Why and How to Use Disqus with Wordpress

by Matt Langford on June 23, 2009 · Comments

Disqus for Wordpress

If you haven’t heard, Disqus is an excellent comment replacement system for Wordpress and other blogging platforms. In addition to all basic functionality, it is also well integrated with Facebook Connect and Twitter.

I am going to detail for you the reasons I chose to switch to Disqus and how I did it. While pretty much everything I say will apply to all blogs and themes, a few things will be specific to Wordpress.


Benefits & Advantages of Using Disqus

socialSocial Network Integration. All commenters can leave remarks in the traditional way by filling out their name, email, website (optionally), and comment. But they can also login using their Facebook or Twitter credentials. This will not only show links to their profiles, but also include their respective profile photo.

If you register with Disqus as a commenter, you can also have links to your blog AND social networks show up on your comment. Of course, disqus also works flawlessly with gravatar, wavatar, etc.

Fewer Plugins on Wordpress. While plugins can add terrific functionality to your blog, too many of them can slow it down and even confuse your readers.

By installing and using the features of Disqus, I was able to delete previously required plugins (such as CommentLuv, Recent Comments, Subscribe to Comments, and Akismet).

profileIndividual Comment Features. With Disqus, users can ‘like’ a quality comment, find the social networks of a commenter, report an inappropriate comment, and reblog a comment with ease.

Additionally, you can also see other comments left (and subscribe to them) by a particular person across ALL blogs with Disqus enabled.

Responsive Support Team. The Disqus team is very involved with their users and they respond in a timely manner. I’ve asked questions via Twitter (@disqus) and via email. In both cases, I received my answer in a very acceptable time frame.

How to Use/Setup Disqus

To be honest, I was expecting to have to deal with countless problems when shifting to Disqus. Removing the current commenting system, transferring all previous comments to disqus, installing disqus, styling it, testing it, and loving it should take a lot of time… Right? Well, simply put — NO, it doesn’t.

Basically, all you have to do is register for an account with Disqus (free) and install the Disqus Comment System plugin. With the plugin, you can easily choose your display options and rules, make simple styling modifications, and import your other comments. When ready, it will remove your current commenting system and replace it with Disqus. Literally 5 minutes of work!

For more complex styling, you can add some simple CSS to your style sheet. (If you’re using the Thesis Theme, just place it in custom.css.)

  • Disqus also offers support for site run using Blogger, Tumblr, Movable Type and Type-pad. It also does customized work for integration with technologies such as Drupal.
  • s2network
    I just did the change to Disqus commenting system and I like it
  • cde010
    Disqus is nice. I installed it on my Wordpress but saw that it doesn't recognize those who have logged via Wordpress. My blog has many registered authors. When they log in to Wordpress, DisQus still sees them as "Guest." Am I missing something??
  • raQuiam
    Just installed Disqus on my self hosting WordPress. It's work perfectly :)
  • I just installed Disqus on my blog this evening. I'll be sure to check back in and let you know how things go. I found your post here very helpful. Thanks!
  • I'm glad you found it helpful! Thanks for visiting.
  • Süpér Chùñdy
    good article
  • lebisol
    interring...I never got my comment nor your repose to show up here while I did get a copy of my own comment. Quality for sure. But I appreciate your response...just too bad it is gone.
  • I'm showing every comment (yours and mine) in multiple browsers on multiple computers.... No problems on this end...
  • lebisol
    Bigger issue, to me, is that now you are 'outsourcing' comments and someone else owns your content.
    This may work for personal blogs but with 1 hr delay for business this is not a good turn around time not to mention that clients have to now manage them through another site.
    Quite frankly the whole 'socializing' of content and comments is out of control...generally holds little true value and rooted into bloggers looking for $ through page hits.
    Not to mention how sticking these little buttons/billboards for companies (not your friends) such as if facebook,twitter, yahoo are impacting readers visual presentation of your site.
    Anyone looking for 'comments on steroids' might as well install a discussion app/forums and have at it.
    Perhaps a cynical but the coin always has two sides :)
  • You're right... if you're designing for a Fortune 500 company that gets thousands of comments an hour, then migrating might not be for you. However, 99% of users don't fall in that category. You said, it might be good for personal blogs and those looking to make money... well, don't most blogs fall into those categories?

