We have switched our comments system over to Disqus, a third-party comments host that supports logging in with Facebook, Twitter, and other services. Users can still post “anonymously” with the name of their choosing.

Disqus brings some unique features to the table. For example, commenters can now have avatars to show their faces. My favorite feature is that commenters can “like” comments and commenters with a Disqus account will now be able to edit their comments after posting.

One change we’re making is that instead of comments nesting deeply, they will only be able to nest one level deep, like comments on your Facebook wall. The goal is to make it so conversations are easier to follow and we hope that the commenting culture changes slightly to create new threads rather than having a deep reply chain. We hope to simplify things without hurting the ability to have the hardcore, nerdy conversations that make our comments work so well.

With change, there will always be kinks to work out. Please give our new comments system a chance and let us know what you think in this thread.

Update: We made it so the default sort order ignores “likes.”

12 Replies to “Changes to the Comments System”

  1. I had to disable a feature to get performance to be acceptable. Everything should be better now.

  2. Testing, testing. Seems to be working fine for me now.

    The “0 reactions” bit on the homepage is kinda distracting, though.

  3. One problem with this lack of nesting is that I can’t say “John, what feature did you disable to make it somewhat usable?” I could start a new thread or just type it here and have it get lost among replies, neither of which makes it easy or noticeable to John.

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