Disqus - Friends of franpro

Re: Is Social Media Becoming Less Social?

Vernessa Taylor — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 14:25:56 -0000

"It certainly occurs on the hashtag pages, but it’s diminishing on Twitter proper. Maybe it’s unrealistic to think that meaningful interpersonal exchange can happen regularly in such a public forum."

It really is difficult to have a meaningful interpersonal exchange when you are following so many people and so many are following you. But I do love the fact that *if* you have the time to pay attention to the hundreds of little comments that come through, you can easily "get in where you fit in" and discover things from people whose paths you might never cross in a lifetime.

Although I skim and occasionally reply or RT a tweet, mostly I tend to look for the hashtags I'm interested in. Using HootSuite, I have a column that does an automatic search for those hashtags and I immediately check them for conversations I want to follow and comment on. I'm new to Twitter, so I'm grateful for the various automated tools that help me be social in as meaningful a way as I can. (And thanks for this blog post!)

Re: Is Social Media Becoming Less Social?

Vernessa Taylor — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 18:32:34 -0000

You're welcome! This might be a good time to sign up for HS as they're offering a free upgrade to their 2.0 Beta version (at least they were last week).

Re: Sony Rifles Through Michael Jackson’s Coffin, Will Release ‘Concert’ Film In October

Vernessa Taylor — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 17:07:16 -0000

All his concerts were top-notch. I don't see any reason for this cinematic rendition to take a "quality" hit. I'm glad these deals are coming together quickly because that means Mr. Jackson's estate can retire his debt easily and his family will see the benefit of his labor of love.

Re: Convert Signed Out Links to Your Signed In History

Vernessa Taylor — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 11:07:13 -0000

Still, this does not take into account links created with desktop apps like TweetDeck, which has support built in for bit.ly and shortens the URL right there on the tweet screen.

Re: Why and How to Use Disqus with Wordpress

Vernessa Taylor — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 16:13:09 -0000

I was doing a bit of research about how and why to use Diqus and your informative post came up near the top of Google results. I already knew I wanted to use it on my blog -- I've set up an account. But I wanted to hear some experiences of others before I pointed to it as a "good" idea. Thanks for your insights and tutorial. (And thanks to others who have shared questions and answers.) Your post has a most lively discussion and I will be sure to point others here who are trying to make up their minds. Cheers!

Re: Review: Should You Use DISQUS Comment System? Maybe…

Vernessa Taylor — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 16:37:49 -0000

Funny you should ask that question about how Disqus makes money. In searching for how and why to use Diqus, I came across the site of one of their Venture Capitalists! The guy who wrote the post was sharing 3 reasons to use Disqus. If it is ok to post a link, it is http://bit.ly/VrWVt (shortened because the URL is really long).

Re: Outside the Echo Chamber: Comments, Alive and Well

Vernessa Taylor — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 07:46:45 -0000

"That’s why we introduced Reactions, a built-in feature of Disqus that aggregates comments and mentions of your blog post or article and displays them with the comments. We released this about 4 months ago with our friends at uberVU, and are now also working with our friends at BackType, to bring reactions to all publishers using Disqus."

I haven't come across anyone else (that I know personally) using BackType.com along with Disqus. I'm using it for the reasons mention by Michel: choice of re-publishing. And they (BackType) make it dead-simple with links to Reply, Original, Permalink, Tweet -- right under the comment. Simple! The only thing I don't like about BackType is it is a bit slow to grab all the comments from various places around the web and drop them into your profile -- especially comments on blogs that incorporate Disqus. This is a bit disconcerting, given Disqus' comment above "...and are now also working with our friends at BackType, to bring reactions to all publishers using Disqus."

I, too, would like to see intuitive integration, that is, both with BackType and within the Disqus control panel.

Re: Review: Should You Use DISQUS Comment System? Maybe…

Vernessa Taylor — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 07:56:42 -0000

Thanks, Peter! Your conundrum (how is this free service monetized) certainly gives us food for thought. We may have to just keep chewing on it, with our eyes peeled, because wherever I look to find an answer to your question -- I come up blank! Everything I've read says, in essence, this is an entirely altruistic endeavor. For the record, note that while Disqus says the service is free, they never make the claim, "And it will ALWAYS remain free."

Re: How do I hide Disqus comments from "pages" using the wordpress plug in?

Vernessa Taylor — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 21:53:43 -0000

I really can't think of anyone who wants comments on their "Pages" in WordPress. The whole idea is that these Pages are generally informational and static. For some people this is a deal breaker. I don't want to disable Disqus (I'm just starting to use it), but I also don't want comments on my About Page.

