OK, time to make your peace with Disqus… and this theme

by Robert Koehler on July 10, 2012

After trying IntenseDebate, LiveFyre and Disqus, I’ve decided to stick with Disqus—it looks the nicest, and it’s the most widely system used. While exporting has so far proven to be a major pain in the ass—for reasons beyond my ken, it so far refuses to export any comments made since the last time I tried Disqus, which was July 16, 2001—exporting broke with LiveFyre, too, and I simply don’t like the way IntenseDebate looks. I’ve let the good folk at Disqus know of the problem, and with luck, they’ll figure it out.

The option I didn’t try was adopting Facebook comments like TechCrunch. Mind you, I’m not ~~adverse~~ averse to the idea, and it’d probably help make it “safe to go back in the water,” so to speak. Still, I suppose there’s something to be said for anonymity.

Anyway, point is, if you haven’t signed up for Disqus, do it now—it’s what we’ll be using from here on out.

I’ve also switched this blog’s theme. I rather like it—it’s easy to read, looks nice (IMHO) and best of all, automatically becomes a nice-looking mobile theme on smartphones without the use of a separate plugin. I might ditch one of the columns and revert to a single column layout, though.

Hope you like the tagline, too.

{ 70 comments… read them below or add one }

1 Jieun K July 10, 2012 at 7:21 pm: I might ditch one of the columns and revert to a single column layout, though.

Before I saw that, I was writing this:

I think using columns on both sides (with highlighted text) will detract reader attention from the center stage where real action takes place—where the main event (your posting) is situated. Plus, it tends to make the site “bloggier.”

FYI, New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Times and others vertically divide the space into two sections, using only the right-side column.

Personally, I want it gone!
2 Adams-awry July 10, 2012 at 8:29 pm: Are you averse to adopting Facebook comments?
3 hardyandtiny July 10, 2012 at 9:25 pm: the typeface is too light
4 Jieun K July 10, 2012 at 9:42 pm: [A] clearing house for Koreaphiles, armchair professors and die-hard apologists

Hope you like the tagline, too.

Sure, that’s one way of looking at it. But, “Koreaphiles, armchair professors and die-hard apologists” are not totally inclusive, so a little bit of tinkering would help:

[A] clearing house for Koreaphiles, armchair professors, die-hard apologists, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.

There.
5 Dayv Mattt July 10, 2012 at 10:07 pm: Please get rid of one of the columns. Please. Pretty please?
6 CRF Sanders July 10, 2012 at 10:23 pm: Disqus is probably a good choice for the site. We chose it for a site I helped build and we’ve been pretty happy with it so far.
7 dlbarch July 11, 2012 at 12:04 am: I hope Robert regains some of his sanity and returns to his old banner. Or better yet, a revolving banner of different photos every time one makes a return visit.

But a quote from Expathell? Puhlease!

DLB
8 Rsmales July 11, 2012 at 1:37 am: Yuck! Looks terrible on my ipad
9 jk6411 July 11, 2012 at 2:42 am: No offense, but I like the old MH better.
It was simpler and easier to read.

I can see that the next “Open Thread” will be a bit of a mess.
Having multiple discussions within the same thread will be dizzying I think..
In the old MH, having just one thread and all comments being chronological was nice and simple.
10 Gerry Bevers July 11, 2012 at 3:12 am: I like this format and the color scheme. The only thing I would suggest is making the right column a little wider because the Recent Comments seem a little squeezed.
11 Byeonguk Yook July 11, 2012 at 3:27 am: This format takes a little getting used to. I don’t like the smaller space on the right with the links to other blogs. Other than that I think this forma is better.
12 keyinjpop July 11, 2012 at 3:50 am: The new format looks a little busy compared to the old format, but other than that, I like it.
13 wangkon936 July 11, 2012 at 6:09 am: No… no… no! Damn you Disqus…. damn you to hell!
14 wangkon936 July 11, 2012 at 6:13 am: Btw… I object to the tag line bright to us by expathell. There are still plenty of whiny expats, misogynistic whingers and the occasional Japanophile apologist on this site.
15 dlbarch July 11, 2012 at 7:30 am: BTW, why does Robert have a black-boxed “G” favicon next to his URL?

Could this be a secret homage to Geunhae Park? Godwin’s Law? The God particle?

…or maybe Gerry Bevers?

DLB
16 bumfromkorea July 11, 2012 at 8:10 am: Looks pretty good on my BRAND SPANKING NEW GALAXY S3!
17 Blueclef July 11, 2012 at 8:12 am: I’m cautiously optimistic.
18 Dan July 11, 2012 at 8:29 am: > … most widely system used…
19 Yu Bum Suk July 11, 2012 at 8:30 am: Testing, testing, 1, 2, 3
20 Dayv Mattt July 11, 2012 at 9:51 am: The site looks much better now with only two columns. However, I might suggest that you go into your CSS files and revert to the fonts you were using on the old theme. Having a new design is fine, but you should keep the fonts you were using before because I think most people will find that it’s what they were used to. Just an idea.
21 hoju_saram July 11, 2012 at 10:11 am: I’m with DLB: looks nice – some sort of colour / imagery would be nice though. And expathell? Looks like a clearinghouse of unfortunately prolific musings from some conceited and unfunny esl teacher. Maybe best not to associate with it, even with tongue firmly in cheek.
22 Brendon Carr July 11, 2012 at 10:46 am: Sadly it’s the favicon for the “Genesis Framework” WordPress theme.
23 dogbertt July 11, 2012 at 1:22 pm: Interesting trying to match the “new” Disqus commenter ID’s with their previous incarnations on the Hole.
24 Jieun K July 11, 2012 at 2:44 pm: Maybe best not to associate with [Expathell.com], even with tongue firmly in cheek.

