Announcements

Cool Tools and Disqus

In the two years since commenting was turned on at Cool Tools nearly 12,000 comments have been posted. It has ...

In the two years since commenting was turned on at Cool Tools nearly 12,000 comments have been posted. It has become abundantly clear that this enormous outpouring of advice, expertise, and dialogue represents one of the site’s best features.

But since launch we have also heard time and time again that the commenting system posed some problems while lacking what many considered to be critical features. The CAPTCHA system often lead to multiple postings. It was hard to track comments over time. And many noted that it was impossible to edit any comments after they were posted (without, that is, an editor going in and editing them for you).

In order to resolve these problems we are, as of today, switching to a new commenting system called Disqus. Over the past year Disqus has shown itself to be one of the most stable, easy to use, and friendly commenting systems throughout the web. It affords users the options of signing in through multiple platforms including Twitter, Facebook, and OpenID, while also allowing for anonymous commenting for those who don’t want to sign in. In addition to new ways of logging in, commenters will now be able to easily reply to a given comment, favorite comments they believe offer the best solution, and track comments over time. These are but a few of the fantastic features we hope will improve the conversation here at Cool Tools.

As with anything new there are bound to be some hiccups. But we believe that the added functionality will be worth the trouble. That being said if you see an area that needs improving, or if you notice something that is not working please don’t hesitate in contacting us so we can get it fixed right way.

Here’s looking to the next 12,000 comments.

Oliver Hulland
Editor, Cool Tools

01/18/11

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