@joeworkman : I’ve just completed the SEO and Total CMS video tutorials series on the RW site (great tutorials by the way from Ben Counsell …). On the TotalCMS topic about adding a third party comments section on a blog, the options in the Comments Stack are Disqus and Facebook (basically). Is it possible to “maintain/host” the comments locally (on my own hosting servers) without having to subscribe to an external account ? If so, what would be the draw-backs / advantages ? What would be the pro’s and con’s of Disqus vs Facebook ?
I know you’re asking Joe specifically, but mind if I chime in?
What you’re looking for, is CommentStack by Will Woodgate. That stack stores all comments (or reviews) on your own server in a plain text file.
It’s a bit more pricey than solutions using third party hosting like DisQus or Facebook, but a lot more privacy friendly (and DisQus isn’t free if you want the cool options either).
Erwin, thanks for your feedback, I will definitely check it out.
What I am also hoping to understand (am new to that bit) is what other advantages the third party services such as FaceBook and Disqus have … is it e.g. possible using the CommentsStack to also “share” posts or comments to social media ? If that is the case, i would probably prefer to host on my own server as you mention, but on the other hand if it isn’t I probably need to weigh the pro’s and con’s of (not) being able to get exposure through the comments …
As a relatively new member to the community, I really like the responsiveness Makes me feel very welcome.
Both the DisQus and Facebook services allow sharing of comments/reviews. I’m not sure if DisQus includes it in their free tier though; you’d have to check.
In borh cases it comes at a price in the form of third party trackers being called. Keep that in mind if you intend to serve European visitors, as you’ll have to include a control panel for them where they can switch it off. But of course there’s a stack for that too
Makes me feel very welcome.