Gadgetell | Tech News, Reviews, and Interesting Things

Once again, the Web works its magic in mysterious ways. I had just completed posting a comment on a favorite blog - and yes, I signed my real name - when I read about a discussion at a Digital Hollywood conference that focused on Internet comments.

The man in charge of the Washington Post’s online division told the audience he’d like to see technology ride to the rescue to get rid of trolls and flame-throwing commenters on the newspaper’s blogs. Jim Brady was describing the aftermath of what happened two years ago when the newspaper’s ombudsman erred on a political story. Hundreds of commenters high on conspiracy theory fumes blasted the website, and many were very nasty, so Brady shut down all comments. The resulting furor made its way to other websites and forums, and many there accused him of trampling on free speech.

On the contrary, says Brady. He just wants a civil discussion, and anonymity doesn’t help the cause. Maybe some form of identity authorization - credit cards? drivers licenses? - would do the trick, he argued:

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Sections: Web, Websites

It seems these days with every new and old web service everything is going social.  You have social networks, social bookmarking and of course you have very social services like Twitter.  So with that said what about blog comments, can you make those social?

Enter Disqus (Pronounced like Discuss) and now comments on your blog or comments you put on a blog become part of the social web themselves and give them a life of their own.  Some of the features that highlight Disqus are threaded conversations, posting via email or even mobile, profile that is used on all the blogs you use that use Disqus, the ability to track comment discussions, and of course everyone’s favorites these days widgets!

Are you a blogger and wonder if this type of blogging will work with your blogging platform of choice?  It probably will as Disqus integrates and works with Wordpress, Movable Types, Blogger, Tumblr, and TypePad. As for installation I have found it to be a piece of cake and the support for those who might need it is top notch from others I have talked to.

So make sure to check out Disqus if you are a blogger or non-blogger and socialize your comments.

Read [Disqus]

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Sections: Web, Web 2.0, Websites