Should I use Disqus?

By ditom on 4 Dec 2013 at 16:46 UTC

We would like to add a blog to our drupal website and our web designer is suggesting we utilize disqus for the moderation features. Would you recommending using disqus - if so, why or why not? Are there other moderation platforms we should consider? Also, does Drupal blog modules not offer the same features that disqus offers? I'm not a techie person and am trying to decide if we should move forward with disqus. Also, what should I consider when determining if disqus is the right solution?

Comments

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WorldFallz commented 5 December 2013 at 15:34

afaik, disqus is not a website or a blog-- it's for comments. There's a drupal module to use disqus comments rather than native commenting if you prefer.

Disqus

ditom commented 6 December 2013 at 17:44

Thanks, yes I understand it's for comments only. However, I'm wondering what the benefits are for using disqus vs. the commenting features Drupal commenting features and if there are other commenting platforms I should consider over disqus.

The advantage of Disqus is

Jaypan commented 8 December 2013 at 02:39

The advantage of Disqus is that you are using a system that is made specifically for commenting, and therefore does commenting quite well. Also if users have a disqus account on another site, they will be able to use the comments on your site without creating an account on your site.

The disadvantage is that you are blending two systems together, meaning that users will need two login systems if there is anything else on the site that needs registration to use. Also, Disqus comments are loaded using javascript, so I don't think comments on your site will be indexed by the search engines, meaning you will lose out on SEO. I believe you will also need to log into a separate admin to moderate your Disqus comments, rather tahn your Drupal admin.

Personally I'm not a fan if integrating external systems into Drupal. The strength of Drupal is that you CAN do everything within it, having a single integrated system. So using an external system like Disqus seems like it's throwing away that advantage.

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VM commented 7 August 2014 at 03:47

I've been considering this

vincer commented 7 August 2014 at 02:47

I've been considering this also. The initial question is, I think, do you want to own the data - comments in your db vs Disqus' db? Than if you go the third-party route, do you also want to implement a single-sign-on with this third party?
The single sign on approach seems great from a SEO perspective. If you require authentication for commenting, SSO effectively increases your potential user base, to also include every Disqus user.
Not sure, but I think there might be additional security concerns when including SSO.

An additional afterthought, if the only reason you are allowing user accounts on your site is for commenting purposes, you'll have to spend more time dealing with spam and stuff. You can eliminate that issue by offloading to Disqus. Plus, you don't have to style anything, Disqus looks great.

Half a billion people engaged

JamieJohnson commented 9 May 2014 at 06:00

Half a billion people engaged in discussions every month with Disqus.
I think You must use Disqus for your business.

you should use disqus for

johngreenwoods commented 27 May 2014 at 10:27

you should use disqus for your website and drupal module would be good for you.

loosing the contol

jakubmrozonline commented 1 June 2018 at 10:57

I found this topic and would like to add my opinion as it was mentioned you have an external system that you don't have control over
So I believe you are losing control of having a full access to your comments and doing something cool with those like integration with Machine Learning API.

But if you have a website where you don't allow people to register (signup) then it's a good and easy solution.