Disqus Comment Users: keep your comments synced!

If you are using Disqus comments, you really should ensure you are keeping your comments 'synced' with Blogger.

What does this even mean?

It means, to put it plainly, that your comments are being published via Disqus but are also being "backed up" to Blogger.

Why should I do this?

You should do this because if you ever take your Disqus comments away, you will have your Blogger comments there behind-the-scenes as backup.  

Who knows, maybe Blogger will get their act together and introduce some awesome comment system and you'll want to go back.  If you ever decide you don't want to use Disqus any more, you obviously don't want to lose your comments now do you??

Let me answer that for you: NO!

(This is why I do not like Intense Debate.  You do not have that option! Use Intense Debate and wish to return to Blogger? SORRY, but your comments are a goner)

So if you have Disqus all installed and working well, here is how to make sure that your comments are and stay synced. 

STEP 1:

Log into Disqus and click on your site.

STEP 2: 

Make your way to the TOOLS and then IMPORT/EXPORT area and click on "Blogger" (see below)

Click for a larger preview

*** EXTREME EMAIL WARNING: BEFORE PROCEEDING READ THIS!! ***

When you sync your Disqus comments, you may receive emails from Blogger saying you have a new comment - this is normal and just means the comments are coming over.  This means (as far as I know!) that if you have 1000 comments to sync, you are going to get 1000 emails! WOWSERS!

My advice is to therefore to turn off email notification on your comments from within Blogger until this is complete! Don't say I didn't warn you! ;)




STEP 3: You now want to click on "Enable" in the 'Keep new comments synced' area (see below)

Click for a larger preview

This is where things got interesting for me.  I had 29 comments to sync and it got stuck on number 16.  I clicked the link to re-sync remaining comments but I went around in a big circle and it would not sync them. I waited a day or so and tried again and it was fine (must have been a Disqus glitch at the time). See the orange highlighted bit below.....

You can always contact Disqus for help if this happens to you too and I believe they can fix it.

Obviously if you have a lot of comments it may take a long time. You can check the status of it in this area.

Comment systems for Blogger

I have seen lots of people complaining that the comment system of Blogger is crappy and I do tend to agree - not only is it quite simplistic, you cannot leave "threaded" comments (this is important when you want to interact with your readers).

As far as I can see it, the four choices when dealing with Blogger comments are:

1. Keep generic Blogger comments + wait for them to implement something good
2. Use Facebook comments (good tutorial here)
3. Disqus
4. Intense Debate

I have used Disqus and am currently using Intense Debate on my personal blog.  Everyone complains about Disqus (not exactly sure why, I must admit it has always behaved for me) and Intense Debate has so far worked out well and is quite adaptable.

Facebook.... well, I am not sure how I feel about Facebook comments.  I dont think so.

Disqus is nice because you can back up your comments - so if you ever want to remove Disqus, your comments will be hiding underneath.  Intense Debate, as far as my research tells me, does not offer this.

So, what do you think?  What do you use?

PS: I am not really going to even give Echo a mention.  Whilst they look like a pretty rad comment system, I don't like their exclusivity. They told me that I needed over 1 million hits a month and quite a hefty yearly fee (I am talking more than just a few thousand dollars here).

UM NO. JUST NO.

Is your word verification cutt off (if you're using embedded comments?)

So this is something you may not have noticed. It may even be a reason you're not getting a lot of comments on your blog!

Please note, this is only for those of you who are using "embedded comments" + have word verification switched to "on" (and of course it's only for those who can't seem to submit a comment!)

So what's the problem?
I only noticed this because it was a problem on my personal blog and I wanted to share with you what to do if you find it happening on your blog too!

Basically, the word verification box is cut off so people can't see the word captcha box and blog comment 'submit' button.

This is what mine looked like:

(note, no "submit" comment button therefore, no comments! Boo hoo!)

