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I watch my blog traffic stats closely. How many people are visiting, what are they reading and how long are they hanging around? But most of us, me included, want comments, too. I know. I just wrote a post on the value of both kinds of visitors: the spectators (your readers) and the players (your readers who comment). And both kinds of readers are appreciated.
Still, most of us want more comments. We crave the learning and interactions that happen in the conversations. And we want the kind of feedback that will make our content sharper, richer, more useful.
Livefyre, the most social commenting system I know, has just made all of that easier.
Why I returned to Livefyre
I removed Livefyre last December, after surveying you, my readers. But with their new version, the folks at Livefyre have made changes to address many of your biggest concerns with the system. Among other things, you can now sign in as a guest so you don’t have to link to your social media accounts or even register with Livefyre if you don’t want to.
(But if you do the one-time registration or social platform linking thing, you will have more options—to share comments with other people, to pull more people into the conversation, to stay signed in so you don’t have to do that each time you leave a new comment.) Read on to learn more about Livefyre’s cool new features.
Get your Livefyre walk-through here
Jeremy Hicks, Livefyre’s smart, friendly Head of Community consented to an interview and walk-through to help you sort it all out. In the video below, my very own @bobwp talks to Jeremy about the new Livefyre features, so you can learn the ins and outs of commenting on a Livefyre blog—and even decide if it’s the right choice for your own blog:
What about you?
How do you use blog comments to build community and improve your content?
Are you a Livefyre user?
Considering switching?
About the author
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I’d rather use Disqus as Livefyre does not work on sites blocked by some sort of corporate firewall or privacy policy. I cannot comment on blogs with Livefyre from my computer at work.
@zimbrul That’s interesting. So the bosses don’t want people reading and commenting on blogs at work. Guess it makes sense.
It makes sense for bosses but we are talking here about the Livefyre commenting system. With Disqus I can comment on blogs
even when at work (during the lunch break of course)
@zimbrul Oh. Okay. I’m not a high-tech person but I thought that corporate firewalls meant that the company is blocking the site, not the other way around. )I’m not a tech wizard, as I imagine you have surmised by now.)
: )
I’ve been using livefyre for most of this year. I’ve really enjoyed the service and they really seem to be moving in a positive direction with their latest updates.
@richescorner I agree. They won me back with their new features.
I’m rather new to WP and have been using the WP commenting system. When I moved over I lost a lot of my Disqus comments. I’m reluctant to move to livefyre for fear of the same thing happening CatsEyeWriter . Incidentally, I’m not able to view the video. Will try again.
@CorinneRodrigues I hear you. But both times I moves to Livefyre, for the most part, my old comments were imported seamlessly. Had a little hiccup this time with a few of my more recent posts, but I think it’s because I changed my password in the middle of the importing. @jmatthicks and the staff at Livefyre are very customer-focused, so I’m sure they will help me retrieve them.
On not being able to watch the video, it could be a few things. (I tested it and it ran okay for me.) bobwp said that it could be one of several issues, including an outdated browser that needs updating, your Internet connection speed or a number of other things. Loading time is sometimes an issue for people but he wanted to make it big, so people could actually see the screen and the steps Jeremy was showing us.
He is going to post it on YouTube but things are crazy around here right now as we prepare for the BlogWorld conference in NYC. For now, here is a link to the posting on Vimeo. See if that works. :
http://vimeo.com/bobwp/livefyre
Thanks for letting me know.
@JudyDunn Thanks for the response, Judy. I will give livefyre a try soon. And hope that @jmatthicks will be around to help me if I have a problem
I use Chrome and have the latest version and tried the link on Firefox too with no luck. I think bobWP is right about the internet speed being an issue.
You must be so excited about the conference. Have a wonderful time. ♥
@CorinneRodrigues @JudyDunn bobWP Oh, I will be
And Judy, we’ll be in touch today about your import!
@JMattHicks @CorinneRodrigues bobWP Thanks, Jeremy. You are the best.
@CorinneRodrigues Thanks, Corrine. We will also be seeing our daughter who is a junior at Smith College in MA . She’ll be taking a train into the city to stay with us a couple of days. We will be celebrating Bob’s birthday and our 29th anniversary while we are there. Good times.
Oh, yes. And I forgot. Bob will be presenting at BlogWorld, which is the reason we are going in the first place. : )
Such exciting stuff, @JudyDunn . Do celebrate all the good you and bobWP do too. Good luck and happy times!
@JMattHicks I’m taking your word for it
Thanks!
I love Livefyre and have it on my own site, but I was overjoyed when they added the ability to guest comment–it removed the barrier to getting “into” a blogging community, which can sometimes discourage comments.
@ShakirahDawud The option for leaving a guest comment was one of the biggest reasons I decided to switch back. The community thing is tricky, isn’t it? We want to make it welcoming and not hard to get into, but at the same time special.
Nicely done, Jeremy.
Hi Judy,
As you know I turned Livefyre back on earlier this month because I was/am excited about LF 3. I have high hopes for it and thus far the change appears to be working well.
