Showing posts with label Disqus. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Disqus. Show all posts

Sunday, January 03, 2016

Paul Graham Asks For Disqus 2.0 Or A Disqus Disruptor







Or how to listen when everyone is talking? This is like the email inbox problem. What is the solution? There is only solution for those who get manageable amounts of email. If you get a HUGE (Trump word) amount of email, I am not sure there is a solution. Similarly online, forget teaching people etiquette. You can restrict membership, or you can restrict comments to people who are willing to reveal their real ID, but if you are opening up the floodgates, I am sorry but we are not talking technology, we are talking human nature and human behavior. After DARPA (or Tim Berners-Lee or whoever, or maybe Paul Graham, Al Gore) invented the Internet, Julia Roberts discovered people hated her! We can improve upon it. Like Gmail has become so much better with five inboxes. But I don't see a "cure" to online flaming. Except, maybe, ignore what you don't like. See no evil, hear no evil.





Thursday, August 23, 2012

Dennis Crowley On Disqus

Avoid The Haters

I noted both Fred Wilson and Dennis Crowley had replied to one of my comments at Fred's blog. How often does that happen!


So I proceeded to follow the guy on Disqus. Then I noticed he had left a few comments on some article about Naveen, his Cofounder.


When you become famous like Dennis has, media is just something you deal with. Dog bit man is not news, man bit dog is news. There is always that background radiation of sensationalism.


I remember being very surprised when Naveen relinquished his day to day role at FourSquare, but I quickly stood on neutral ground, primarily because Naveen himself had a blog post on the topic, and all I knew was what I had read in the media.

Naveen Leaving FourSquare
More To The Naveen Story
Models Naveen, Dennis
Naveen Selvadurai, Vin Vacanti

Dennis Crowley: I Underestimated Him
Craig Newmark, Dennis Crowley, Jennifer 8 Lee: Koreatown
Dennis Crowley: Role Model For Kids?
Dennis Crowley: FBI Background Check
Dennis Crowley: Mayor Of Mars?
Dennis Crowley, Facebook, And The Location Ecosystem
FourSquare Should Rent A Stadium
Dennis, Fred, Scott: Tweet Boom Tweet Boom

I was hoping Naveen would start a new company. It would be good for the NY tech ecosystem.




How to Avoid Being Pushed Out of the Company You Founded


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Saturday, August 04, 2012

Disqus Beating Google Search For Traffic

These are the top traffic sources for the past month. Note how Google is number one.

But then these are top sources for the past week. Note how Google is not in the top three, and Disqus is number two, and Google News has showed up. That MyHealthScore.com is a discrepancy. I don't know what that is and I don't know why and how it is sending me traffic. And it likely will not be there next week.

But Disqus is news. This is social traffic beating search traffic. Even with Google News I think what is happening is I share all my blog posts on Google Plus. They show up on the Google News page of people in my Google Plus and Gmail circles. You know that corner in the bottom right of the Google News page? There. And some people are clicking.

This is of great interest to me. For the first time for this blog social media is beating search in terms of traffic. To a lot of people that happened a long time ago. And for Disqus to take the lead? As opposed to Facebook and Twitter. But then I am not so sure all the Twitter traffic is being recorded right.


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Fred Wilson's Blog: A Gift That Keeps Giving


Fred Wilson has an impressive track record as a VC. That is public knowledge. I have lost count of how many tech companies I got really, really excited about only to later learn it was a Fred Wilson portfolio company.

The dots I am trying to connect in this post is to propose the thesis that Fred Wilson's blog has been fundamental to his very impressive work as a VC. As in, the great work he has managed to do over the past decade he could not have done without his blog. He has a method about his comments section. That is where he goes fishing.

That thesis springs forth a few questions.

One, is it a required? As in should all VCs aspire to blog? I think yes. There are a lot of a A caliber VCs out there who don't blog daily (or ever) like Fred Wilson does. But what I am saying is if you are starting out as a VC today blogging daily is one of the things you can not afford to not do.

