The plan to use one commenting system for all sections in my website has been a long pending task on my list. Previously, the blog entry section used the default WordPress comment while the other pages used my self-coded php script to handle user comments.
My initial choice was FaceBook social plugin for comments. I mean, FaceBook is THE most popular social media out there. And most people visiting my site would surely logged in their FB account in one of their other browser tab. I did some research on how to integrate it into my website, and it was not too hard. Had few test pages uploaded, tested, all working smooth. Until I realized that I couldn’t find any way to import my existing comments into FB’s database. Yes the plugin is simple to use and beautiful, but I have to start from zero again in getting user comments.
Then my wife suggested Disqus. When she mentioned the service, I was not really aware of this option. So I did a little research and found that a lot of sites are actually using this service. On top of all, they have an importing module that allows me to import my previous comments into the new system. My WordPress comment is automatically transferred by few clicks. My comments from self-coded php script required me to create a little application to generate an XML file in Disqus General WXR format. Took me few hours to write that code, but it’s better than nothing.
My only frustration with Disqus is the fact that their importing module requires us to wait for up to 24 hours for our comments to be imported. When you are working on major website changes, you kinda want to see the result as soon as you can. Or at least I did. My first attempt of comment importing was partially successful. It worked, but not as what I expected. So I deleted the newly imported comments and repeat the import process. Guess what? Yes, another 24 hours waiting time.
After the “long” wait, I finally got my comments up. Did some tests and I believe everything should work fine. If you do find any problem with the commenting system, please do let me know.
Same, I love Disqus. Of course I don’t use WordPress either, so I don’t have as nice of a free native commenting alternative. Still, I always found Disqus ridiculously easy and provided people with a lot of choices of how they want to comment.