How can I check if this is a problem for me?
First of all this is only going to be a problem if you're using the 'embedded comment' option with 'word verification' switched to "on" (these can be found under Settings > Comments).

Look at your blog when you're not logged into Blogger.
{If you are logged in, you won't see the word verification box anyway because you're the blog owner and what's the point in making the owner of the blog verify the comment?}

Try and leave a comment. If you see a similar thing to me above then you've got this problem too.

Don't panic, it's not a big problem.


How do I fix it?

Easy, follow these steps:

1. Log into Blogger and "save a copy of your template" (you should always do this before making changes to your blog in case things go weird).
   
   
2. Tick the "Expand Widget Templates" button (above the big box of code)
   
   
3. Scroll down (or search) for the following code:
   
   

   <b:includable id='comment-form' var='post'>
   <div class='comment-form'>
   <a name='comment-form'/>
   <h4 id='comment-post-message'><data:postCommentMsg/></h4>
   <p><data:blogCommentMessage/></p>
   <data:blogTeamBlogMessage/>
   <a expr:href='data:post.commentFormIframeSrc' id='comment-editor-src'/>
   <iframe allowtransparency='true' class='blogger-iframe-colorize
   blogger-comment-from-post' frameborder='0' height='275' id='comment-editor'
   name='comment-editor' src='' width='100%'/>
   <data:post.friendConnectJs/>
   <data:post.cmtfpIframe/>
   <script type='text/javascript'>
   BLOG_CMT_createIframe('<data:post.appRpcRelayPath/>',
   '<data:post.communityId/>');
   </script>
   </div>
   </b:includable>
   

   (note, some of the values may be slightly different, you might have a value of 300 instead of 275)
   
   
4. Change the value of 275 (highlighted in green above) to be about 410.
   
   
5. The code should now look like this:
   
   

   <b:includable id='comment-form' var='post'>
   <div class='comment-form'>
   <a name='comment-form'/>
   <h4 id='comment-post-message'><data:postCommentMsg/></h4>
   <p><data:blogCommentMessage/></p>
   <data:blogTeamBlogMessage/>
   <a expr:href='data:post.commentFormIframeSrc' id='comment-editor-src'/>
   <iframe allowtransparency='true' class='blogger-iframe-colorize
   blogger-comment-from-post' frameborder='0' height='410' id='comment-editor'
   name='comment-editor' src='' width='100%'/>
   <data:post.friendConnectJs/>
   <data:post.cmtfpIframe/>
   <script type='text/javascript'>
   BLOG_CMT_createIframe('<data:post.appRpcRelayPath/>',
   '<data:post.communityId/>');
   </script>
   </div>
   </b:includable>

   
   
   
6. Click 'SAVE'
   
   
7. It should now be working

It may only be a small percentage of people with this problem, but here's the answer if anyone else is experiencing it.

Problems with your Blogger comments?

I've had a few questions from people with their Blogger blog comments not working (ie you click on the "post a comment" link but nothing happens.

We have to check what kind of comments you have your blog set to as there are a few choices.

Log into your Blogger account.
Go to SETTINGS >> COMMENTS

You'll see a variety of options on this page. The one we need to check is the "Comment Form Placement". There are three choices:

• Full Page: this is where your comments/comment box are on the one page
• Pop-Up: this is when you click on "post a comment" and the comments open in a small pop-up window
• Embedded below post: this is where the comment loads/displays under the blog post being commented on.
  

If you click on "Leave a comment" and nothing seems to be happening, follow these instructions:

1) Go to DESIGN >> EDIT HTML tabs within Blogger

2) Back up your current template by clicking on "Download Full Template" (you should always back up your template/widgets before making any changes).

3) Under the big box of html code, you will see a link which says "Revert widget templates to default". Click this link. A pop up will appear which says:

"This will discard all changes to widget templates. Your widget data will remain unchanged. Continue?"

Click "OK"

Refresh your blog and you will now see that the comments are now working.

This will fix the issue.
Good luck.