback without needing login OR needing to login:

            just don’t require registration

            granted – that might make spam a slightly bigger problem, but that’s a problem for the creator of the site, not for the user

            What disqus gives you though, is a common interface over multiple platforms. i.E.: No need to find out if the local comments support Markdown, restricted HTML, BBtags or whatever… You already know how to write stuff because you know disqus.

          5. I provide an example of a different opinion. I don’t want Disqus to own all my comments. That’s why I use it only on sites like Liliputing that allow to comment as guest. I prefer a fragmented system with every site incapacitated to know what people does on the other sites. Thumb up for Liliputing.

          6. If you use a google login, and click Register, you don’t have to actually register for anything. It just creates an association automatically. Literally 3 click and 5 seconds and I was commenting again.

          7. I’ve never been a fan of Discus as I didn’t want them to own my comments (much as Brad explained here). Plus, if you can leave comments as a guest, there’s no need to register anywhere.

            I am liking this system and I might upgrade my site’s comment system with these plugins. I would love to find a plugin that lets me “tag” particular readers as insightful, almost like a super vote to the top as an admin. I had worked on creating a plugin for that in the past, but it never got to the place where I was comfortable with it.

          8. Comments are about the most ephemeral type of personal information on the web. Most comment threads (like this one) are worthless within a couple of days of publishing, and unless you happen to be one of those vanishingly small number of people whose life blows up in a very bad way, then nobody cares. Even to Disqus, your comments are nothing more than data points in a vast sea of data that no human being will ever see again. (No, not even the NSA).

            Do you have Netflix? Unlike the broadcast networks, Netflix knows your viewing habits down to the very minute of every show or movie you have ever watched, and very likely could build a much more accurate profile of you than Disqus could with a few scattershot comments (especially given Netflix actually knows who you are).

            They are a big data company first and foremost, and most people don’t even realize it.

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