I moved: Disqus vs. Intense Debate
At least one person noticed last week that I had made some changes to my blog. The main change I made was to my commenting system. I was using Intense Debate, and now I've migrated all comments over to Disqus.
For Squarespace users, this was no easy undertaking. I wanted all my comments under one roof. Half of my comments were on Squarespace and the rest were on the Intense Debate commenting system.
I made an inquiry to Squarespace tech support, asking how to import Squarespace comments into Disqus. I was advised:
"Unfortunately the two are separate systems and there's currently no way to move comments from one to the other. Replacing the Squarespace commenting system will mean replacing all of the the existing comments."
I didn't want to lose all of my comments and I just couldn't believe that there was "no way", so I googled and googled to no avail.
Guess what? Ya-huh, yes there is a way. I figured it out all by myself and I hope someone lands here looking for the some answers, because I've got one for ya!
Here's the thing... 
I created another blog on Here's the thing with my Tech Bytes in detail!
Here you go: How to import Squarespace comments into Disqus
Intense Debate Pros
- Plugins such as Comment Luv and After deadline spell check
- Customize appearance with CSS
- Widgets such as showing most popular posts
Intense Debate Cons
- No import feature
- No response from tech support
- Spam when Twitter login enabled
I have nothing against Intense Debate. I've used it for 8 months without issues. The spam comments ceased when I disabled twitter login. I am using Intense Debate on the Tech Bytes blog. However in my opinion, I think Disqus is the better of the two commenting systems for these reasons:
Disqus Pros
- Received tech support within 24 hours
- Money making potential with Discovery Traffic Referral
- Cool Community Widget that shows Top Commenters, Recent Comments and Most Discussed
- URL Mapping (rename old links without losing the comments)
- Upload a custom avatar for commenters who don't have one. I'm using a smiley face.
Disqus Cons
- Using CSS for customizing appearance is confusing
- You'll have to ask tech support to install Single Sign On (SSO) or people will need to have Gmail, Twitter, Facebook or register with Disqus in order to leave a comment
- No comment luv, editing or cute emoticon widgets
I sent an e-mail to Disqus tech support asking for the SSO feature and heard from them within a few hours:
"We’re currently working to make SSO available to all users across our network. Because you’ve expressed interest in integrating SSO into your website, we’ve gone ahead and activated that service for you."
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