As Floating Path continues to grow, I’ve been thinking more and more about the current comment system and what changes should or need to be made.
The WordPress default comment system, with the help of a few plugins to allow users to login with their social identities, is relatively simple and does the job. There are many benefits I feel like we are missing out on though by not switching to a third party comment system, particularly Facebook’s.
Of the major third party commenting systems to choose from, Facebook’s seems to me to be the best choice for a few reasons.
- Users are usually already logged in and can post quickly.
- The best comments, or the most up-voted, rise to the top, allowing readers to see the important comments first.
- There is a “Post to Facebook” option when you comment, giving commenters the ability to display their comment to others in their newsfeed. This is also a benefit for the hosting site as a “Joe Somebody commented on Article X” is essentially the same as a Like to the page for sharing purposes.
- Some Facebook users have enabled the Subscribe feature, allowing readers who see their comments to subscribe to them on Facebook (without being their friend). It’s a minor detail, but many commenters (a few on TechCrunch come to mind) seem to have ambitions of spreading their personal brand through their Facebook comments. And some have acquired a large number of Facebook subscribers in doing so.
- Most people have a Facebook account.
Other third party comment systems have some of these features, but it is tough to match Facebook’s sheer size and the comfort level most users already have with its interface.
The downsides to Facebook are of course either [a] The reader and potential commenter doesn’t have a Facebook account or [b] The user wishes to remain anonymous and does not want to be leaving personal information that identifies them on your site.
This is somewhat problematic here at Floating Path. The vast majority of our readers are finance and banking professionals, and for whatever reason you guys just aren’t too into Facebook. You are, however, very into the Twitter.
Many on Twitter have clearly identified themselves, but Twitter also lets users tweet and follow anonymously, known only by whatever @handle they have chosen.
So, why oh why, has Twitter not come out with a comment system yet? We would be the first to sign up!
So long as it included the main features that Facebook offers (up and down vote comments, “Tweet your comment” option, Follow button), this could make for an outstanding platform.
Get on it Twitter! Otherwise, we might be switching to Facebook like everyone else.