    As for socializing content being out of control? Little true value? I hate to burst your bubble, but any type of content system is based on the very theory that socializing is important. They go hand-in-hand, they are attached to one another. Invalid argument.

    Those little buttons like facebook, twitter, and yahoo are completely optional. I chose to use them and have seen the benefits, but others choose to eliminate them.

    Disqus isn't for everyone, just as Wordpress isn't for everyone. There are sites that should use alternate options (whether that be default commenting, intensedebate, or one of a hundred others).
  • very cool, hoping it's that easy! Gonna give it a whirl...
  • I am a blogger and I used to DISQUS comment plug-in for the comments it is too easy to install and friendly to use...
  • I've made up my mind to install Disqus on my own blog.
  • But what if you decide to uninstall disqus. All the comments that have been left when disqus was working will be lost, arn't they?
  • No, you can re-export/import them from disqus to wordpress.
  • I was wondering how to get disqus going.. Thanks for the tips mang!
  • Wouldn't I have to leave the Subscribe-to-Comments plugin enabled for all those who subscribed before disqus?
  • im loving disqus too
  • I installed Disqus on a couple of wordpress sites last month as I wanted people to be able to post using their FB or Twitter log ins - wasn't until I found your article that I realised you could add such details to your disqus profile too :) Thanks for the heads up about subbing too - I was just about to install the subscribe to comments plugin!
  • Thanks, this is exactly the info I was looking for. I am using Thesis on a self-hosted Wordpress blog and am planning to give Disqus a try. I was a bit leery because of the nightmare I had using Haloscan on my old Blogger blog, but this doesn't seem to have those pitfalls.

    Happy New Year!
  • Sorry to break it to you guys but Disqus causes a heap of CSS errors. Just run mattflies.com through a css val dilator if you want to see for yourself.
  • Jake, I'm aware that Disqus css doesn't validate perfectly. However, as most designers will say... validation (particularly css) by today's standards is highly overrated. There are many elements of css validation that aren't a concern to most designers. That's why disqus has proven so popular, even for large sites as of late.
  • I do understand that CSS validation is definitely overrated, but to many people it is important. I personally still use Disqus despite the errors, but to some people over one hundred errors could be a shock.

    Anyways, just informing. Thanks for pointing out Disqus!
  • I understand what you're saying, Jake... And you're right, many people do consider it. But with new css methods, IE6 hacks, and multiple browsers, it's nearly impossible to make a site 100%.
  • I just started using disqus a few weeks ago, seems cool so far.
  • commenting on disqus takes you to a sign-up page.what's the fuss?for whatever reason,it takes a minute of my time going to my email to click on the verification link.it's just not friendly for me if you the regular comment page.Anyway,thanks for providing us all the features.

    Rose
    computer keeps freezing
  • No one is required to sign up or sign in to leave a comment.
  • pankas1209
    Great post. It is useful to know this powerful gadget.
  • Guest
    In the process of setting it up now.
  • Thanks a lot for introducing me to Disqus!

    However, I can't seem to get it to import comments. This message keeps appearing: There was an error exporting your comments. If your API key has changed, you may need to reinstall DISQUS (deactivate the plugin and then reactivate it). If you are still having issues, refer to the WordPress help page.

    Also, Disqus gets mixed in with my after post boxes. I use the Thesis theme.

    Any ideas to whats wrong?

    Thanks!
  • Jake - Disqus is awesome. I've been using it on my personal blog for some time now.

    however, like yourself, on my new blog I am encountering the very same error that you are. I have not had it resolved as yet. Have you?

    I have found the following blog article (http://blog.justinkorn.com/2009/01/welcome-disq...) which proposes a fix but it didn't work for me.

