June 2017 Update: Anyone who had followed this blog for a while and pays attention to the comment system will see that I have been rather indecisive with regard to which system to use. I have tried nearly all of them. When I was focused on page load speed, I went with the native WordPress comment system. When I was focused on improving interaction, I gravitated back to Disqus. For the time being I’m back with Disqus.
You may notice that the Disqus comment system is back on this blog. The bottom line is that Disqus just works and I will spend less effort around moderating spam comments. If there is a slight penalty in page load speed, then I will live with it. I tried the native WordPress comment system and was flooded with spam. I added Spam Free WordPress and got no spam but then it was more difficult for humans to comment. I tried IntenseDebate and it seemed to struggle to integrate with other WordPress tools and I would be notified of comments that I could not find within IntenseDebate. So after wandering around in the comment system wilderness, I’m back with Disqus. Any Comments?