I was reading a post today over at the Broadstuff blog written by Alan Patrick where he was discussing an earlier post by Fred Wilson about comment fragmentation – which is becoming one of the more hot topics out there in the blogosphere. Again the main culprit for this fragmentation is FriendFeed because of our ability to comment about someone’s post there instead of on the actual blog. The feeling is that this is breaking down the lines of conversation and taking the originating site out of the loop.
The other culprit that some folks like to point fingers at as well is Disqus which is third party commenting platform that a growing number of bloggers are using. The reason being here is that the comments are basically on the Disqus servers and out of the bloggers control and when combined with FriendFeed (Disqus is one of the services that FriendFeed lets you pull in) whole conversations can take place without having to go anywhere near the originating blog.
Well the obvious solution right off the bat here is for Disqus to add write back abilities to their API so that any comments added in FriendFeed to the Disqus thread there would also show up on the blog. Now I know that they are working on adding this ability but I don’t think it can come soon enough personally.
However there is one idea that as wacky as it might sound could be a partial solution to this comment fragmentation but only really if you were running Wordpress. Yup .. that’s my suggestion Wordpress should acquire Disqus and make it an integral part of the Wordpress installation; both on Wordpress.com and self-hosted installations.
Now before you fall to the floor laughing at this crazy old fart think it through for a moment. The reason I suggest Disqus over its competitors is that it is drop dead simple to use which is in keeping with the whole idea of Wordpress. Disqus already has an available API and only needs to add the write back capabilities into it and all kinds of social type sites would be able to hook into it – which opens up all kinds of possibilities I am sure.
Doing this would also solve the problem of our comments not being on our own blogs along with cutting down on a lot of the comment fragmentation that is going on. This could work as well with IntenseDebate but their comment interface is a lot more complicated that the one from Disqus and may prove difficult to integrate into a Wordpress code base as it goes against the simplicity of Wordpress. It wouldn’t work with sezWho as far as I can tell because their product just sits on top of the existing Wordpress comment system and besides like they said today they are more interested in the reputation angle of comment makers.
So yes this is a completely wacky idea I don’t deny it but a lot stranger ideas have taken hold and actually happened – why not this one?
Disqus, FriendFeed, FF2Disqus – the problems they show us
Steven, it's not so wacky at all, Wordpress acquisition suggestions aside. As you were writing this, I was writing http://tinyurl.com/6zqkwu (Disqus' Partner Strategy: Is FriendFeed Integration Up Next?)
Paul Buchheit said in one of his comments today that he's already reached out to the Disqus team. That doesn't mean Disqus was receptive, or that talks are ongoing or anything… or that a release is imminent… but it's something. So we know they're looking at this, and I hope it happens. Not every comment on FriendFeed is relevant and not every blog uses Disqus, but this would be a powerful combo that I personally would like a lot.
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I also noticed at some point today Daniel mentioning we would be seeing an update to the Disqus plugin soon … could be some goodies coming our way maybe.
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Good one Steven – I've wondered if Wordpress could create a Disqus killer (http://tinyurl.com/5cmq43). Maybe a Disqus acquisition is the way to go?
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[...] (or anyone else) can see them all in one place if I want to do that. Steven Hodson thinks Wordpress should buy Disqus, and Broadstuff has some thoughts too. function fbs_click() [...]
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I also noticed at some point today Daniel mentioning we would be seeing an update to the Disqus plugin soon … could be some goodies coming our way maybe.
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Steven,
This is Jitendra from SezWho…Let me clarify our position.
We believe that distributed conversations is more and more becoming a fact of web life…even the biggest sites do not control the conversation they instigate…so Its really important to accept the fact that no one platform or site is ever going to control the conversation.
In such a world, solutions that force aggregate content to one site are not going to succeed…instead a meta user-based aggregation approach (kinda like Google does with Search) is needed. This is indeed what Sezwho is focussed on…And similar to page rank a notion of reputation and context is important to figure out the signal from the noise.
thanks, Jitendra
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Hey guys, just a note: our API does have a write-back method. The docs are online but not public just yet. It's being used/tested by some services.
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Excellent to hear Daniel. Looking forward to seeing what is coming.
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The internet is cool
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Steven,
This is Jitendra from SezWho…Let me clarify our position.
We believe that distributed conversations is more and more becoming a fact of web life…even the biggest sites do not control the conversation they instigate…so Its really important to accept the fact that no one platform or site is ever going to control the conversation.
In such a world, solutions that force aggregate content to one site are not going to succeed…instead a meta user-based aggregation approach (kinda like Google does with Search) is needed. This is indeed what Sezwho is focussed on…And similar to page rank a notion of reputation and context is important to figure out the signal from the noise.
thanks, Jitendra
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Excellent to hear Daniel. Looking forward to seeing what is coming.
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The internet is cool
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I dont agree on WordPress acquisition of DISQUS (and SezWho). Being tied to one blog platform will only spell doom and non-ignorable bias. They are better off as neutral webapps, that way their concentration is balanced.
I use b2evolution and Blogger/BlogSpot. I also have 1 MT blog (mainly for testing currently). Keep the balance. Keep the freedom of choice open. We all know what acquisitions can do, they'll start developing and prioritizing the services of the company that bought them regardless of what they say.
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Solid idea but please not Automattic, we need to keep this platform agnostic.
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Solid idea but please not Automattic, we need to keep this platform agnostic.
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[...] more, check out Steve Hodson, who suggests that Wordpress should acquired Disqus, which is attracting a growing number of [...]
