Comments on Tumblr, real actual comments with threads and all

[unjapanologist]

There's a way to install comments functionality on a tumblr! I was working on the upcoming reboot of the good old Symposium blog today, and since the commenting system there seemed a bit clunky, I decided to try out Disqus. Disqus is a free commenting service widely used on blogs that lets people comment with their Twitter, Facebook, Google, and Disqus accounts. I've used it elsewhere, but until I visited its website today, I had no idea that Disqus can also be installed on individual tumblrs.

I've been trying it out with our group tumblr that shall not be named, and it seems to work pretty well. I'm ridiculously excited about finally being able to comment in public on the beautiful things my esteemed colleagues post. Tumblr is fun and all, but we always end up turning to mail for leisurely gushing and discussion, and it always feels like such a shame to separate feedback from a work.

Installing the commenting system on a tumblr is easy: log in or make an account at disqus.com, then follow the instructions on how to register a tumblr and add the commenting system to the tumblr's preferences. Here's a how-to with pictures. Here's the basic commenting FAQ from Disqus' website, and some more questions.

Good/normal things:

• Disqus sends e-mail notifications when someone replies to a Tumblr post or to another comment. (The commenting system is managed through your Disqus account, not through Tumblr, so comment notifications don't show up in the Tumblr dashboard.)
• Comments are threaded.
• You can subscribe to threads via e-mail or RSS.
• Editing comments is possible.
• As is up- and downvoting, and starring posts. These features are native to Disqus.
• Comments get individual links.
• The owner of the Disqus account on which the installation runs, presumably the owner of the Tumblr, gets an easily recognizable "mod" label next to their comments.
• Disqus shows two tabs under each post, "Discussion" (default) and "Community". Clicking "Community" gives you a sort of overview of discussions and commenters on your tumblr, which is cool.
• You can apparently upload or drag and drop images into a comment (2MB max). Links to Flickr will embed an image, and links to YouTube will embed the video. The image uploading worked great for me in Firefox but not at all in Chrome, and I haven’t figured out why.

There's some serious rough spots that don't make this a great alternative for a native commenting system (although the native commenting system suffers from the fatal flaw of not existing).

• Installing this only allows comments on one tumblr, it obviously doesn't let you comment on tumblrs that don't have Disqus installed. Many people would probably have to install Disqus before it turns really useful for fannish community-building - it’s hardly an instant LJ replacement for those who miss that space.
• To post a comment, you need to log in via Disqus, which is only posible through a Twitter, Facebook, Google, or Disqus account. Not your actual tumblr account. You can create a Disqus account straight from the comments, but still, it's a bother.
• There's some not-so-obvious weird things. For instance, removing/anonymizing or editing comments is possible if they were posted by a registered Disqus commenter, but people who logged in via a third-party service like Twitter need to contact a mod.

We've survived worse confusion and inconvenience than this, though. For crotchety old people who want Tumblr to work more like forums/DW/LJ/whatever *raises hand*, it's definitely better than no commenting functionality at all. I'll update this post if more pros and cons emerge. This entry was originally posted at http://unjapanologist.dreamwidth.org/61653.html. Please comment there using OpenID.