Moved my 41400 Comments into Disqus

April 22, 2009 · Comments

Disqus Boy, was I freaked out about not wanting to implement a new comment system on my blog. I have over 41,000 comments here. Do you think I want to lose even one precious word you’ve written back to me over the years? No. That’s the short answer. So I have put off moving to a commenting platform for a long time.

I’ll be honest, what got me to convert was that Giannii from Disqus did the conversion for me while I squirmed and winced and looked between splayed fingers, hoping against hope that it would go okay.

And now? It’s over. I’m there. I’m on their commenting platform.

But why? WordPress has a perfectly good commenting system. The answer is two fold: flexibility and searchability. The tools allow users and me to do more with commenting, and they also make it much easier to search the comments and for the comments to be found floating out on other platforms for better discovery.

I’m excited. I’m in. I’m happy with the service and with Giannii’s (and team’s) help.

Worth a look-see.

If you enjoyed this post, please consider leaving a comment or subscribing to the feed to have future articles delivered to your feed reader.

ChrisBrogan.com runs on the Thesis Theme for WordPress

Thesis WordPress theme

Thesis is the search engine optimized WordPress theme of choice for serious online publishers. If you’re a blogger who doesn’t understand a lot of PHP, Thesis will give a ton of functionality without having to alter any code. For the advanced, Thesis has incredible customization possibilities via Thesis hooks.

With so many design options, you can use the template over and over and never have it look like the same site. The theme is robust and flexible enough not only to accommodate a site like ChrisBrogan.com, but also to enable the site to run far more efficiently than it ever has before.

  • Great move Chris. I've been using Disqus for a long time now and it only gets better with time. Daniel Ha and crew keep adding more social goodness to it like Friendfeed and twitter integration plus much much more.

    I love that I don't even have to login now to comment on here which only encourages people to comment more often. Yea, I know it doesn't take long to enter a name, password and website but every second and every click counts when you go to many blogs to comment.

    Sweet...

    Pai
  • You won't regret it. Disqus is great.
  • Guest
    Any tips for implementation?
  • I hope you got the implementation tips you were looking around!
  • Considerably, the mesothelioma article is in reality the greatest on this noteworthy topic. I agree with your conclusions and will eagerly look forward to your next acai berry updates. Saying thanks will not just be sufficient, for best weight loss pills the wonderful clarity in your writing. I will immediately grab your rss feed to stay privy of any updates. Pleasant work and much success in your business dealings!
  • Yay! Welcome to the Disqus team Chris. I've always loved their stuff (and the ability to add video comments is clutch). You won't regret it :).
  • This is great! Thanks Chris. Going to try it with my blogger account.
  • chrispund
    Wow, looks like a pretty powerful tool. I'll have to check it out! Thanks for this post Chris!
  • That is really funny Chris. I started converting my blogs to DISQUS but not the big blog yet because of the comments. But if your 41400 comments can eb moved I guess my mere 10,000 can be too.
  • kpiper
    Recently installed Disqus on my WP/Thesis Theme blog http://janes-list.com. I love it and think it will make even more folks want to comment here!
  • Looks nice. I've been looking for something different. I'm gonna check it out.
  • Wow Chris, brave man, but well done. You probably already know that I clicked on the FBConnect icon and a separate window gave me an invalid argument window.

    PS Thanks for the #hubspot seminar last night. Brilliant stuff. Trouble is it was 3am here. My eyes are like sandpaper. All the best @peterfletcher
  • I've been using it for a while it is a great way to allow the commenters on your site to manage their presence and connect all of the content they love. We have the power!
  • Chris, Did you have any concerns about switching to a hosted comment service? Have you seen any performance issues?
  • I haven't seen any performance issues, no. I'm pretty happy overall with everything. I get really high volumes of traffic some days. Today isn't one of them, so I'll keep you posted. : )
  • gerardmclean
    I dunno about putting data like this on third-party systems. Because the comments are in a MySQL table, if you needed to do some heavier lifting than WordPress can do like searching, a little bit of Perl or PHP would get you there.. and you would always have the data in house.

    Also, when a third party has your fan data, you may or may not then have full control over it. (Disqus, I am a fan of Chris Brogan, not you, so please send me nothing.. no offense.)

    Scroll bars on the comment entry form.. kinda a pain for the user.... screenshot at http://rufus.posterous.com/comment-screen-at-ch... in case you want to see the mess.

    Just our preference for doing things I guess.

    Anyway, my last comment on chrisbrogan.com I'm just reading for here on. Too much of a hassle.
  • Hola,

    Actually, the comments are all backed up locally so nothing is lost. We care about your control.

