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?

After about 3 minutes of internet research on the subject, I decided to no longer use the Disqus comment system on this blog. I had no serious problems with Disqus. The service was free and it worked well. Yet, I found some reasons to turn off Disqus and I think they are strong enough to warrant keeping it turned off. In fact, I have deleted the plugin and do not plan on re-installing it.

Here are the reasons why I think uninstalling Disqus was a good move:

1. It drastically improved my page load speed. I’m not a technical wizard, but I guess it is because using the comments system inside WordPress allows the comment system to be cached along with the post. (Any tech guru’s who have a better explanation can chime in with a comment as to why it got faster)
2. The native Worpress comment system works better with the the WPTouch plugin. When using a touch screen device, the count is superimposed on the little calendar page icon within the WPTouch theme. This helps me keep track of comments and respond or spam them accordingly. Disqus would email me, but the functionality built into WPTouch makes it much easier to track on my mobile device using the native WordPress comment system.
3. The WordPress Checker Extension in Chrome works better with WordPress than with Disqus. Since Chrome is my primary browser, this helps me keep better track of comments.
4. The WordPress comment functionality seems to work adequately and I don’t think I’m missing any benefits.

Feel free to comment about how to make the comment experience better for readers. I’d love to hear any ideas.