Two, other than fishing expeditions is blogging good for your mind? This is a huge yes. I think blogging is for everybody regardless of industry, regardless of what stage they are at in their careers. Blogging is working out for the mind. That is primarily why I blog, speaking just for myself. It also helps with meaningful networking. If Fred did not have a blog, and I did not have a blog, I doubt we would have met to date, I doubt we would have known each other.

Three, could this thesis be extended to tech entrepreneurs? That is a question up in the air. Because there is no A grade tech entrepreneur (or B grade) who blogs daily. Mark Cuban blogs weekly or every few weeks, but I think of him as a retired entrepreneur, he is more of an angel, and besides, his blog does not have Disqus.

I'd love to see some top tech entrepreneurs blog daily like Fred Wilson does. Is that possible? Advisable? I'd hope so. I wish some A grade people running for office did the same.

To Fred's credit he is a top blogger regardless of his track record as a VC. He goes toe to toe with people who are full time bloggers with nothing else going on on the side. I mean, I think Fred could earn a living simply through blogging. Talk about Plan B, not that he needs one.

Fred Wilson is my favorite solo blogger for a few different reasons. But there came a time when I did not read his blog for months. I felt like I was too sucked into it. I needed my space, I thought. But then my recent thought has been not that I should stay away, but that top entrepreneurs he is not invested in should also read his blog.

Fred Wilson, Mark Zuckerberg And Mobile

Once Fred paid tribute to Ben Horowitz on the other coast by saying he - Fred - simply writes checks. As in, Ben has been an entrepreneur. But in some ways simply writing checks has advantages. Away from action you can get better at vision and insight. Zuck struggles with mobile. Fred's blog talks often about mobile. I don't know of books delivering similar wisdom.




Fred Wilson's Impossible Inbox
Fred Wilson: A DJ
Meeting Fred Wilson In Person
A Surprising Blog Post From Fred Wilson
A Mind Blowing Party
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Rediscovering Disqus

Image representing DISQUS as depicted in Crunc...
Image via CrunchBase
(Originally published at Michael Hazell' TechMans' World blog)

Rediscovering Disqus has been a pleasant experience for me. I had it. Then I walked out on it by default when I changed my blog's template. Now I have it again, and I am so glad I do.

Blogging is my favorite online activity. Makes for an active reader. And it is more than knowledge. You meet and get to know interesting people. The comments sections at blogs were an afterthought before Disqus came along.

And the new and improved Disqus beats the big dogs like Google and Facebook in the blog comments space. Both of them are innovative companies doing a lot but Disqus still beats them in the space. It is because Disqus' intensity of focus is greater. Disqus does one thing and one thing alone, and it does it very, very well.

Just like a ton of people who you could never convince to blog became happily active on Twitter, Disqus provides an outlet to people. You don't have to blog to comment. Commenting is legit. You don't lose track of your comments.

Like my new friend Michael Hazell, I met him through Disqus. Today he replied to a comment I had left at Fred Wilson's blog a few days back. It felt like randomly bumping into a friend. And, as of today, I don't even know what he looks like.

Adding Disqus To My Blog Was The Easiest Thing
Should I Get Disqus For My Blog?


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Wednesday, July 25, 2012

16 Comments

Image representing DISQUS as depicted in Crunc...
Image via CrunchBase
This blog post has 16 comments. I am so glad to have installed Disqus earlier. I was so missing out for not having Disqus at my blog. But better late than never.

Adding Disqus To My Blog Was The Easiest Thing
Should I Get Disqus For My Blog?


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Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Adding Disqus To My Blog Was The Easiest Thing

Image representing DISQUS as depicted in Crunc...
Image via CrunchBase
Wow. Point and click.

The first time I installed Disqus it was still easy, but there were steps involved. You had to grab the code and go paste it in just the right place in your blog's template code. Not hard to do but I can imagine it being intimidating to those who don't know any code at all.

This time it was so so easy, as easy as clicking on a link at the Google search results page.

Wow. I am impressed.

disqus.com/admin/blogger

I promptly added it to all three of my blogs: Netizen, Barackface, and Democracy For Nepal.

Let the commenting begin!
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