    About the screenshot... seems like a browser abnormality. Which browser are you using?
  • gerardmclean
    Safari 4.0 in beta, but still...
  • I use Safari 4. Shouldn't be an issue -- try a hard refresh if anything.
  • That is really funny Chris. I started converting my blogs to DISQUS but not the big blog yet because of the comments. But if your 41400 comments can eb moved I guess my mere 10,000 can be too.
  • I've been enjoying Disqus on my blog for a few months now. I noticed it on Jason Falls' Social Media Explorer and I checked it out. I think you will be very pleased with it.

    BTW, great job today on the Hubsot webinar. Even though you misspelled Disqus in the slides :-)
  • Thanks for this Chris. I've moved over to this on my blog too
    www.cooper-taylor.com/blog
    Went in real easy, it's importing my comments as I write.
    BTW sorry to have missed you in Wellington. They wouldn't agree to doing half days, and the conference was way too expensive for education folk like me :-(
  • Welcome to Disqus, Chris! I agree, it is the best application for comments, they are constantly improving....
  • I was wondering when you were going to switch. What are your thoughts on their latest feature, Social Media Reactions? Are you planning to add this to your display?
    http://blog.disqus.net/2009/04/02/social-media-...
  • This is on my to-do list for the blog (working on the slow redesign process now). Thanks Chris, this is a good nudge to move faster.
  • AnaRC
    I totally understand! it's so hard to change. You made the right move and I should do the same!
  • Congrats - looks like it went smoothly
  • Well, this certainly makes things easier for me to comment on your blog. Thank you for the change.

    Brian
    cleverwebtech.com
  • Ok, so I've been umming and ah-ing about doing this for ages now..

    If you can do it, anyone can ;)
  • 41,000 comments - wow. I'm sure you were nervous.

    Disqus is a great system. Congrats on the successful transition.
  • As a commenter, I like using Disqus; glad you made the move.
  • // MESSAGE ERROR: COMMENT NOT FOUND
    ...

    But seriously, awesome that you were able to switch. Now I even must consider whether to comment or not if a blog isn't using Disqus.
  • JB
    I am so impressed with Disqus. I have it on all 10+ of my blogs. Great move Chris
    All the best

    JB
  • I like to use DISQUS for my Tumblr blogs. It turns Tumbr into a much more useful and and two way conversation platform.

    @jaypiddy
  • pocketberry
    disqus is amazing, i use it myself and im happy to see you are as well! were big fans of ur site here at pocketberry.com thanks chris!
  • even ill give ut a try ...thanx...
  • love disqus. so much better then any other system I have used. No regrets so far.
  • Wow, more than 41000 comments moved? I'm impressed. Bud now you will feel the power of the disqus comment system. I will never back to an basic comment platform.
  • Thanks for this great information!

    Greetings from BPled
  • Hola Chris, you do a first class job with everything, including the new comments system. I have learned a lot by following you, and will probably follow you to Disqus. Thanks.
  • Interesting. Should you decide X months from now to switch to a different commenting system, all things being equal, will Disqus allow you the same flexibility to move out of it as moving into it? Daniel, can you shed any light here?

    I've been toying with a Disqus system on my blog; but am content with the Wordpress Thread Comments plugin I use (since Thesis and WP's in-house threaded view don't work well): http://blog.2i2j.com/plugins/wordpress-thread-c...
  • Hey Ari,
    Speaking for Daniel...yup. Super easy to export your comments and switch in or out as you wish. Google 'disqus wordpress plugin' if you want to give it a whirl and feel free to give a holler if you need a hand with either: help at disqus, twitter/disqus.
    -Ro (from Disqus)
  • i think the tracking system is powerful thing in disqus
  • Congrats ! : )
  • Disqus is an exceptional comment management platform .
  • Thanks for the nudge, Chris. I just set up my blog to use Disqus, though I didn't convert old comments as you did (not having more than a handful on a pretty young blog). So far, so good!
  • Moving my comments into Disqus was quite easy. Giannii's team rocks. Always adding new stuff and making improvements.
  • I moved to Disqus a couple months ago when you mentioned it (I think in relation to your dad's poker blog?) and have been really happy with both the product and the customer service.

    And yes, that pereod of time when all your comments are gone for awhile as the transfer happens are scary. lol
  • After reading your announcement I decided to finally get on Disqus as well. It has good reviews - even in the comments here. Leo over at Twit also speaks high of them. I had trouble importing the comments - but the support team at Disqus helped a lot.
  • Chris Brogan, I also like the features on Disqus comments like letting a comment be a tweet on Twitter instantly. Added Disqus on my blog 9 months ago and don't think will switch back to google's comment system anytime soon.
  • Disqus rocks ! I love their commenting system ...
  • Congratulation !
  • I think that disqus is great option for us...........
  • I'm new to the world of blogging. The comments and this article in particular helps me a lot in understanding what is going on including better platforms to use.
  • Disqus is one of the best comment options for wordpress. I use it on a lot of my blogs, I am sure you will love it.
  • branorac
    But problem is I cant move my 2000 comments. At Advanced page i see only Error status message.
  • After reading this article almost a month ago I went back to read it again and decided to make the move, why not? I have no more than 50 comments. I sign up and installed it on both of my blogs this morning with no problems at all!.

