Comrades, sorry to wander all Prog Off on you all, but I wanted to publish a warning about a serious issue in the blogosphere that could be a danger in two ways.

Disqus is a commenting system being propagated throughout the blogosphere, and while it's not used here I wished to point out some its main problems just in case its use may be under consideration.

Given the excellent user interface of the system here, I find it hard to believe why anyone would consider replacing it with the far inferior Disqus system. There are also those who venture out into the web who may also encounter this free-speech abomination.

Now, why is disqus a big issue? For starters, it is from a great center of proggiedom – the people's republic of Kalifornia. And while this isn't an issue on it face, the company's actions make it suspect as I will explain.

The system's main advantage (and danger) is that it's being spread across the web to most websites – providing it with virtual corner on the market in discussions on the web. One login lets you comment almost everywhere, but this ubiquitousness comes at a price.

These are just some of its “issues”:

1). Stalker ‘followers'
Disqus lets you follow friends and like-minded people, and they can follow you. But this function has a ‘dark side' in that Trolls can also follow and harass you everywhere you go. Other systems like twitter have addressed this problem and let you block said trolls, but Disqus has so far refused to do so.

This function lets trolls stalk and harass you since this function gives them access to everything you do.

Example: there is a particularly egregious troll that stalks 100 – 200 – 300 people at time and simply trolls them at every turn. The only recourse to those being stalked it to try and create a new ID until such time the troll adds that new id to its stalking list.

And while numerous people have requested that they be allowed to block stalkers, disqus has yet to do so.

On top of which, they implemented a band-aide solution that doesn't really solve the problem.

Aside from the annoyance factor, the larger issue would be the security vulnerability issue – if someone can hack into their system and do that, what else can they do in regard to identity theft?

2). Dashboard issues
A dashboard lets you see all of your conversations at once – if it works, which is doesn't. so if you tend to wander around, you will miss responses to you posts.

On many a leftist site, many responses don't get passed back to the dashboard of some unexplained reason and thus it can look like you have no response to a comment from a socialist, when in fact it was there.

3). Username Changing
Unlike many other sites, Disqus allows one to change your username at any time. In the case of many of the trolls, they will harass until people get wind of their actions and ignore them, at which point they will change their name to something else. it's very difficult to avoid ‘feeding the trolls' when they do this.

4). Impersonations
Disqus lets people blatantly impersonate other users – they have some boilerplate against it, but beyond this they turn a blind eye to this kind of abuse.

Certain trolls have a habit of impersonating those with whom they disagree and post spurious comments and abuse to discredit their opponents.

5). Disqus refuses to address these glaring issues.
One could allow that they perhaps needed time to do something about these problems, but after a long while it should be evident that they either don't care, or they want these problems to be present.

In fact, you will find it hard to discuss these issue on the Disqus system since it automatically delets posts that mention its issues.

So why do I bring all of these problems to light?

Simply because Disqus seems to be taking over most of the blogosphere, and if they have these kind of issues now, what will happen when they have a corner on the market?

There are competing comment systems out there, but Disqus seems to be winning everyone over. Therefore it's imperative that people know its problems before it too late.

Comrade Sterpin,

A most excellent observation you have made.

I propose that rather than dealing with the root of the problem, or worse, *spit* letting the problem work itself out through market forces, we do what all good progressives do:

INTRODUCE NEW LEGISLATION TO ADDRESS IT.

This legislation won't solve the root of the problem, but it will provide a marvelous opportunity for Government Growth, thought kontrol, and the kind of cronyism most profitable to our cause (such as the holy Obamacare website).

We can use this opportunity to establish a new governmental department -- The Department of Internet, first suggested by my good friend Randall Munroe:

https://xkcd.com/494/
https://xkcd.com/495/
https://xkcd.com/496/
https://xkcd.com/497/
https://xkcd.com/498/

Just as in these hypothetical proceedings, we will refuse to nominate Ron Paul for the position of Secretary of the Internet, but we will not make the mistake of nominating someone with technical prowess.

I never liked Disqus - it's slow, unwieldy, and impossible to link to in the context of the story discussed. SOmetimes I get links to the Cube from Disqus in the stats, but when I try to see the thread, the comments seem to flow in an empty space without the story attached.

Forcing readers to comment using Disqus is disrespectful to their effort, time, and dedication, because their comments do not become part of the site but exist separately in a generic commentary cloud.