Probably, yeah. It’s like North Korea endorsing your reputation for human rights advocacy.
25 Dayv Mattt July 11, 2012 at 2:45 pm: Yeah, Chiamattt is gone forever, since I refuse to sign up for discus and am instead logging in from twitter. Oh well.
26 Guest July 11, 2012 at 6:23 pm: Theme is fine, disquss has security issue..not a big fan of it. I’ve seen it display one username on one site then after clicking post to post the comment, it choose details that were entered on an entirely different site without confirmation. Thanks, but no thanks
27 asiapundits July 11, 2012 at 6:44 pm: This can be easily changed by simply replacing the theme’s stock favicon with one that Robert likes. Usually, the favicon is located at the url of the site /favicon.ico. For example, the Marmot’s favicon would probably be located at http://www.rjkoehler.com/favicon.ico. If you want some help with this my wife is a graphic designer and would likely be willing to whip up a pretty cool one for the site here.
28 Robert Koehler July 11, 2012 at 6:50 pm: Thanks, but actually, I switched the favicon to my old one this morning—if you clean your cache, it should show up.
29 Jieun K July 11, 2012 at 9:05 pm: Robert:

We really appreciate your effort to optimize the site. When you have free time to spare, please consider making the font face thicker—i.e., switching to a more “readable” font so the readers won’t feel the need to exert more concentration than is optimally necessary to comprehend.

By the way, the common ratio of the main and side column width is approx. 64% and 36%. Main columns usually contain 82-83 characters including spaces. Currently, it displays about 100 characters. I think the side column could use a little bit more space displaying reader comments.

Thanks again!
30 Jeff Harris July 11, 2012 at 10:40 pm: My real name is displaying here, rather than my stage name, not that I care, but the stage name is so much more swashbuckling. I checked my profile on WordPress and it’s set as display name as ‘CactusMcHarris’.

Robert,

Where’s the ‘email MH’ function? I had a story about marmots in Kelowna chewing control cables and possibly causing a fatal airplane crash, but it turned out that they’ve been ruled out as the cause, at least for now.
31 CactusMcHarris July 11, 2012 at 10:41 pm: Ah, I see it now, still WordPress but Disqus needs the information, too.
32 Byeonguk Yook July 11, 2012 at 10:54 pm: I hope I don’t get an eye sore from all the tinkering. Also don’t like the links on the right. It doesn’t display all the links.
33 Oldfriend July 12, 2012 at 12:05 am: This is all fucked up.

You can’t read it without Flash (that fucking garbage.)

For second: the name “Disqus” implies “disgusting” more than “discussion”. It is an attempt to force net users into tighter frames of comunication. Please don’t do it, Marmot!

While it may look pretty, it is just a noose around all of our necks.

Best regards.

Please don’t do this.

(I can’t even comment here using my own login! Can you see how fucked up this all is???)
34 Mryouknowwho July 12, 2012 at 12:08 am: Blue is better than orange, but where’s that kick ass header of yours?
35 The_Korean July 12, 2012 at 3:40 am: I’m sorry, but I hate this format. I can’t help it. I hate the new look and I hate the new commenting system. There are a LOT of interesting political news right now, but I can’t bring myself to write about it only because I hate the new look so much and I don’t want my writing to be on it.

I might get over it in a few days, but that’s how it is for me now.
36 Robert Koehler July 12, 2012 at 7:20 am: I want to keep the commenting system, but I’m looking to find a more suitable template. If you see a theme you like, either free:

http://wordpress.org/extend/themes/

or paid, I’m open to suggestions. I liked my old one, but it doesn’t play well with the commenting system.
37 Robert Koehler July 12, 2012 at 7:24 am: It doesn’t work without Flash? It works fine on the iPhone and iPad. Hum.