    I'm starting to discover the possibilities and the nice things you can do now with it, and I'm 100% with "paisano" regarding that having now an account in Disqus encouraged me to post my first comment on your blog!, imagine now the rest of the blogs with Disqus!

    I love it!, thanks again for another amazing article, down to earth to that a lot of people understand it.
  • Chris, great that you have moved to www.disqus.com; that makes it even more convincing for the community I am working for at this moment: http://www.ambtenaar20.nl, the largest web 2.0 community for civil servants.

    I have recently migrated it to the Thesis template, and made a tighter integration with the corresponding http://ambtenaar20.ning.com community site.

    The next step is moving to http://www.disqus.com, Disqus.com is still not that widely used in the Netherlands; but I think this will change this year.

    All the best, kind regards,

    Jeroen de Miranda
  • Was a good read. I'll be back for more.
  • Your experience will make me think about using disqus for my blog... Thanks !
  • 9450203288
    Towbars -Towbars.
  • 9450203288
    Free Public Records Online -Search from your home or office to discover the truth about anyone. Public records provide detailed and valuable information that can help you decide if you want to hire a person, continue dating someone or confront them about a criminal records.
  • Mark
    Thats why all are changing to disqus nowadays..Recently i read an article whose author told if Google buys Disqus it will be good..
    online education
  • How do I implement disqus on my site, how do I install it? through server or through page or something?
  • How can you do that, can you share the tool?
  • Great post
    Thanks
  • Yes I agree, Disqus is a really great tool. I am really happy to see that your switch went well!
  • Yeah !
    Enjoy with your all 41400 comments................ :D
  • Different point of view from that post. Interesting to say the least.
  • Glad that the transition went smoothly. I would be apprehensive too! 41,000+ comments is a ton!
  • long live disqus!
  • creation site internet marrakech
    You have good done to move your comment to disqus it's a very powerfull keep informing.
  • Wow that was quite an achievement, having all those comments just means that your a good blogger, people love your work dearly
  • Disqus is really cool.. I can manage all my comments even in the past..
  • This is quite impressive, I am pleased to read this post, keep posts like this coming, you totally rock!
    Cheers,
    Buat Duit Internet
  • seolinkpro
    good move.
  • I've been enjoying Disqus on my blog for a few months now. I noticed it on Jason Falls' Social Media Explorer and I checked it out. I think you will be very pleased with it.
  • degreemaster
    If you need a good job you need a good education. Get your college degree at http://www.mykio.co.uk/degree.html
  • Nice looking blog, great use of thesis.

    I've been using Disqus for a while now, very happy with it

    Tom
  • if the guests are not Disqus account,how to move they comments?
  • I'm using this Disqus Comments tool also, its really easy and customized, i loved it! Nice tools for blogger, especially it has a signed "D" hahaha ^_^ Cheeerrs!
  • freedatinglondon
    Nice blog made good reading




    Free dating london, dating london

    http://www.freedatinglondon.net
  • nice share, great article, very usefull for us...thank you
    Stop Dreaming Start Action
    Alnect computer
  • excellent blog
  • hi
  • good decision sir. I also moved to disqus from a certain blog hosting site. Now i'm enjoying the benefits of disqus because I'm an SEO.
  • this powerfull blog, nice share and imformation ...thank
    Stop Dreaming Start Action
    Rusli Zainal Sang Visioner
  • I started converting my blogs to DISQUS but not the big blog yet because of the comments. But if your 41400 comments can eb moved I guess my mere 10,000 can be too.
  • nice post, thanks for sharing
  • What I can say is very nice and helpful as well as informative post...really help me very much more!! Thanks..
    Cheers,
  • Seems like a good decision. I've noticed some downtime once in a while but they're pushing the product forward quite nicely. Lots of movement in this space recently and several acquisitions.
  • really disqus is a wonderful comment system,,,,,, nice article,,, Best Weight Loss Pills
  • Disgus is really helpful plugin for commenting on blog
  • That was a good decision, disqus owns!
  • Discountwatches
    Disqus is great !

    nice blog, thanks for the post.
  • you won't regret it..
  • bestcbstore
    Fat loss is more than just diet and exercise. Diet and exercise are not enough if your body is not set up for weight loss. Fat Is Not Your Fault covers the many reasons people cannot lose weight.
  • Logodesignservice
    Wow ... this is a great blog! Pretty informative as well! That has really helped me a lot in learning some of this stuff that I wasn't familiar with.

    Logo Design
  • It looks great! I am definitely going to give Disqus a try. Thanks!
blog comments powered by Disqus

Previous post:

Next post: