roll your own commenting system
I've done it and it can be ugly. Eventually I just disabled all commenting and I'm happy with that.
Disqus, a dark commenting system
61–70 of 271 posts
Re: Disqus, a dark commenting system
#62What 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.
Talkyard Blog Comments, https://talkyard.io/blog-comments
(I'm developing it. Open source: https://github.com/debiki/talkyard. Not yet so well documented — soon time to add more docs, ... as per this nice discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26002656 )
Re: Disqus, a dark commenting system
#63Earlier quoted context omitted.
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 t…
> And? ... and I won't read these fake advertorials if I don't get cheated into reading them by witholding the admission about what they are until the end. I don't want to be lectured about Dark Patterns by a guy who deliberately misled me as his first and only interaction with me.
It's like that Social Dilemma movie which is 100% based on the tactics of fear and engagement generation it ascribes to social network.
Re: Disqus, a dark commenting system
#64Earlier quoted context omitted.
Exactly. This blog clearly showed that tracking remained even after switching to a paid plan. These companies have tasted the forbidden fruit of surveillance capitalism and they won't roll back voluntarily.
The market-based approach wouldn't have these companies rolling back their surveillance, but consumers en masse moving over to paid, privacy-focused alternatives. I don't actually consider this remotely likely, but the world is getting weirder, so I'm not writing off the highly improbable so easily.
> The market-based approach wouldn't have these companies rolling back their surveillance, but consumers en masse moving over to paid, privacy-focused alternatives.
I see what you're saying, but you're referring to something like a "market-based solution" to this problem. The one and only market-based outcome is the one we have. This is a case of imperfect information. There's no reason to expect a market-only approach to deliver a desirable outcome when one party has so much more information than the other.
Re: Disqus, a dark commenting system
#65Where are all the defenders claiming this is all necessary and great because it enables superior advertising? Whenever we have a Google or Facebook they always seem to crawl out of the woodwork, no love for the small businesses which rely on advertising here?
Re: Disqus, a dark commenting system
#66Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is very true, I know this has been discussed over and over, but I definitely prefer reading a personal HTML old style based blog than a Medium blog post which I need to access in incognito.
Yeah, I think the problem with self-hosting vs. Medium is that it is harder for the authors to reach a large audience. I mean, even if you don't want to make money from your cool project or tutorial or whatever, you still want people to see it. But man, I really hate Medium.
the problem with self-hosting vs. Medium is that it is harder for the authors to reach a large audience.
Isn't this is a problem that search engines were intended to solve? Before they went into the ad business, I mean?
Re: Disqus, a dark commenting system
#67Earlier quoted context omitted.
The web was that way because there wasn't much profit to be made. With enough users, advertising becomes viable and becomes the driving factor in content production.
That is debatable, but what isn't is the fact that the third option exists - which never gets mentioned in the tired old "If you don't disable that pesky adblocker - you'll be forced to pay!" posts.
Yes, the hobbyist web still exists. But it's hampered by the much larger commercial web IMO. The influx of members to any non-commercial web community is disturbed by the commercial entities that draw so much of the attention that to most people, it seems like there isn't anything else on the web.
The big fish use up so much oxygen that the little fish in the pond shrivel up. They live, but in a stunted form.
Re: Disqus, a dark commenting system
#68> Obviously, advertising companies do everything to increase their revenue.
It's bit naive. Every company exists to increase their revenue.
Re: Disqus, a dark commenting system
#69Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
Eh, hosting on reddit isn't much better than Disqus.
Worse even. It's in Reddit's interest to get the reader off your blog and into their app
Re: Disqus, a dark commenting system
#70The author of the post runs a competitor called Hyvor Talk (he discloses this at the end). I've had hyvor talk for more than a year. I don't run a blog thats very popular, but it has been quite easy to integrate (I use React, Gatsby/ static side generation, and Hyvor Talk has a react component). An example of the system is at the bottom of that blog post. There used to be a free tier, but now there isn't. I am only s…
I'm conflicted about the free tier thing. On the one hand, I get that personal/non-commercial sites don't generate revenue - so shelling out for a comment system is unattractive.
On the other hand: the whole reason that shady, dark pattern, privacy killers like disqus exist is because people won't pay for stuff. It's at least partly cultural. We'll pay for hosting, or internet access. Why won't we pay for other services if they're valuable to us?
A large part is messaging from the ad-tech industry. Facebook's positioning in its spat with Apple is a good example [0]. "Free is your right!" "Free keeps small businesses afloat!".
"Free" is out the cage; it's never getting completely put put back in. But it seems inconsistent to both rail against privacy invasion and refuse to pay for stuff.
[0]: https://www.facebook.com/business/news/ios-14-apple-privacy-...