    I'm still waiting on Disqus support to figure out what's wrong. When they do - and if you've still got the same issue - I'll let you know!
  • I was thinking of using Discus with wordpress. You have really solved my problem . Thanks for this.
  • Thanks for this well written article, after reading it, I installed the Disqus plugin. Relatively simple installation, and import of the massive amounts of comments that I had already on my blog. I am wondering about twitter integration, but I guess that will be answered in time...
  • What do you mean by twitter integration? You can login using twitter, links from twitter are posted below the comments, and you can tweet your comment out.
  • Ahhh... I did not exactly understand how disqus and twitter worked together, it makes more sense to me now...
  • Just installed Disqus! Hopefully everything will work correctly... time will tell.
  • 1st of all thanx Matt, this whole discussion cleared alot of my querries except 1.i used disqus for 1week and now back to my default thesis comment box. if am correct then all my comments go into disquz database which i can extract through xml. i can use the option to import comments from wordpress to new disqus system, but if after say a few weeks or months, am having issues with disqus and i want to revert back to my old thesis comment box, then how can i import all comments from disqus to my wordpress db.??
  • Thanks Matt! I found DISQUS on Mashable, like it and was looking for more info of what it was about and if I could use it on WordPress. I found your this blog post very useful! I am putting my blog together now and will definitely integrate this, Its awesome and easy to use once you understand it.
  • Dude! Wow! That was a Snap! Thax again, Matt :)
  • i am using it on my blog since last week, Thank you!
  • Very welcome! Glad you like it!
  • Disqus is great but you will never have an all round superstar product that fits everyone's needs. I say it offers a lot of things and sure interlinks major blogging platforms great which is (imho) great.
  • I guess Disqus already has too many features :D

    And this article has too many comments! bwahahah =))
  • I am using it since ages, and it's lovable. I was wondering why doesn't anyone write about it. And now I found you! I love DISQUS.
  • So I can just install this and go? It's really that straightforward? I'm worried about breaking things :P
  • Yep, it's that simple! And if you don't like, the uninstall process is just as easy!
  • That was so easy! I am awaiting the import to complete now (not like I have many comments yet anyway :( but still!) Thanks man, you gave me that boost of confidence I needed to go for it. I'm a nerd, I like to think I am anyway, and this was way easier than most functionality-extending plugins.
  • Glad to help. Let me know if you like it... or have any other questions!
  • One question again. :D How can I show my latest tweets when I 'expand' my profile? When I hover on your avatar and click the 'Expand' I can see your latest tweet. How can I do that? Please help. Thank you so much!
  • Basically, you just have to register your account with Disqus (free) and list your twitter account when doing so. That's it!
  • Hey Matt! How can I use wavatar on DISQUS? I want non-gravatar users to have a unique avatar and I don't know how to do it.

    Thanks in advance! DISQUS rocks. :D
  • Anyone that uses gravatar.com or logs in to comment via twitter/facebook or registers with Disqus will have their avatar displayed.
  • It takes around a week doesnt it, i am not 100% sure. Disqus definitely works real well with wordpress...
  • still using askimet :(
  • It almost seems like the thread got too narrow and lopped off the reply link. Strange.
  • In the settings, you can choose how many replies are possible. I currently have mine set as 5 deep -- meaning after the 5th deep response, the reply link will disappear. You can set that as high or low as you'd like.
  • Thanks Matt. I'm trying this out on my site, and it all looks good so far!

    Keep on posting - I'm learning a lot from you :-)
  • Thanks Matt for the tip, and the very useful comments. I've been looking for how to solve some of Disqus' quirks.
  • Hi Matt,

    I was completely sold on Disqus as a commenting system. I loved it so much that I installed it on several sites I manage. Well, it really bit me in the behind.

    I found out today that Disqus has been emailing subscribers the comments submitted on my sites BEFORE THEY ARE APPROVED! Including posts the moderator chose not to approve!

    Many comments that never appeared on the website were emailed to anyone who had commented on that page prior! I couldn't believe it. I was so embarrassed! I had to go to the site owners with my hat in hand.

    Maybe I overlooked something, but I have found no way to stop this from happening. I turned off all notifications for the user's sites on their Disqus profile, but unapproved dummy posts I submitted were again sent to subscribers.

    WTF! Is it me or did Disqus overlook something REALLY REALLY Important???

    I contacted support this morning, and have yet to hear back.

    If anyone knows how to fix this, your help would be greatly appreciated. I would love to reactivate the Disqus plugin for its many useful features.
  • I'm glad I scrolled all the way down here... I was ready to use disqus - but I am now holding off to see what this crazy episode was all about!

    Thanks
  • Hi Ellie,

    I'm still working with Disqus to resolve this issue. I will be sure to post the results here.
  • Hi Andrew... So whatever happened with this disqus issue you had on your site?
    I see you are using on your site - so what was that episode you had?
  • Hi Ellie,

    After going back and forth for a couple of days, Disqus stopped responding to my requests. They dodged making an effort to resolve the issue and instead chose to hide behind a technicality. The technicality being that at the request of my client, I was unable to send Disqus the original comment that appeared on her website and was the source of our concern.

