I had started blogging with Blogger (Blogspot) before I switched to WordPress. Ever since switching, I realized how much I disliked Blogger’s commenting system.
Until recently, it didn’t even have avatars. There is no way for bloggers to personally contact the commenter as no option provides a user’s email.
In addition, many users don’t take advantage of embedding comments under the posts, so the Post a Comment button takes you to a strange page on blogger.com. See this post from Google Operating System.
Blogger Comments Form
Blogger comments are a lot less likely to receive spam compared to WordPress because Blogger comes with built in CAPTCHA protection. Many people including myself find CAPTCHA extremely irritating sometimes which may discourage users from leaving comments. Akismet does the job of filtering spam while not annoying users through wavy text.
First time commenters on Blogger may have made their first and last comment ever because of the long process.
There is no interface to view comments or edit anything inappropriate out. Its either Publish or Reject and then the comments get published (or rejected). There is no interface like WordPress to view a list of all comments and modify them if needed.
Well enough talking about what I dislike about Blogger’s commenting system, its time for a change! Here are 2 great alternatives you could try while the Blogger team works on a better system (I hope). The following are not limited to Blogger. They work on any platform or site supporting Javascript.
- Social Media Reactions: Shows links and reactions about posts from the social media such as Twitter and Digg
- Trackbacks
- OpenID Sign-in, Twitter Sign-in, Facebook Connect, and Yahoo! Sign-in as well as Disqus Sign-in and comment as Guest.
- Video Comments
- Akismet Spam Protection
- Automated Installation for platforms such as WordPress and Blogger.
- Import existing comments
- Widgets such as Popular Posts and Top Commenters
- Like buttons for comments
- Blacklisting users
- Email Notifications
- Universal Disqus Profiles
DISQUS Comments Demo: A demo of DISQUS is available on the DISQUS home page.
IntenseDebate
- Automated Install for Blogger, WordPress, tumblr, and TypePad.
- Full Gravatar Support
- Facebook Connect, Twitter Sign-in, OpenID, IntenseDebate Sign-in, and Guest Commenting
- Plugin API, such as Video comments, PollDaddy, and much more.
- Reputation Voting
- Moderation/Blacklisting
- Email Notifications
- Comment Threading
- Blog widgets like Comment Counts, Recent Comments, and more
- Akismet Spam Protection
- Universal IntenseDebate Profiles
IntenseDebate currently owned by Automattic, the company behind WordPress, WordPress.com, Akismet, and PollDaddy.
IntenseDebate Demo: A demo of IntenseDebate is available on the IntenseDebate Blog.
Another option is JS-Kit ECHO, however it appears they have removed the free version. A demo of JS-Kit ECHO is available at their website home page.
All of the above alternative commenting systems are pure Javascript and is very easy to implement to Blogger, WordPress, and any platform that supports Javascript.
Are you a Blogger user? What do you think of the current commenting system? Have you tried any of the above? Leave your thoughts in the comments.
I currently use Haloscan and HATE it! But laziness and paranoia have prevented me from switching to anything else. The customer service for Haloscan, while responsive, has nothing to offer, really. I was supposed to be automatically switched to JS-Kit without losing any of my comments and that’s been delayed for MONTHS! I can’t decide between Disqus or just going back to the default commenting system. The biggest thing that drives me nuts is that Haloscan does not tell you which post the incoming comments are from. I guess I’ll go investigate Disqus. Again.
Thanks for this post!
Margaret (Nanny Goats)´s last blog ..Goat Thing of the Day: Leavenworth
Hi Margaret. Thanks for visiting.
For Blogger, personally, I would use Disqus over the default commenting system but its all up to you and personal preference.