It would be nice if Disqus staff would both answer this and fix it. It is counterproductive to replace part of a system in a CMS with an external tool, only to have that tool stubbornly re-introduce features the CMS allows us to remove.

Re: Tossing the Disqus

Vernessa Taylor — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 14:11:49 -0000

Good for you, ole man! (I know about "un-cool" too -- I started with DOS-based FidoNet back in the day!) I've been following the Disqus integration woes and posted a few help links about it on Twitter over the last few weeks. After reading others comments, I've been carefully switching my WordPress blogs' commenting systems over. I also use Blogger (sporadically, at best), so it's good to know where I can get some help with Disqus+Blogger. I've retweeted the link I found to this post. I'm sure somebody else was wondering how to make this happen. Thanks again!

Re: BlueHost vs DreamHost vs HostGator

Vernessa Taylor — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 00:19:52 -0000

Nice, honest review, Taranfx. I have both DreamHost (3+ years) and HostGator accounts. I keep DH because I don't need much support (maybe 3 times in 3 years), it offers SSH, and I can run almost any app there that might not run on some of the other hosts. However, I am increasingly annoyed at them with all the Internal Server 500 errors lately, which I think are due to my WordPress blogs.

I keep a HG account because of cPanel, so I can visually walk clients through issues. I also like HostGator because I was able to run a database app on it that wouldn't even run on DH. And I don't get Error 500 when running my (or my clients') WordPress blogs.

One thing you might want to address:

"They all have same CPanel, same Fantastico (for installing apps) and good ways of managing MySQL database (PhpmyAdmin), unlimited accounts."

DreamHost doesn't use cPanel, it uses a proprietary control panel, which IMHO is definitely NOT user friendly. I rarely recommend DH to clients because of this.

Re: YouTube to Drop Support For IE6 Starting Next Month

Vernessa Taylor — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 05:30:58 -0000

Hilarious that I should be reading this while using IE7 (only because FF3x has been slowing down and I need to take time to troubleshoot it)! Gently encouraging users to "get a better browser" hasn't worked, so I finally added plugins to my WordPress sites warning users to switch -- or expect a reduced viewing experience. (FYI: Referrer Detector and WP Greet Box can be found in the official WP plugin directory.)

Its really great to see the giants taking this momentous step. Their refusal to continue pandering to IE6 will (hopefully) move the masses along the better path. I have to agree with @laineunited -- "a bright day," indeed!

Re: BlueHost vs DreamHost vs HostGator

Vernessa Taylor — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 04:15:28 -0000

What are you disagreeing with? In my experience, the people who love the DH control panel are usually far more technically inclined than the group of people I would recommend cPanel for. Case in point is your use of "second level subdomain." My clients, family, and friends wouldn't begin to know what you were referring to.

cPanel isn't the "best" control panel necessarily. But everywhere you look, you'll see pictures. Most of the techie jargon is hidden. When you want your clients to DIY, you tend to give them something that makes it easier for them -- and easier for you (from a tech support standpoint).

Re: Does Social Media Compromise Military Operations?

Vernessa Taylor — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 15:50:08 -0000

Yes, military personnel should be allowed to use social media in the same way they are allowed to participate in video broadcasts that put them in touch with family. However, I think they should only be allowed after proper training in relevant (and sanctioned) use and transmissions should go through a vetting process. A kind of "harmful words" filter. Yes, that means reduced privacy. But that would be the price to pay for some semblance of normalcy. It seems the more technology changes, the stranger the challenges we have to face and overcome.

Re: shortening issues

Vernessa Taylor — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 12:19:21 -0000

Glad you've got shortening issues sorted out. Not experiencing any issues today, but did notice a curious happening for a brief period yesterday: several link descriptions started with "Error ..." or "Not Found ..." then continued to list the name of the link. (These are the descriptions automatically generated by bit.ly once it shortens the URL..) I manually corrected each one.

Re: 15+ Amazing Project Management and Collaboration Tools

Vernessa Taylor — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 18:04:11 -0000

Great round-up of project management tools. I have used ActiveCollab and BaseCamp, both good PM apps. Think I'll give some of these you've highlighted a try, so I can have more business productivity choices to recommend to my clients. Thanks!
.-= Vernessa´s last blog ..Answer: Why The Featured Posts Slider In The Hybrid News Theme Stopped Working =-.