    I did however reproduce the issue on her site several more times through testing. When I presented this to Disqus, they said that I was wrong and that it was functioning properly.

    Frankly, I found the employee I was dealing with to be rude and unwilling to help. I spoke with Daniel afterward, we never had a disagreement, but he also stopped responding after one or two emails. Disappointing at best.

    I use Disqus on one of my sites now, since privacy is not a concern on that site, but I have removed it from all other sites I manage. If you or you're clients are concerned about privacy and moderation control when handling comments, I would suggest you do the same.
  • Hi Andrew....
    Thanks so much for responding... I don't want any privacy concerns... so while disqus is interesting - I'm leaving things just as they are for now. ;)
  • Hey. I'm from Disqus.

    This shouldn't be the case, though sometimes edge cases creep up. We'll verify everything is working properly. You can reach me at daniel@disqus.com if you have anymore direct questions (or comment here).
  • Daniel, thanks for stopping by! Hopefully this was just an extreme case, an exception to the rule.
  • Hi Matt. Thanks for your support on this matter. I have replied to Daniel and I will certainly keep you and your readers posted.
  • Would love to know if there was resolution on the issue of emailing comments to subscribers before admin approval. Was this solved? I'm considering using Disqus now. Thanks!
  • Hi Brian,

    After going back and forth for about a week, Disqus stopped responding to my requests. They dodged making an effort to resolve the issue and instead chose to hide behind a technicality. The technicality being that at the request of my client, I was unable to send Disqus the original comment that appeared on her website and was the source of our concern.

    I did however reproduce the issue on her site several more times through testing. When I presented this to Disqus, they said that I was wrong and that it was functioning properly.

    Frankly, I found the employee I was dealing with to be rude and unwilling to help. I spoke with Daniel afterward, we never had a disagreement, but he also stopped responding after one or two emails. Disappointing at best.

    I use Disqus on one of my sites now, since privacy is not a concern on that site, but I have removed it from all other sites I manage. If you or you're clients are concerned about privacy and moderation control when handling comments, I would suggest you do the same.
  • I haven't seen the problem arise again for me, so I'm assuming it was fixed globally as well.
  • Andrew, that is obviously a big deal, whether or not they choose to acknowledge it. I encourage you to keep us updated via this comment thread of what their response and/or fix to this issue is. I'm pushing a link to your comment out on Twitter right now.
  • Thanks for this post. I recently installed Disqus. I've noticed that the load time is slower. Can you say how long it took all of your comments to be transferred? I've got about a weeks worth and than it stops for some reason.

    www.cwmemory.com
    Thanks
  • It took a couple hours for me, but once I had them imported, everything ran smoothly!
  • I just loaded it again and will give it another shot. So if I understand you correctly, it takes a few hours for all the comments to transfer and then it should load more quickly?

    Thanks so much for taking the time to respond.
  • You got it! I went straight to @disqus for this explanation: When you add disqus, you're entered into a queue of other new users. They are processed in order of first come, first serve. The more comments you have, the longer it takes.

    I had about a thousand comments and did the the transfer at a high traffic time -- yet it only took a little less than 2 hours to process them completely.
  • Thanks again. I've got a little more than 8,000 comments so I will do my best to wait it out. :)
  • kye
    I stumbled on this article by accident, but boy is it ever timely! Learning how to install disqus on my wordpress blog was one of the jobs on my list today :) --thanks!
  • Matt I receive almost 20-30 comments in a day and I don't mind taking the risk..though if juice is worth to squeeze..
    You have been using it for long, and you have mentioned all the benefits of using it, is there anything which you missed in comment form from default wordpress comment box after moving to Disqus.....??
    Meanwhile thanks a lot for the link to Matt articles..
  • Hey matt
    Must say the way you are helping everyone here is amazing. I'm big fan of default wordpress style comment and more over Thesis comment box rocks..
    Though looking at all comments making me to try disqus for a while.. I have seen all the pros here I will rather search for cons , so that I can figure out is it worth dealing with Disqus or not..
  • It's really different for everyone, but I encourage you to install the Disqus plugin and play with it for a bit. If you don't like, simply remove the plugin and everything will return to normal assuming you didn't get hundreds of disqus comments in that timeframe!
  • I was doing a bit of research about how and why to use Diqus and your informative post came up near the top of Google results. I already knew I wanted to use it on my blog -- I've set up an account. But I wanted to hear some experiences of others before I pointed to it as a "good" idea. Thanks for your insights and tutorial. (And thanks to others who have shared questions and answers.) Your post has a most lively discussion and I will be sure to point others here who are trying to make up their minds. Cheers!
  • Hey Matt Disqus seems to be cool.
    Thanks to you blog I came across it.
    I will too try it.
  • beautyfoolrenee
    hey matt, you're quick! Yeah I was testing it out and liked it, though I have no idea how to style it so it looked so messy. It was already 5am here and I was half asleep so I unplugged it for now, though want to re-activate it! I just have a few questions though, hope it ok!