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Hi Steve,
A very valid and timely post I must say. I have been working for another comment entity JS-Kit for some time now, and to be honest we have been a little curious about Dan's contentions of late. I tested and reviewed Disqus and talked to Dan back when it was launched – found it to be a great innovation back then. The problem then was how was this thing going to be monetized? Also, we were concerned about data or content not resident on the publisher's site even then. Dan did not have all the answers then obviously because it was so new.
Dan has three problems that he does not seem to want to address. He accused Kit and me of dogging him accross the Web after he retreated to Twitter yesterday. Well, my name is tied to his innovation in a way and the people at JS-Kit have operated with complete transparency in making and deploying their elements. So, yeah, I am going to go every place Dan goes and make sure that people are not duped into thinking that magically somehow their SEO and user comments are going to magically reappear when they need them.
Dan should reveal the monetization model for Disqus – People want transparency and this is a good PR move to show crediblity.
Dan should explain that their way of feeding the HTML back to the resident site from a file on their domain will be very slow if it works at all.
Dan should also just explain how the Disqus site will get SEO benefit from every scraped scrap of user content a publishers allows him to gather. Also, that if a publisher wants these comments back …it will be all but impossible.
I liked Dan and Disqus if anyone cares to read the article I wrote on Profy about them. I predicted that they would out class even JS-KIt in the end if they develpped properly. But, here we are going crazy over a comment system that barely has 4000 sites when KIT has tens of thousands and is as good or better in many respects. Just making people aware that a smiling car salesman grin usually dennotes a car salesman under it.
Always,
Phil Butler
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Hi Steve,
A very valid and timely post I must say. I have been working for another comment entity JS-Kit for some time now, and to be honest we have been a little curious about Dan's contentions of late. I tested and reviewed Disqus and talked to Dan back when it was launched – found it to be a great innovation back then. The problem then was how was this thing going to be monetized? Also, we were concerned about data or content not resident on the publisher's site even then. Dan did not have all the answers then obviously because it was so new.
Dan has three problems that he does not seem to want to address. He accused Kit and me of dogging him accross the Web after he retreated to Twitter yesterday. Well, my name is tied to his innovation in a way and the people at JS-Kit have operated with complete transparency in making and deploying their elements. So, yeah, I am going to go every place Dan goes and make sure that people are not duped into thinking that magically somehow their SEO and user comments are going to magically reappear when they need them.
Dan should reveal the monetization model for Disqus – People want transparency and this is a good PR move to show crediblity.
Dan should explain that their way of feeding the HTML back to the resident site from a file on their domain will be very slow if it works at all.
Dan should also just explain how the Disqus site will get SEO benefit from every scraped scrap of user content a publishers allows him to gather. Also, that if a publisher wants these comments back …it will be all but impossible.
I liked Dan and Disqus if anyone cares to read the article I wrote on Profy about them. I predicted that they would out class even JS-KIt in the end if they develpped properly. But, here we are going crazy over a comment system that barely has 4000 sites when KIT has tens of thousands and is as good or better in many respects. Just making people aware that a smiling car salesman grin usually dennotes a car salesman under it.
Always,
Phil Butler
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Towards One Web Community…
I am a Community fanatic. I believe in the power of the Community and the benefits we can reap from being a Community. We human beings are community-oriented and community-minded beings by nature, hence, we say “No man is an Island”. If you do not…
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Hi,
Yes, your idea is wacky, on two fronts:
1) There are 10's of millions of blogs and WordPress is one of many very large platforms [TypePad, Blogger, Ning, etc]. So it *is* wacky to suggest that one platform can aggregate content spread across all CMS platforms.
2) Disqus has some 10,000 blogs which represents .0001 percent of the market … a unifying platform? wacky….
I am with JS-Kit, and we provide Comments, Ratings, and Polls for blogs and have over 65,000 sites. We are 6X as big and are not so naive as to suggest that we could consolidate 100M+ blogs.
Think open standards and cross platform data exchange — not wacky.
Be Well,
Khris Loux, CEO
JS-Kit
http://js-kit.com
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Hi,
Yes, your idea is wacky, on two fronts:
1) There are 10's of millions of blogs and WordPress is one of many very large platforms [TypePad, Blogger, Ning, etc]. So it *is* wacky to suggest that one platform can aggregate content spread across all CMS platforms.
2) Disqus has some 10,000 blogs which represents .0001 percent of the market … a unifying platform? wacky….
I am with JS-Kit, and we provide Comments, Ratings, and Polls for blogs and have over 65,000 sites. We are 6X as big and are not so naive as to suggest that we could consolidate 100M+ blogs.
Think open standards and cross platform data exchange — not wacky.
Be Well,
Khris Loux, CEO
JS-Kit
http://js-kit.com
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[...] Gupta Speaks on Tejit Buy Disqus’ Partner Strategy: Is FriendFeed Integration Up Next? Just a wacky idea Web Discussions: Leaving the Instigator Out Add your Disqus profile on FriendFeed How do bloggers [...]
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Looks like you weren't too far off, but it's IntenseDebate they've bought rather than Disqus http://www.intensedebate.com/blog/2008/09/23/au... Sounds like it'll be interesting though
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Looks like you weren't too far off, but it's IntenseDebate they've bought rather than Disqus http://www.intensedebate.com/blog/2008/09/23/au... Sounds like it'll be interesting though
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and they call me a crazy cranky old fart .. so far my crystal ball has been
doing a pretty good job
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and they call me a crazy cranky old fart .. so far my crystal ball has been
doing a pretty good job
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You got a nice blog up there.
regards
leabs
______________________________________________
Aion Powerleveling | aion kinha
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