Pros and cons of commenting systems and APIs (Disqus vs Facebook Comments vs Intense Debate vs Echo)?

Question

With the release of the new Facebook commenting module, could people please share their experiences with the various commenting systems -- specifically, Disqus, Echo, Intense Debate, and Facebook Comments?

What are the pros and cons of each system?

Thanks!

Answer 1

For the All Commenting System

The pros:

1. One simple login for all sites.
2. Spam control.
3. Expanded social media presence.
4. Easy comment subscriptions.

The cons:

1. Complicates the comment process.
2. Lessens your control.

Facebook Commenting System

Pros

1. Real names and identities greatly reduces the number of trolls and anonymous cowards in comments.
2. Social virality boosts traffic by creating a feedback loop between Facebook and participating sites.  Friends pull in their friends, creating a social entry point to your site.
3. Automatic sign-in if you already signed into Facebook elsewhere, lowers the barriers to commenting.
4. Most “liked” comments get voted to the top.  It also knows who your friends are, so you will see those comments first.

Cons

1. No support for Twitter or Google IDs, which leaves out the other half of the social Web.
2. No backups and other lock-ins will make it hard for sites to leave.
3. If you work somewhere that blocks Facebook, you are out of luck.
4. Your friends might be surprised to find their replies in your Facebook News stream reproduced on another site’s comments.  Expect a backlash.
5. Moderation bugs, no view counts at the top of posts or ways to highlight site owners/writers in comments.

Source : http://techcrunch.com/2011/03/01/pros-cons-facebook-comments/

Intense Debate

Pros

1. Highly customizable. CSS style sheet is easy to work with and more importantly,
2. Well integrated into WordPress. It’s made by the same company, apparently.
3. Can add a bunch of add-ons to the comment system, such as CommentLuv.
4. Feels simple and crisp.

Cons

1. Does not render properly under IE9 and Opera (just one button misplacement in Opera).
2. Importing comments process is buggy.
3. Replies are hidden and you have to click the ‘Replies’ text to expand them. Replies were already shown for pages with few comments, but were not shown for those with many comments.

DISQUS

Pros

1. Lots of login options. You can use just about any of your login credentials (Google, Facebook, Twitter, etc). Of course, you can still post comments anonymously if you choose to.
2. Looks nice and clean, though it took me a long time to customize the CSS. Still not 100% satisfied.
3. It’s popular. Lots of websites use it; therefore, many people know what they’re dealing with when they see Disqus logo in the comment section of a blog.

Cons

1. Not as customizable as Intense Debate.
2. By default, it inherits the blog’s main theme style sheet.
3. All URLs in comments are auto-linked.
4. Doesn’t integrate well with WordPress comments.
5. Comments count
6. The Help section is lacking.

Source: http://www.scamfreeinternet.com/2011/04/disqus-vs-intense-debate/

Answer 2

The major pro of each of these systems is that you don't have to write them youself.

Personally I wouldn't use Facebook Comments, because (believe it or not) not everbody uses (or even likes) facebook.

Discus is very good because you can sign in with a variety of services, so you're likely to get quite a few people using it who might not compared to Facebook Comments.

Answer 3

a post that grew out of a comment to this page:

Unfortunately my comment was rejected (too many links).

So here is an excerpt from that comment, and a link to the now-fully-fledged blog post, in which I have aggregated all the Disqus links, pro, con, and neutral, that illustrate their respective points.

Having contemplated the wonderful pitter-patter of keyboards that, all-too-often, does not warm this blog from underneath, I decided renovation might be just the thing. Disqus has an overall style that definitely appeals to me. According to the brief overview I quickly search-engined for myself, Disqus has problems with privacy and anonymity, just like (it should by now go without saying) Facebook. The question, for me, is: exactly how close is the resemblance.

And the real question is, how dissimilar can any data-mining, profile-generating, social-network-enabling corporate entity be from such creeping Evil. Breaches of privacy cannot be easily explained by accident, by exceptional circumstances, especially if they recur. They are soon exposed for what they are: evidence of the sort of underlying motivations best met with corresponding breaches of trust.

I remain as yet unconvinced and undecided.

In case anyone in interested, these are the Disqus issues that my very brief search uncovered, with relelevant links, loosely seperated into general, pro, and con:

• the accidental public disclosure of private information such as email address, photo, or real name, when signing up or signing in; the forcing of users to enable 3d party cookies; difficulty or impossibility of integration with exclusive HTTPS.

• the forcing of users to enable 3d party cookies; difficulty or impossibility of integration with exclusive HTTPS.

• difficulty or impossibility of integration with exclusive HTTPS.

For the links to which this excerpt refers, follow go to A Better Comment Platform Should Be Possible

Answer 4

I just tried LiveFyre and disliked it as it still has some major bugs like spam getting through, lack of comment moderation etc.

I decided to try Disqus and boy I LOVED IT FROM THE BEGINNING.

Right now I'm using both Facebook comments and Disqus on my blogs. Facebook comments helps in a way to drive traffic to my blogs from Facebook ;-)

Answer 5

I agree with use Disqus instead of Facebook comments system, the major advantage of facebook comments is that the comments will syn with comments in facebook, if you don't need this, just go Disqus. MICBook.net now also consider use Disqus, you could take a look when its ready, the website is http://micbook.net.

Answer 6

Facebook commenting is the best option in my opinion.

When you enter something and you see those lots of people commenting and you can see their pictures etc... Makes people want to enter the discussion. Or, at least, they read some comments more than they would on normal comments.
And, when you comment, the text is inputed on your wall feed and most of your friends will see it.
Thats why, in my opinion, facebook commenting is the best choice today to use.

att,
Jonathan

Answer 7

Dont like to use facebook. We could be better off with disqus. Facebook has no option on deleting comments. So how can it be moderated. For example if your website have been spam to death then how do you delete the spam posts? the answer is , you cant. Facebook is good for viral but not for commenting, I wouldn't recommend it.