    - where do I see your css? *muahah* I like the cleaner look you're doing so if it's possible to steal your code and make my own adjustments? :)
    - you wouldn't happen to know how to change the avatar to the left side, would you? It started off as that but then I made the avatars bigger in its settings and it changed to the right side by itself.

    Alright, that's all. Thanks Matt :)
    Renee
  • Renee, you know it's no problem! Anytime!

    -To see my css, just click here and scroll down. It's under "disqus comments."
    -To move the avatar, just find the "dsq-header-avatar" property in the above css and float it left. This SHOULD work. =)
  • Jeremy D'Hoinne
    Hi Matt,

    First of all thank you for your advice.
    I could not find the disqus comments section in your css file.
    I've just installed it and I'm dealing with margin issues.
    I would happily look at your disqus css settings :-)

    (no link available since the blog is still protected with .htaccess during testing / alpha version ;)
  • beautyfoolrenee
    Thank you Matt!

    I am sooooon there. I am trying to figure out how to style the link colors; there is so much pink it looks like overkill!

    I think I'm also going to ask my readers what they think; I'm not sure about the '2 steps' it involves to comment, I suppose most people like to comment and click submit and that's about it. Your readers are all tech-savvy so they know what they are doing, my readers may not understand all its features at first glance. Regardless I really like Disqus but I'm a little scared about that! :(
  • The 2 steps thing is only an option for commenters... They can still leave comments in the traditional way. You don't have to login via Facebook/Twitter/OpenID/Disqus to leave a comment.
  • Hey Matt ... dang you always convince me with all this tech stuff. Was just wondering if it'll work with my Thesis comment customization? I flipped the avatar placement, colors, etc. Just scared that I can't make it look pretty, seen some who use Disqus and it looks a little messy.

    Thanks Matt!
    Renee
  • Renee, You can style it pretty easily (most people seem to be taking my css, then making small adjustments where needed). It won't be exactly the same, but you can still make it look nice!

    I see that you're in the process of playing with it now on your blog. Looks like you're waiting on the comments to import. Let me know what you think!
  • Matt, I'm curious. How long does it take for a new comment to show up in your widget? (I might have my answer after this post.)

    Also, it seems that commentluv is working with Disqus. I like the way you've customized the comments css. Nice and easy to read. Looks like my next project. :)
  • Mark, It normally does take a few minutes, but nothing crazy. I'm glad you like my css, Thanks!
  • I know this post is a little older, but I have a question about Disqus. What did you do with your tabbed widget for the recent comments?

    Oh, can you still use commentluv with Disqus? I kinda like it.
  • Mark, Disqus supplies you with code to display your most recent comments (as well as a few other things) that you can very easily insert into your widget as I did.

    As for CommentLuv, I don't believe you can use it with Disqus, but I could be wrong.
  • Hi Matt. Is there any way to disable the comment feature on Disqus for a given page in Wordpress/Thesis? I would rather it not appear on my Contact and About pages. Thanks in advance!
  • Andrew, yes you can do that, but not in Disqus... It's a Wordpress/Thesis setting. Just go to Thesis Options, then under Display, expand the Comments section. From there, you can disable comments on all pages!
  • Jgrubb
    Thanks! This has been driving me nuts for days.
  • I don't really see the point over the default commenting.
  • Great. Thanks. Does it have to be all or none? Is it possible to remove comments on specific pages while allowing comments on others? I tried disabling comments within the specific page edit, but that did not work with Disqus.
  • You can do that in Wordpress as well -- For whatever page you want to remove comments, click the edit button, then scroll down until you find the options for "Discussion" (underneath the text box and stuff) and deselect "Allow Comments!"
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