Thus, sites who use Disqus lose the opportunity to develop that special character of a settled culture that usually gives rise to rich, diverse, and unique communities.

In this sense, Disqus encourages the opposite - a nomadic commenting culture of temporary grazing and permanent migration, forays, invasions by hordes of trolls who have no respect for the settled local residents, and no attachment to any particular patch of land. Nomadic cultures are never prosperous and have little to contribute to humanity.

Coming from a culture of settled farmers who throughout their history suffered from nomadic invasions, I prefer to stay away from things that enable brutal, destructive hordes.

Whatever platform I choose for the People's Cube in the future, I'll never outsource the comment part because they are an organic element of this site.

Then there are the "comment" sections that give you the "easy" option of logging in with another account. This process will apparently "receive" some of your information. It does not say what will be done with it .... I would like to see a "Log in with The People's Cube" option, following which you would be informed that all of your information (and past, present and future) thought crimes would be immediately reported to the appropriate authorities.

Whatever platform I choose for the People's Cube in the future, I'll never
outsource the comment part because they are an organic element of this site.

This just in: The People's Cube is the only Organic Website on the Intertubes! Certified 100% natural and in many cases, untouched by human hands! No arificial colors or preservatives!We are your Fair Sourced Source for the Current Truth! AND WE JUST BOUGHT A ENTIRE BARRELL FULL OF EXCLAMATION POINTS!!!!

Red Square wrote:In this sense, Disqus encourages the opposite - a nomadic commenting culture of temporary grazing and permanent migration, forays, invasions by hordes of trolls who have no respect for the settled local residents, and no attachment to any particular patch of land.

OMG - it's Democrat Heaven!!

Heh. I always ASSUMED that The Cube™ is organic. How could it be otherwise?

Fully beet-driven, and powered by the upraised fist of Progress, The Cube™ stands alone in the incredible world of NextTuesday™, a glorious symbol of equality for the rest to strive FORWARD! to reach... but they never will.

Because, racist. And Phil Robertson.

Red Square wrote:I never liked Disqus - it's slow, unwieldy, and impossible to link to in the context of the story discussed. SOmetimes I get links to the Cube from Disqus in the stats, but when I try to see the thread, the comments seem to flow in an empty space without the story attached.

Forcing readers to comment using Disqus is disrespectful to their effort, time, and dedication, because their comments do not become part of the site but exist separately in a generic commentary cloud.

Whatever platform I choose for the People's Cube in the future, I'll never outsource the comment part because they are an organic element of this site.

1). Thank you for affirming that you're not thinking of switching over to that abomination to free-speech.

2). I hadn't thought about the nomadic commenting culture aspect – but that is an excellent point.

Being concerned about the events of the day, I like to add my two rubles into the mix – and I'm forced to use that system.

There was a time where I thought is was good that they had that – but now when I come across another site I frequently visit that has been ‘turned', I'm usually disappointed that it is taking over more of the blogosphere.

I fear the day when most of the web is controlled by that system – the suppression of free-speech is never a good thing.

I like how trolls are slaughtered by the rules of Halal...

Prog Off:

Those are very good concerns about Disqus, especially the trolling part. BUT, we could use the very same tactics to spread common sense and knowledge like the progs/libs spread stupidity and lies.

Using the tactics of the enemy is sometimes beneficial; art of war 101...just saying.

I prefer anonymity on the internet honestly. If I need to make 100 accounts, it's extra work for me, but I don't care about receiving "fame" or "credit" for what I post; my goal is to spread truthful knowledge....if someone else wants to take credit, fine. It's the ideas and principles that matter, not who's associated with them.

With that being said, whoever manages Disqus really COULD improve it, but I hope it doesn't become an identity whore like Google, Facebook, Youtube, etc.

Uncle Barry wrote:Prog Off:

Those are very good concerns about Disqus, especially the trolling part. BUT, we could use the very same tactics to spread common sense and knowledge like the progs/libs spread stupidity and lies.

I prefer anonymity on the internet honestly. If I need to make 100 accounts, it's extra work for me, but I don't care about receiving "fame" or "credit" for what I post; my goal is to spread truthful knowledge....if someone else wants to take credit, fine. It's the ideas and principles that matter, not who's associated with them.

I hear what you're saying – anonymity is one nice aspect of that system, but the rest of it needs to be fixed

It would be a very bad thing were it to become an identity whore and control a great deal of the conversations on the web.