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techie tips: disqus

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I have come to like the Disqus commenting system very much. After visiting many blogs with the Disqus system, I installed it here and have been using it for a while. There are a few things that I like about it.

Comment form position: Top of Thread

In the Disqus Appearance Settings, you can choose where the comment form is placed.  This is the box where my readers can enter in their comments.  I have set it to be above the comments.  This is quite handy for when I’m running a giveaway.  I wish more blog writers moved their comment box to the top. I know that if I don’t like scrolling through 100s of comments, that others probably don’t either.

Comments by email

I like that I can receive my readers comments in my email inbox.  This lets me know that people have commented and I can reply as quickly as possible.  This email also lets me know if Disqus flagged it as spam.  Sometimes it doesn’t like a comment (not sure why). But a quick trip to the online admin panel and I can approve the comment.

So dear readers, you can be assured that I always know when you comment.  Please comment as frequently as you like and I’ll reply as quickly as I can.

iPhone App

Disqus is currently working on an iPhone app. I’m sure this will make replying to and moderating comments easier on my iPhone that trying to navigate their page in Safari.

Branding

Because Disqus allows users to have an account, you can customize your profile with a picture and username.   I have chosen to use my blog button as my avatar.  This allows me to reply to comments or comment on other blogs/sites with the same picture, therefore branding myself.  I hoping that on the blogs that I read and comment on most frequently, the author and other readers will start to recognize my picture.

Finding new blogs to read

If you’re ever on a blog with Disqus as their commenting system, you can click on a commenter’s picture and a new window pops up showing that users profile.  On the Activity tab, you can see other comments that user has made on other blogs and websites.  I have found new blogs to read this way and I can only hope that other people will find mine.

Many settings to customize it for your site or blog

I could go through each and every setting, but it’s this simple: you can change so many settings to make it work for you and your site.  And you can even add your own CSS code to customize it even further.  I won’t bore you with all the settings that I have chosen.

What are your tips?

Do you use a commenting system on your blog?
What features that you really like?
Are there features of Disqus that you think should be pointed out?

techie tips will run on Tuesdays and will be a chance for me let some of my inner geek show. Watch for more fun episodes. Same Bat-time, same Bat-blog!

7 year itch??

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The inclination to become unfaithful after seven years of marriage.

There is a counter on the right sidebar that says in 37 days I’ll be having my blogoversary.  I’ve been blogging for 7 years as of May 4th!

I can only hope that you’re all not thinking of becoming unfaithful.  That would make me sad.

To thank you all for sticking around, I’m lining up some great gifts to give away!

If you offer a service or product that you would like to give away, please let me know! I’d be more than happy to share it with my readers. Or if you’d like to offer a discount to my readers, that would be pretty awesome as well!  You can email me at mapsgirl@gmail.com.

This going to be a lot of fun!!!

if you’re looking at this from a smartphone, you’ll notice a change

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Update — Due to issues with Disqus comments not being visible. I have switched back to the regular web view. Sorry.

Back in November, I posted about trying to get my blog “mobile friendly”.  Becuase I post links to here on Twitter and many people are tweeting on a smartphone, I really wanted to make life simple for my mobile readers.  As pretty as my blog might be now (thanks, BigDaddy for my header), it doesn’t look good squished on the little screen of an iPhone.

I guess that is one of the downsides of the Blogger platform; unlike WordPress, it didn’t have have switch to turn on a “mobile friendly” version.  After trying a few different third party applications and adding and deleting code from the html from my blog, I decided to wait.  Okay, I got frustrated and gave up.  Either way, readers go to see a squishy version of my blog on their smartphone.

Since I use Blogger in Draft (dashboard URL is http://draft.blogger.com), this gives me a few early features that aren’t released platform wide.  At the beginning of December, they posted this on the Blogger in Draft blog…

I jumped to figure out how to do this for my blog!  It was the answer I was looking for!

Here is how to do it!

And from that same blog post,

In order to activate mobile templates, simply go to Dashboard > Settings > Email & Mobile tab, enable the mobile template option and then save settings.

It’s that easy!! You can do it too!

If you change your blog, let me know and I’ll check it out on my iPhone!!