Facebook powered comments on the EOSHD front page - would you use the forum less if enabled?

[Andrew Reid]

Looking for feedback from users on this...

 

The blog has been very successful in seeding the forum we have today, which is nice and busy.

 

However many people have requested comments to be enabled on the bottom of main blog posts.

 

I originally turned these off due to low quality of comments (and the commenters too, you might say ;) and channelled everything into creating a community.

 

So the question is - If comments for articles were enabled on the blog posts (Facebook login required) would you use the forum less?

[Viet Bach Bui]

Would comments left in the blog be sync'ed with the associated forum topic and, conversely, would posts made in the forum topic show up in the blog? If the answer to both is yes then I see no reason why having comments in blogs would hurt the forum traffic.

[sudopera]

I'm not a big fan of facebook comments or any other social networks variations and if that is a requirement, to me it's better as it is now. I understand your worries about inflation of trolls if you enable regular comments below posts, so again it's maybe best to leave it like this. Just my opinion.

[Nick Hughes]

I don't think it would be good to have two simulataneous, seperate discussions on each blog post. It might be better to somehow embed the associated forum thread associated below the actual post, but I don't know how feasilbe that would be.

[fuzzynormal]

I don't have a Facebook account, so my answer would be "No, I wouldn't use it."

[Andrew Reid]

Would comments left in the blog be sync'ed with the associated forum topic and, conversely, would posts made in the forum topic show up in the blog? If the answer to both is yes then I see no reason why having comments in blogs would hurt the forum traffic.

 

No, there's no way to do it like that unfortunately.

[Jacek]

I don't have a Facebook account, so my answer would be "No, I wouldn't use it."

Me too.

[Quirky]

So the question is - If comments for articles were enabled on the blog posts (Facebook login required) would you use the forum less?

 

It depends. I skip any online service and comment section that requires Facebook login. 

If this forum required FB login, I wouldn't post here, either. Being able to post anonymously is not the issue here, but being able to post without a Facebook account is. There are other popular 3rd party identification alternatives not tied to Facebook or Google, like Disqus, for example.

 

Are you looking for ways to get rid of this forum, perhaps?  ;)

[andy lee]

if it ain't broke.......don't fix it ...

it will dilute the forum IMHO

[dahlfors]

It's rare to see an implementation of discussing articles on a forum like on EOSHD. Facebook comments / Disqus etc are pretty much the norm these days. But the way it is now on EOSHD is what makes the discussions so much more saner than in other forums in my opinion. I was surprised to see an implementation like this when I started lurking around here many years ago - but I've really grown to like the format of reading blog article, go to forum section to see what other people chime in.

 

I guess you want more people to join in if you are considering this. I'd say - if you want people to be more active, I'd rather suggest looking into a solution that picks up amount of comments, maybe a sample of the first/most liked comment and presents it near the "Comment on article" link at the bottom of the blog post. Something to get attention for people to go see the discussion and join in.

[Andrew Reid]

It's rare to see an implementation of discussing articles on a forum like on EOSHD. Facebook comments / Disqus etc are pretty much the norm these days. But the way it is now on EOSHD is what makes the discussions so much more saner than in other forums in my opinion. I was surprised to see an implementation like this when I started lurking around here many years ago - but I've really grown to like the format of reading blog article, go to forum section to see what other people chime in.

 

I guess you want more people to join in if you are considering this. I'd say - if you want people to be more active, I'd rather suggest looking into a solution that picks up amount of comments, maybe a sample of the first/most liked comment and presents it near the "Comment on article" link at the bottom of the blog post. Something to get attention for people to go see the discussion and join in.

 

Good to hear, thanks.

 

The way it is has worked very well so far, so a change is unlikely. Just interested in the feedback, which as ever is proving very valuable. Thanks all!