LexBlog Network begins using Disqus commenting platform

With LexBlog’s upgrade to the WordPress multiuser publishing platform, blogs published by firms purchasing the upgrade and all new blogs on the LexBlog network are using the Disqus commenting platform. Mine included. The Disqus platform includes various features, such as social integration, social networking, user profiles, spam and moderation tools, analytics, email notifications, and mobile commenting. Disqus, founded in 1997 by Daniel Ha (@danielha) and Jason Tan (@jasonyan), is the leading online discussion and commenting service for websites and online communities. In addition to the LexBlog Network of over 7,000 lawyers and other service professionals, the Disqus commenting platform is used by over half a billion people across some of the largest sites on the web such as Engadget, CNN, Fox News, and Daily Telegraph. I’ve been watching Disqus for sometime as one way to connect members of our LexBlog Network (LXBN). Using Disqus when commenting on other blogs, such as Dave Winer’s Scripting News, I liked not only its ease of use, but the way it displayed my profile when commenting. Fred Wilson (@fredwilson), an investor in Disqus and someone I have a lot of respect for, shared some time ago the advantages of Disqus.

• Threaded discussions – When you want to leave a comment that is actually a reply to someone else’s comment, you click on the reply link and the comment/reply is indented right under the original comment. On any comment thread/discussion with a lot of action, this is absolutely necessary to make sense of the discussion.
• Emails every comment to the blogger – If the blogger wants to reply to the comment, he/she simply replies to the email and it is posted as a reply. This feature, is the single best thing about Disqus and has transformed my blog comments because I can now participate in them in real time throughout the day as the conversation develops. This is a BIG DEAL.
• Email replies for commenters – If you leave a comment in Disqus and have given Disqus your email address, you will get an email when anyone replies to your comment. You can reply to that just like the blogger can. This is also a big deal and leads to much more active commenting and replying – ie discussion.
• Shared profiles – As more and more blogs add Disqus, the profiles that commenters create in Disqus are shared across blogs. This is an important network effect that benefits the blogger and his/her community. For example, if you have a blog that is read by a similar audience as another blog, most of the commenters will already be recognized by Disqus the first time they show up in the other blog’s comments. They don’t need to set up a new profile. They”ll have the same avatar/icon and identity.

When you comment on my blog log into Disqus to create your own user profile. Disqus will then archive and display, with your profile, all of your comments across the LexBlog Network and from across the Internet.