Okay Geek Farm
Okay Geek now uses Facebook for Comments
Brandon Davenport
We have tried every commenting platform under the sun, and we have had the same issues over and over again. We suffer from spammy comments (like any other blog), and random trolls, or comments with no relation to the article at all. We don’t want this to happen more in the future as we grow, so we decided to use a smarter soloution, with fewer downsides.
Why we chose Facebook Comments
No more spam — When you comment on Okay Geek, you need to have a Facebook account. Spammers rely on un-moderated commenting boards that allow you to comment anonymously so they can slip their Spam in, un-detected. We have to go into the backend every day and delete them manually. It sucks, but now we don’t have to!
No more signing up for BS commenting accounts — When you use stuff like Disqus, you require your users to sign up for account’s they may only use once, or tie their Twitter, Facebook or Email account to a website they just want to comment on and leave. With Facebook Comments, we don’t have to force users to sign up for an account because we know 99% of the people who read Okay Geek have a Facebook account, and they’re logged in all the time. Commenting will be a breeze!
No more trolls — The optimal conditions for a commenting troll is a juicy thread, something to do with “Apple” and anonymity. Since all comments you make are tied to your Facebook account, we take out the ability of being anonymous. We do plan to have “troll-able” threads soon, but it’s not our top priority.
Easier sharing — When you comment on one of our articles, you have the option to share it on Facebook, which will post the comment on your profile with a link to your comment on Okay Geek. We’ve tested it, and it’s pretty awesome.
We really like these, you will too
We’re on your side when it comes to security and that’s why none of your Facebook information is accessible by Okay Geek or anyone else. The commenting box is just a page on Facebook, embedded in our articles, so it is in no way attached to Okay Geek. So just to re-iterate, nobody at Okay Geek, or anyone using the website has access to your account or user info — unless you haven’t changed your privacy settings on Facebook.
We did say there are some downsides to Facebook Comments, and one of them is portability. Once we start accumulating lots of comments on Okay Geek, they are stuck on the Facebook commenting system. We can’t export them to another system like Disqus. Also you can’t comment without a Facebook account, so if you don’t have one you’re out of luck — but we know most of you have an account, so only a very small amount of folks will be affected.
Questions? We know you have lots…
We know this is a big change, and some of you won’t like it. We want you to leave a comment telling us why you like it, why you don’t and why. We want to make this fun for everyone, and if you have any suggestions on how to make it awesome for you, leave a comment! — or concact us.
