Millions of users are using Disqus as an effective comment controlling system to convert their site into a discussion community. Disqus is free, easy to install and provides more features like moderation, filtering and social integration. This article explains the step by step process of how to add Disqus to your website, generating installation code in Disqus and various other customizing options.
Getting Disqus Code
Step 1: Open Disqus.com website and then click the link or button “Add Disqus to Your Site.
Step 2: Enter username, email and password for your Disqus account for signing up. You will receive a confirmation in the email you mention here.
Step 3: Enter site name, Disqus URL and select a category. The Disqus URL name is your site’s name in your account where you can access all the required settings.
Step 4: Choose the hosting platform of your website. Disqus offers ready made plugins for WordPress, Blogger, Tumblr, Squarespace, TypePad, MovableType, Drupal and Joomla. If your site is not hosted in any of these platforms then choose Universal Code option.
Step 5: You will see a setup instruction page. Copy the code displayed and paste in the header section of your website. You can also change the hosting platform from the drop down and add additional comment count codes.
Step 6: Once you pasted the required codes and published your site, click on the Verify button to add your site to Disqus community. Now, Disqus comment box is installed in your site and users can start commenting after logged into Disqus or any of the available social networking logins.
Settings and Customizing
Once you logged into your account all the options are categorized into two section: Dashboard and Admin. You can also add addition sites using “For Websites” link. Dashboard provides the latest updates about the people you follow and the trending details. You also can edit your profile information and add a customized avatar for you.
Admin is the important section in Disqus where you can moderate comments enter and customize the comment box in your site. Under the comment section you will see all the comments entered and you have options to approve, deleted or mark it is a spam.
Settings link provide you various options for controlling your comment box where you can change the color and appearance of your comment box. Community rules section allows to set the following rules easily:
- Allowing guest comment, if this is not checked then all the users must login to enter comment.
- Setting moderation level for comments to decide whether comments should be approved before displaying in the site.
- You can specifically choose the need of moderation for the links, it is highly recommended to choose this option as this will be one of the mail reason for spam comment.
- Mentioning the limit for comment closure.
You also have an option to restrict words in the comments under Filters section. Comments containing the words mentioned in the restricted words must have be approved by the moderator. You can also use wildcard restriction using .* option.
Within a community of user base you can blacklist or whitelist the users by mentioning username or IP address. Blacklisted users will not be able to post and whitelisted users will have an privilege to skip moderation filters.
Option for connecting your Twitter (X) account to Disqus is available under Settings link. This will allow the users to reply to your Twitter name when they reply to your comments.