Re: Client Tactics: How to Spot a Deadbeat Client

Vernessa Taylor — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 18:24:31 -0000

What an entertaining read, and as @ashley Parsons said "dismal" reality. Recognizing a deadbeat before he kills your finances is a real problem. I recently came across the "Too Busy To Breathe" fellow. He was so busy, he didn't have time to ask his own questions or hear the answers! (He'd call me then be too busy to hold a meaningful conversation when I called him back.) I finally realized he was a deadbeat *before* I accepted him as a client when he was too busy to make his deposit via PayPal. A week of that and I sent him a nice long message, the gist of which was "Find someone else. Thanks!"
.-= Vernessa´s last blog ..Display RSS Feeds on Your WordPress Pages, Posts, or Sidebar =-.

Re: Ustream videos not working? – Fixed!

Vernessa Taylor — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 03:13:50 -0000

Man, you sure saved me countless minutes trying to troubleshoot this one! Just last week, when I was running some spyware/malware checks to be sure my system was up to snuff, I disabled all the non-critical (I thought) Flash stuff in both Firefox and Chrome. Like you said, nothing in the Google searches -- until your post showed up. Thanks! (Double-thanks!)

Re: How to Drive More Customers to Your Local Business With Social Geotagging

Vernessa Taylor — Sun, 11 Apr 2010 22:07:42 -0000

@Clement Great information. Never heard of FSq until you wrote about it.

@shannonevans: I thoroughly agree that "Geotagging is growing in importance and it starts with creating a local listing with the big boys: Google, Yahoo, Bing, Judy's Book, Yelp, and City Search...then following up with Social elements like Twitter, Foursquare, Whirrl, etc. "

Some of my clients have storefronts and have put their local businesses on the web. While participating in something like FourSquare may not be at the top of their list, I would recommend that make provision for their current (and potential) clients who might be using it. In this competitive climate, it makes sense to identify segments of the market, and if the entry cost is low enough, find a way to gain those customers who make up that segment. And if businesses who have a website are already using a map on the site, Geotagging, and stuff like FSq, should be an easy next step.

Re: We are moving « Sakic.Net blog

Vernessa Taylor — Sun, 25 Apr 2010 06:56:59 -0000

Since you ask about experience from American users . . . I cannot compare a "before* and *after* because this is my first visit here, but I can say your site is very fast. I am visiting from a southern state in USA. Don't know if this matters, but I'm using high-speed. Since German does not appear to be your native language, it is commendable that you could set up your server and continue to maintain it with the help of Google translate! :)

Re: Because Lost Is A Rerun Tonight...

Vernessa Taylor — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 08:34:57 -0000

Yeah, Rose would make a great surly Lieutenant, and Kate might be a great informant but probably a better misunderstood fugitive.

I know the feeling! I was highly disappointed that there was a rerun in the middle of this final season, and all the technical and marketing explanations don’t make it any better. But the video does. :)

Re: Why You Need to Make a Facebook Fan Page for Your Website NOW!

Vernessa Taylor — Wed, 12 May 2010 21:30:07 -0000

When I was looking for a compelling reason to create a FaceBook fan page, this article was one that helped me make up my mind. I didn't realize that pages are public (reason #1) nor had I considered they had any SEO value (reason #2). I'm glad this post was still here (and I can see others are still making use of it, too). I've included it as a reference in one of my recent blog posts (http://bit.ly/duhkNU) and in an EzineArticles submission.

Re: 7 Free Apps I Couldn’t Live Without

Vernessa Taylor — Sun, 16 May 2010 20:37:12 -0000

Evernote seems to make its way onto more and more Top Apps lists. I've looked at it more than once and did not see the need for it. Windows Live Writer is one I haven't given any consideration (I haven't even been curious about it). Think I'll give them both a try. I formerly conducted QuickBooks and PeachTree training for small business, and QuickBooks remains one of my all time favorites. Great list . . . yes, somebody is reading! :)

Re: 7 Free Apps I Couldn’t Live Without

Vernessa Taylor — Sun, 16 May 2010 23:50:03 -0000

Thanks for the tips on Evernote and Live Writer. I usually create blog posts with the visual mode off, so if Live Writer can do that, that would definitely be a plus.

I like Squidoo for the extra exposure it gives local businesses. Yes, please feel free to ask me any questions. I'm not an expert, but I've listed a number of them on my primary Squidoo Lens (vernessataylor).

Nice job on your Squidoo Lenses! When I visited your thatbookeeper2 lens (Best Free Work Apps) I was pleasantly surprised to see that one of my lenses (try-linux) showed up in the Explore Related Pages section. Must be that love we have for good open source software. :)

Re: 3 Basic Technological Skills Online Entrepreneurs Can’t Survive Without

Vernessa Taylor — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 23:36:07 -0000

Hi Cori, You hit the nail on the head when you said entrepreneurs can't do without these 3 tips. My favorite AV tool is Avast, but I always recommend folk add Malwarebytes to their toolbox and let it do its automatic magic.