Not sure how the new comment system is more confining. It does a better job of integrating social media, it keeps archives of comments, and it seems to do everything the original Wordpress comment system did, but better. Still, I’m open to being convinced otherwise.
38 Rick Swerve July 12, 2012 at 8:42 am: Biggest problem on my iPod is that after reading the post you have to scroll back up to the top of the article to comment or even read the comments. If you could have the comments link at the end of the post it would be fine.
39 Josh Perlstein July 12, 2012 at 9:58 am: Robert, I like you, I really do. I buy your books and respect your blog posts. Please do not ever consider using Facebook login to comment on this site. Myself and many others do not have a Facebook account and I’m probably not alone in not wanting one.

edit: Also, an update Google+ share button would be great. I share some of your posts on there regardless but a few less clicks would be welcome.
40 Josh Perlstein July 12, 2012 at 9:59 am: I like it.
41 Josh Perlstein July 12, 2012 at 9:59 am: Maybe a new banner each day selected at random from a folder of his good photographs.
42 Josh Perlstein July 12, 2012 at 9:59 am: Looks great on my PC.

edit: and great on my Galaxy Nexus.
43 Josh Perlstein July 12, 2012 at 10:00 am: This is actually much, much neater.
44 Josh Perlstein July 12, 2012 at 10:01 am: Glad to hear you got it.
45 Josh Perlstein July 12, 2012 at 10:02 am: Nobody will know who I am. Muahahaha.
46 Josh Perlstein July 12, 2012 at 10:03 am: Yeah, the whole real names this *could* take some getting used to. Oh well.
47 Josh Perlstein July 12, 2012 at 10:05 am: Seems to work fine without Flash.
48 Josh Perlstein July 12, 2012 at 10:08 am: Poke.
49 Wedge July 12, 2012 at 10:42 am: Not sure I have a vote, but the old one is way better. It just looks better.
50 Robert Koehler July 12, 2012 at 10:46 am: Do you mean the new commenting system? Or just the layout?
51 Liz July 12, 2012 at 10:56 am: Thanks to Disqus, Robert, people on this forum now know that I’m Asian.

So that’s a plus…
52 brier July 12, 2012 at 11:09 am: The layout looks fresh and snappy.
53 Cloud July 12, 2012 at 11:13 am: There would have been complaints no matter what you did. Did you expect less with this crowd? People will adjust. It’s always jarring when a website changes its look. I think people complained when the New York Times went color.
54 Robert Koehler July 12, 2012 at 11:14 am: See, new system is paying dividends already!
55 Robert Koehler July 12, 2012 at 11:15 am: How does this layout look?

http://demo.studiopress.com/balance/
56 Cloud July 12, 2012 at 11:21 am: Gawd, what a whiner…Are you an only child or the youngest in your family?
57 Gerry Bevers July 12, 2012 at 11:26 am: This looks perfect. Now will someone please tell Mrs. Marmot to take away Robert’s blog remote.
58 Oldfriend July 12, 2012 at 11:37 am: To be more specific, it doesn’t work with Glimmerblocker (which blocks Flash among other things) on Safari.

I really don’t get this desire for centralised control of one’s web activity – Disqus, Facebook, and so on. It is like people are hungering for 1984.

And mailinator.com is considered invalid, to boot!
59 Wedge July 12, 2012 at 11:38 am: Should have been more specific. Certainly your top photo was always good. if you could add that and get more of the original aesthetic sense of the layout that would help. This new comment format can probably be gotten used to.
60 Josh Perlstein July 12, 2012 at 12:17 pm: Sparse and poorly composed. Current is better. I see you revamped the comments in the last hour or so, too. Hmm.
61 Josh Perlstein July 12, 2012 at 12:18 pm: After he fixes the banner.
62 Ryan July 12, 2012 at 2:13 pm: What kind of trouble are you having with exporting? You should have my email address with this comment, so shoot me the details if you have followup questions from our support team.
63 Jieun K July 12, 2012 at 3:08 pm: Robert, this is a random page from the NYT. Open it on another tab next to your MH tab in the same browser and see how the font affects the viewing/reading experience. I, for one, feel tempted to read the content (including the comments) on the NYT page, but honestly, I don’t feel the same temptation for the current MH web page…
64 Arghaeri July 12, 2012 at 3:30 pm: I guess the main version is not too bad, though I miss the picture banner; but the mobile version is horrid.
65 Arghaeri July 12, 2012 at 7:56 pm: What real name, just login to disqus and select your handle?
66 Josh Perlstein July 12, 2012 at 11:28 pm: Ew. Revert, revert!
67 MHazell July 13, 2012 at 3:08 am: Glad you are sticking with Disqus. Disqus comments are the best out there, they are used everywhere. Big sites such as Engadget trust them, so you know Disqus is good. With their latest product, Disqus 2012, commenting gets even better. It is out now if you want to use it, with new features coming out every once in a while. If you want to test out Disqus 2012, head over to disqus.com/2012-activate.
68 MHazell July 13, 2012 at 3:12 am: Wasn’t there a ban on that phone? Anyways, glad you got it. I love Android Phones.
69 MHazell July 13, 2012 at 3:13 am: Yeah Disqus is a great comment system.
70 dlbarch July 13, 2012 at 11:27 am: I have to say that I really like Robert’s decision to go with revolving banner photos.

For all my admiration for Korea, I’ve never really liked Seoul “as a city.” But when I see Robert’s photos of Seoul, I can’t help but recall that great line said about Steve Martin’s film “L.A. Story” that goes something like “Steve Martin did for Los Angeles what Woody Allen did for New York…make an unlovable city lovable.”

Nice format, Robert. Well done, ol’ boy, well done!

DLB