Hooniverse Housekeeping: Time for a new comment system?

Jeff Glucker

/comment

Comments

Hooniverse used to be powered by the Intense Debate comment system. It worked well for a while. And then it stopped working well. So we moved to Disqus. That platform is used all over the Internet and it’s familiar. The problem is that it’s also a rather heavy load on our system, isn’t talking nicely on the backend, and I’m tired of dealing with it. Also, I recently found out that it sells user data. So hey, that’s fun, right?!

So that’s why I’m exploring new comment system options. If you have any favorites, I’d love to hear them. But at the moment, my leading candidate is a quasi in-house built (WordPress, in-house, not Hooniverse… holy shit, that would be a terrible system) called WPDizcuz.

I’m sharing this info with you because you, the readers, matter a lot to us. So I’d like to keep you all happy. Circling back, if you have a preferred system you’ve seen work well on other sites, let us know. Otherwise, standby soon for the system I mentioned above.

Okay, back off broken websites and back on to broken cars!

About

Jeff Glucker

Jeff Glucker

Jeff Glucker is the co-founder and Executive Editor of Hooniverse.com. He’s often seen getting passed as he hustles a 1991 Mitsubishi Montero up the 405 Freeway. IG: @HooniverseJeff

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

The maximum upload file size: 64 MB. You can upload: image, audio, video. Links to YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and other services inserted in the comment text will be automatically embedded. Drop files here

23 responses to “Hooniverse Housekeeping: Time for a new comment system?”

  1. mdharrell Avatar
    mdharrell

    I’ve found Disqus to be increasingly problematic over the course of the last year or more, throughout pretty much every aspect of attempting to make comments all the way from trying to log into it through trying to log out of it. I would not be sorry to see it go.

    Reply
    1. Sjalabais Avatar
      Sjalabais

      I see several people have issues. 9 out of 10 times, I visit here from an office or…eh…porcelain chair using my phone. The Opera browser on Ændroid handles Disqus just fine and as intended. I had issues earlier, too, but those have been resolved. Hooniverse is one of less than a handfull of sites I use without an adblocker, too.

      Reply
  2. mdharrell Avatar
    mdharrell

    “(WordPress, in-house, not Hooniverse… holy shit, that would be a terrible system)”

    I imagine this would come down to just letting any and all random passersby have full access to editing the content of every article themselves until either a consensus is reached or everyone gets distracted by something else. Either that or every comment would have to be emailed directly to Jeff for vetting and batch-mode posting once a week or so. Maybe both: A free-for-all on the articles combined with a near-total lockdown on comments to those articles. That way everyone’s happy.

    Reply
  3. Batshitbox Avatar
    Batshitbox

    Well, if it comes down to it, I’ll cast the tie-breaking vote.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/7aa93a02608175ab97273afe8e68bbc05f6b1975d58bce4e700f704800517edd.jpg

    Reply
  4. 0A5599 Avatar
    0A5599

    Hopefully, fixing the comments won’t break the old ones, like Disqus did.

    As far as commenting systems, look into Updoc.

    Reply
  5. wunno sev Avatar
    wunno sev

    did you try changing out the Disqus cam sensor, Jeff? doesn’t always throw a code but a lot of the time it’s the cam sensor

    Reply
    1. crank_case Avatar
      crank_case

      It’s got a faulty crank sensor too by the look of who it lets in here.

      Reply
  6. Lokki Avatar
    Lokki

    I personally will be glad to see Disqus tossed. Nothing ai can do keeps me signed in between pages so it’s a constant sign in sign in, sign in exercise. Then even though I am signed in I usually cannot post a picture; Disqus says I cannot post one because I am I am not signed in. Bah. There have been quite a few time that I did not comment because Disqus make it more trouble than it was worth. I admit, some people might see that as a positive….

    Reply
  7. Fuhrman16 Avatar
    Fuhrman16

    So…is this the new comment style you were talking about?

    Reply
    1. Jeff Glucker Avatar
      Jeff Glucker

      No, this is the static WP comment system. Im trying to fix the one I uploaded, as it’s not letting guests comment for some reason.

      Reply
      1. Sjalabaisen Avatar
        Sjalabaisen

        I had only tried this on mobile, but hadn’t figured out how to log in or create a new user in WPDiscuz. Made me feel old. 😛

        Reply
  8. Jeff Glucker Avatar
    Jeff Glucker

    Testing…

    Reply
  9. Sjalabaisen Avatar
    Sjalabaisen

    Looks like this new comment system opened up now?
    https://thumbs.gfycat.com/EarnestPracticalArabianoryx-max-1mb.gif
    Why does it say “Editor” next to my avatar?

    Reply
  10. dougschaefer Avatar
    dougschaefer

    [The commentor formerly known as salguod is now DougSchaefer]

    Kinda bummed to lose my username (evidently some other Doug grabbed salguod at WordPress.com) but I like it so far.

    Let’s see how it handles image uploads.

    Reply
    1. RoadworkUK Avatar
      RoadworkUK

      I never twigged that Salguod was Douglas backwards. Anyway, hello Backwards Douglas.

      Reply
      1. Backrooms Game Avatar
        Backrooms Game

        I had no idea that Salguod was really Douglas spelt backwards until just now.

        Reply
  11. bubble shooter Avatar
    bubble shooter

    I would like to share here with you some data that I found and maybe have some clarification. Thanks in advance

    Reply
  12. bubble shooter Avatar
    bubble shooter

    This is an excellent article. This is, in my opinion, one of the best posts ever written. Your work is excellent and inspiring. Thank you very much.

    Reply
  13. subway surfers Avatar
    subway surfers

    I have read a lot of good articles, but yours had the most impact on me. Thanks for this post

    Reply
  14. quordle Avatar
    quordle

    Thank you for writing such an intriguing post; as a result of it, I’ve learned a lot more about life.

    Reply
  15. wordle unlimited Avatar
    wordle unlimited

    This post contains many helful information for me.

    Reply
  16. chaseindiscreet Avatar
    chaseindiscreet

    That’s why I’m looking at other commenting systems. I’d be very interested in hearing your preferred examples. But for now, I’m leaning toward a platform called WPDizcuz, which drift hunters was developed in-house (but not on WordPress, because holy crap, that would be an awful system).

    Reply
    1. heardle Avatar
      heardle

      If you want a daily dose of nostalgia, Heardle 80s is the way to go. It’s like reliving the ’80s one iconic riff at a time.

      Reply