I’ve used Disqus on this blog for quite a while now. Actually, I think I’ve used it forever. The first version of this blog was on WordPress and now it’s self-hosted, so Disqus has always been the tool of choice when it comes to commenting.
The problem I’ve always had with Disqus is that it’s a bit harder to respond & connect with people through this tool.
Sure, I can reply to comments on the blog (and I do!), but oftentimes I have a hard time figuring out who a blogger/reader actually is from their Disqus handle. When I get a comment from someone I am able to see the email that they use to log-in to Disqus, so sometimes I recognize a person/blogger from their email, and sometimes I can recognize them from the tiny picture they have for their Disqus ID. However, more often than not, I have no idea if someone who is commenting on my blog posts has a blog or if I know them from somewhere around the internet community, or if they’re a brand new reader to my blog.
So, my request and recommendation is that readers, who are also bloggers, who are commenting on any blog (but especially mine!) using Disqus add a tiny bit of HTML into their comment. I just started doing this myself within the last few days and I honestly don’t know what in the world took me so long to figure this out!
This is what I do now:
- I write my normal comment using Disqus.
- I ‘sign’ my comment by adding a bit of HTML code that links back to my blog. I sign my comments Lisa | Two Martinis by adding this little bit of code: <a href=”http://thebenroecks.com”>Lisa | Two Martinis</a> Which shows up like this in the comment: Lisa | Two Martinis
This is totally obvious, right?! Why did I not do it earlier?
It’s great for me as a reader because now the writer of the blog (and other readers of that blog) can find me through my blog and connect with me if they choose to. It’s great for the writer of the blog for similar reasons: they can connect with their readers, especially the ones who comment regularly, but they also don’t need to click on the links if they don’t choose to.
Of course, I would advise all readers to leave thoughtful/insightful comments that add to the discussion, instead of writing ‘Great post!’ and leaving a link to a blog. That’s just my two cents, though.
So comment away! As always, I’m excited to hear from you.
And if you want to ‘practice’ using HTML in your Disqus comments, feel free to do a few test runs on this post – I look forward to checking out your most recent post if you link back to it!
