Why are blog owners using 3rd party comments/discussion systems?
 

I don't get it, why are they using services like IntenseDebate and Disquis? those systems allow visitors to comment using their Facebook, Gmail etc info to register. What's in it for the blog owner? If you use WordPress' own comments you can make them register and you have their email address to market to.

I must be missing something.

I dont know too.

it lowers the threshold...

I love Disqus. From a mainstream point of view it's great to have one profile that I can comment with everywhere and get links back to my site. Very useful

I agree. Unless something has Facebook connect or Disqus I won't leave a comment. I have enough accounts as it is.

Wordpress owns Gravatar. I'm surprised that they don't do more to incorporate it into things.

People are more vary about registering everywhere. Both for the number of accounts they have everywhere but also growing concerns about privacy. Most people feel more secure trusting their personal details to Facebook than to some random blogger here and threre.

So if you really want the true discussion, then make it easy for people to actually discuss. If you are in it for the money and want to market to people, then get their name and addresses yourself.

think about what you are asking and you have already answered your own question + seo






.

What they fail to realize is that using 1 facebook account to comment all over the interwebs is one of the worst idea's ever if privacy is what they are concerned about.


True, If you want posts, ask for a name and a comment... don't require people to confirm their email address before their post will be approved or anything like that.

I didn't realize that the people behind Wordpress put out IntenseDebate too.

IntenseDebate and Disqus were nothing but problems when I tried using them. Often they were very slow, and would not always sync up in any way you'd call "timely." Maybe once it got going for a week or longer it'd smooth out but it got to the point I just had to remove them.

I did want to improve commenting and ended up being able to do this better by adding a Facebook Comments plugin. This encouraged a lot more comments than we had with WP alone.

links back to your site? from where? you could post links back to your site using WP's native comment system no?

i'm really asking because I want to use IntenseDebate but I also want people registering to my site with their email and one of the benefits that people get when they register with my site is a custom avatar. They already have a custom avatar with IntenseDebate.
I'm trying to think of a way to marry IntenseDebate with the site's own registration.

True but i'd have to register or fill in my information everytime. With disqus i'm already logged in so I can just hit my favorite blogs and leave a comment without thinking lol :)