@TheJackB Hey Jack. I think that having a screenshot walk-through explaining how to use the system helps people with a little less comfort with technology jump in and get their feet wet. I noticed that you returned to Livefyre and with Danny Brown’s For Bloggers By Bloggers post, I thought it was about time to migrate over again. : )
Just this weekend, I installed disqus on my online mag.
As you suggest, I want to help facilitate the a community of readers who comment. One of my moderators is upset that the previously uploaded images in a comment now appear as thumbnails, but that has been the only grumble.
I’d consider switching, as I have no fidelity to the DISQUS platform other than it is what I was first initially attracted to using. But I want to give it a good try first.
@mj_lawrence disqus Hey, Matt. Good to see you here. Disqus, from what I can see, made some cool improvements to their system, too. Will be interested in hearing your thoughts after you’ve used it for a while. I don’t believe, though, that Disqus has the Social Synch and social comment integration features. There is a good discussion going on in the comments at For Bloggers By Bloggers on the differences between Livefyre and Disqus. In case you are intersted, that’s at: http://bestbloggingtipsonline.com/livefyre-comments-3-features/
What about intensedebate? I noticed it on another Blog and I liked how I could thumbs up or down comments left by others. How does this compare with the ones you use?
BTW…it would not let me sign in as a guest – I had to use Facebook…
@KimberlyWright1 Did you watch the video? At about 6 minutes in, Jeremy explains how to sign in as a guest. If you have the post opened up, you should see a comment widget (empty box) right below the post. Above it, it says, “Sign in or Post as Guest.” Click on that and a box opens up. On the right side, it says “Or tell us the basics.” This is the spot where you fill in the basic info you would with a vanilla commenting system (your name, your email address and your blog or website URL, if you wish). Clicking “Next ” will take you to the comment box. Hope this helps.
@JudyDunn @KimberlyWright1 I have the widget but it just says sign in…no “post as guest”
@KimberlyWright1 Weird. Wonder why that’s happening. Should say both. I’m always signed in through Livefyre so I don’t get the “sign in” message. Not sure…will have to check this out more.
@JudyDunn @KimberlyWright1 New beta 3 on my site now. More editing functions.
@tonygreene113 @KimberlyWright1 That’s good to know, Tony. Improvements are always a good thing. : )
@KimberlyWright1 I have to admit that I am not up on all of the features of the other systems. I did try Intense Debate once. Lost a lot of comments in the transition and the importing of comments process was clunky.
On the thumbs up, thumbs down, I like the “likes” feature but thumbs down has the potential for abuse. I’d rather see a healthy discussion in the comments when someone disagrees because then we get to see why and possibly learn something new in the process. It just engages my brain more.
The beauty is that there is not one system that will be right for everyone. And that’s exactly why it’s great to have so many options. What I love about a commenting system like Livefyre (bringing in all the other discussions on my posts from social sharing platforms like Twitter and Facebook and integrating them into the comment stream, etc.) someone else may hate.
@JudyDunn Thanks for the input. Good to know about the transition and importing comments. I, too, hope for conversation starter comments but sometimes I just want to support someone’s comment or disagree without debating. I can see how it could be abused or stifle the potential to be enlightened so I will have to ponder this some more…
@KimberlyWright1 I get what you are saying about being able to “vote’ as a reader. But the blogger (and even the commenter the reader is disagreeing with) aren’t left with any information that helps to expand their thinking on a topic or issue. Thanks for adding to the conversation.
@JudyDunn there is a way to have multiple votes for a comment to trigger that is not liked by others. Sort of like social voting. This function can be set at the moderation panel.
@tonygreene113 I think Jeremy goes through that in the video. And there is a way to mark a comment with disagree or spam. I need to take a closer look at my admin.
@JudyDunn Yes..the comments can be moderated/flagged by multiple commenters to trigger a flag. @dragonblogger made a video about this before. I thought it was pretty interesting.
Sort of helps community to police itself.
Got it and surely not thinking about going back to the native WP system. Too good for a free service and their support is definitely and surely first class. Especially dharait and surely also @jennalanger .
@Andrea T. H. W. dharait @jennalanger I know. I think that’s one area the folks from Livefyre have really set themselves apart from others in. Thanks for sharing your experience.
@JudyDunn @Andrea T. H. W. Thanks both of you. Comments like these are really what make the job worth it
@JudyDunn dharait @jennalanger I definitely agree with you and surely if they stick with this approach no one will ever be able to overtake them. If you have the reputation of listening to users, caring about them and answering to request as fast as lightnings then it makes a lot of sense that your users will never leave you.
The Purple Cow theory put into practice, if you do something special you stand out of the crowd.
Happy week to everyone!
I’ve been using Livefyre after being a staunch supporter of the comluv plugin for a few years. With all of the social interaction and easier access to bringing others into the post this a much liked tool for me and my sites.
Glad to see another site implement the Livefyre system.
@tonygreene113 Ha! Another blogger crossing over from the commentluv side. : )
I’m a new user of Livefyre, and so far, I like it.. no hassle..
How did you get the commenting box to fit the length of your commenting section?
@Japanese Ghost I am not the tech wizard behind this blog. That would be Bob Dunn so not sure I understand your question. You mean the Livefyre commenting box? I thought that was standard.