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Disqus, a dark commenting system

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Re: Disqus, a dark commenting system

#22

How is this GDPR compliant? What tracking is used for EU citizens? I've seen no consent notices here in the EU.

Disqus does not track users from GDPR countries by default. My initial story in December 2019 for the Norwegian broadcaster NRK was a result of Disqus not knowing Norway had the GDPR (we are part of EEA, but not EU).

Users are checked based on IP whether they come from a GDPR country. If GDPR, they will be put in private mode. A user needs to create a profile and consent to sharing for tracking to begin.

Norwegian DPA opened an investigation as a result of our stories and Norwegians are now in private mode by default.

Re: Disqus, a dark commenting system

#23

At some point, and I feel it is close, we need to subscribe to stuff and simply pay for the stuff we want and need to use. The internet always have been a place where most stuff is free and people got used to that. At some point after that the dark parts and ad parts of the web will reside; but I do not think it will completely disappear.

I think this really depends on your moral compass. It’s not solely a matter of your business model. I don’t want to start paying for everything I want to read on the 50 pages I browse per week.

Re: Disqus, a dark commenting system

#24

What are good self-hosted alternatives? I remember looking at Commento ( https://github.com/adtac/commento ) before, but if people have had good experiences with others I'd like to hear them.

i'm the author of Commentator, a commenting system where comments are stored on any s3 compatible store (easier to manage than a DB or local storage): https://github.com/mcorbin/commentator

It's still WIP but it supports comments approval, has a rate limiter, a challenge system to avoid spammers... I already use it for my personal blog.

Re: Disqus, a dark commenting system

#26
> ib.adnxs.com - Malware site, "Adnxs appeared as the eighth-biggest name in our Tracking the Trackers data

This is AppNexus, the second-biggest display ad broker after Google. It can be argued that both Google and AppNexus facilitate the spreading of malware by injecting ads which sometimes aren't properly vetted, but simply calling it a malware site is very misleading.

Re: Disqus, a dark commenting system

#27

What are good self-hosted alternatives? I remember looking at Commento ( https://github.com/adtac/commento ) before, but if people have had good experiences with others I'd like to hear them.

I'm using Isso [0], it's simple, lightweight, and does the job. A demo is on their page.

[0] https://posativ.org/isso/

Re: Disqus, a dark commenting system

#28

Article only makes it clear at the end that it is an ad for author's "privacy first" competitor... which is a paid-for product.

And? The article _starts_ with the point that "if the product is free, you are the product". Shouldn't we therefore _prefer_ a paid-for model, which must demonstrate its value in competition with similar competitors (for instance, by protecting privacy better?)

Not all free markets are bad (though many are, and many are less free than they appear). A good free product is good, but I would rather a good not-free one than a bad free one.

Re: Disqus, a dark commenting system

#29
post #22

How is this GDPR compliant? What tracking is used for EU citizens? I've seen no consent notices here in the EU.

Disqus does not track users from GDPR countries by default. My initial story in December 2019 for the Norwegian broadcaster NRK was a result of Disqus not knowing Norway had the GDPR (we are part of EEA, but not EU). Users are checked based on IP whether they come from a GDPR country. If GDPR, they will be put in private mode. A user needs to create a profile and consent to sharing for tracking to begin. Norwegian DP…

Fair to say this is necessary but not sufficient. GDPR covers users within GDPR countries but also European data subjects wherever they are in the world.

Re: Disqus, a dark commenting system

#30

What are good self-hosted alternatives? I remember looking at Commento ( https://github.com/adtac/commento ) before, but if people have had good experiences with others I'd like to hear them.

Not self-hosted:

One alternative I’ve seen a few times recently is to start your own subreddit. Post your articles to it, link to the Reddit thread at the bottom of each posting, and let the conversation take place over there.

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