Today marks a very remarkable and sad day in Disqus history, as well as my personal history with Disqus (which will be explained later). Before I get onto my personal feelings about the classic Disqus going away, I shall cover the news of what has happened today first.
Today, all websites with the Disqus commenting system installed that have not switched to the latest version of Disqus (called "Disqus 2012" back in the day when it was in beta; now just called the "new Disqus") has been automatically upgraded to the new Disqus. Techman's World and I myself has been using Disqus 2012 ever since it was released to the public (at least for websites to use; during the private beta only select commenters such as myself got to use it).
Although a little late to announcing this, if you have a website that you are associated with still using the classic Disqus (basically, any version of Disqus that you do not see here) you should have gotten an email explaining that Disqus will permanently discontinue the classic Disqus, putting an end to the dated product.
All forums on October 15 will be automatically upgrade. Right now I do not know if specific partnerships are exempt from this, but based on a conversation that I had with one of the Disqus developers, it does not appear so. However, like said I can't confirm this 100%.
About a day or so ago Disqus released a slight, but noticeable change to their new profiles feature in Disqus 2012. In addition to the profiles feature displaying comments, followers, and who the person is following, the new profile will also show how many up-votes (or likes) a user has.
On the Disqus blog post about the new profile views that has recently been added to the embed, many users have complained and begged Disqus for a feature that would allow users to restrict who gets to follow them, block users, and allow them to set their profiles to private entirely.
On Monday I made a post about the two latest updates to Disqus - the Disqus 2012 theme update and the new profiles view. This post is going to feature a little subjective views (opinions) on the theme update, and I highly recommend that you drop your input as well, so I can get an idea of how the community thinks.
Putting together about a week's worth of developments, Disqus has released two different updates concerning Disqus 2012, which is now used on just about every website.
Instead of making two separate posts for the few things I'm about to share, I decided to merge them into one. Should save a bit of time, and a few less clicks. I really have two things to share, but if you didn't already hear about Disqus making a Windows Phone app, you should click here. Other mobile platforms will be added soon enough.
For a while now Disqus has been improving and rolling out Disqus 2012, the latest build of their comment/discussion system. For the most part, I think it's great -- except for a few things. Now dubbed "Disqus Classic", the older version of Disqus used on-site JavaScript rendering, instead of an iframe. The newer version of Disqus does use an iframe, and for the most part it is okay. The part that is not okay, is that it's lacking a major feature that is popular to web developers and just the creative type of person -- CSS support.
For months now, a stable form of the new Disqus, dubbed Disqus 2012 has been out for all websites. I was one of their beta testers, so I've basically been along for the full ride. However I know those who still use the classic Disqus, and if they decide to upgrade now they are in for it if they want to switch back.
As you can see from the yellow alert box (shown above), changing to Disqus 2012 is now a permanent decision and once you do it, you can't change back. This note is now live on the Disqus 2012 FAQ page, at the very top.
Disqus pushed out a tweet about 28 minutes ago explaining that forum deletions have been re enabled.
If you remember previously users who wanted to delete their sites from Disqus couldn't do so due to some upgrades (from my understanding). You can now delete a site if you desire by going to the admin panel >> settings >> advanced. The delete button is at the bottom of the page and deletions are permanent and cannot be undone.
Also, Disqus has updated Disqus 2012 with new changes.
Today Disqus, the worlds most used discussion system, released an update to Disqus 2012 earlier today that introduces a revamped subscription system for threads and other visual changes.
Yesterday I made an article about Ecommerce Affiliate Linking, which made me think about something different today. I talked about Discovery before, the box at the bottom of Disqus 2012 comment embeds that provides links to the publisher's content or sponsored links to other places around the web, with all of them being (hopefully) relevant.
With the addition of the discovery box, you also get Discovery analytics. These allow you to see the number of referrals from another website to your website though Discovery, how much you have earned from your visitors clicking links to another website from discovery, and the display box on how to make money too if you don't have Promoted Discovery enabled, with in Techman's World's case, we don't.
Disqus has become more then just a discussion system. They are also a new way to make money for your site, while still being a benefit to your readers. This is their second way for you to make money on your site: Ecommerce Affiliate Linking.
Before I jump in too far, their first method of helping you earn money was Promoted Discovery. In promoted discovery, promoted links are placed in your discovery box at the bottom or even top of comment embeds based on the content on the page. Disqus uses a targeting algorithm that is improving every day, so eventually the service should become fairly solid.
Disqus made a page about the new program they are introducing, and you can see it here to get official documentation on how this works. If you keep on past the break, you can read more about this from Techman's World.
I reported this to Disqus hours ago, but I'm still having the issue. So I'm asking some of you to see if you have the problem.
Right now I am having an issue with notifications under Disqus 2012. What is happening is I click the notifications button, the cogs spin about quarter to half way, and then nothing shows up. The cogs become hidden, but no list of notifications is shown. I get this after I clicked the button.
A few days ago I wrote about the moderation panel being updated with new settings and so on, but in today's post I'll touch on a few things that was not fixed, and a new feature that was not discussed in the other article.
Default Avatars -- affects Classic and the 2012 versions of Disqus
Default avatars are now able to be set again in the the admin panel. Previously a Disqus backend update prevented them from being updated. Some users report that they never lost their default avatar for their website, but Techman's World was affected and did lose its default avatar. To set the avatar again, go to Admin >> Settings >> Advanced, and the avatar setting should be the first section of the panel.
Today Disqus has pushed out an update to the moderation panel that includes a few updates, and I'm sure that you all will like it. Mind you, these updates are if you are running Disqus 2012, the latest version of Disqus, on your website.
For a while now in Disqus 2012, you can see that a comment was replied via the dotted dots and the "parent" text above comments. The parent text was a useful feature, with you being able to hover over the text to view part of the parent comment, and clicking the link takes you to the parent comment's anchor in the page.
Do you guys remember that post that I did a while back that said that you can choose your own language via the admin panel for Disqus 2012? Well what I actually caught was part of the ability to have a different language being added.
Starting last Friday, October 26, 2012, Disqus has listed a new bullet on their Disqus 2012 release notes page indicating that Disqus is now accepting translation requests. You can apply for translation by clicking here.
Well...what do 'ya know. We all knew that Disqus was going to do something with its my Disqus tab. So many people have requested features such as the ability to reply to comments directly from the My Disqus section. A new UI change is under way, and while I don't know if it will stick, I think that something good is about to happen.
Dear Readers,
Just wanted to tell you all that I am temporally disabling the Discovery Box in the comment section on this site. Why? Because it is very simple - discovery listings are not all that accurate at all. For example, if the page in question is the recent Dolphin Web Browser review, then why am I getting results about comment trouble? Makes no sense to me, and if I had promoted discovery enabled here, the results would be just as accurate, or lack of accuracy with the article.
