sjdvda (Saajid Vawda) – Etiole http://www.etiole.com Dream Tech. Live Tech. Sat, 12 May 2012 03:40:07 +0000 en-US hourly 1 Commenting System Disqus launches version 3 http://www.etiole.com/2009/08/commenting-system-disqus-launches-version-3/ http://www.etiole.com/2009/08/commenting-system-disqus-launches-version-3/#comments Thu, 27 Aug 2009 06:56:46 +0000 http://www.etiole.com/?p=1590

Yesterday, advanced commenting system Disqus announced the release of the Version 3 of its product. The biggest change is the separation of the Disqus system into Disqus Profiles and Disqus Comments. Disqus Profiles is intended for the people who comment on various sites using the Disqus system. Disqus Comments is intended for the publishers who install the system on their site/blog. The new version introduces many changes to the cohttp://www.etiole.com/wp-admin/post.php?action=edit&post=1590mment system:
  • A new theme (named 'Narcissus'):
Narcissus
  • Real time updating. This means that the page doesn't have to be reloaded to show new comments. This is similar to JS-Kit Echo.
  • Faster Social Media Reactions. Reactions from other services such as Twitter, FriendFeed and Digg also show up on the page itself.
  • A new moderation panel which makes heavy use of AJAX and is simply awesome:

moderate

  • New filters and tools which provide advanced control.
  • A new settings panel:

settings

However, what's really new is the Disqus Profile:
  • The profiles now have vanity URLs, i.e. public profiles can be accessed by going to disqus.com/'username'. For example mine is disqus.com/sjdvda.
  • A new redesign like the rest of the service:

dprofile

  • A 'connections' panel where additional services(Twitter, Facebook, OpenID, etc...) can be added:

connections

  • The ability to import comments that were written when you were not logged into your Disqus account.
Bottom line: Disqus V3 features many changes, is more aesthetically pleasing and works better under the hood.  I use it on my personal blog and I'm quite excited about it. I'm glad I switched from IntenseDebate some months ago. :) You can read the official announcement on the Disqus blog.
http://disqus.com/sjdvda/
]]>

Yesterday, advanced commenting system Disqus announced the release of the Version 3 of its product. The biggest change is the separation of the Disqus system into Disqus Profiles and Disqus Comments. Disqus Profiles is intended for the people who comment on various sites using the Disqus system. Disqus Comments is intended for the publishers who install the system on their site/blog. The new version introduces many changes to the cohttp://www.etiole.com/wp-admin/post.php?action=edit&post=1590mment system:
  • A new theme (named 'Narcissus'):
Narcissus
  • Real time updating. This means that the page doesn't have to be reloaded to show new comments. This is similar to JS-Kit Echo.
  • Faster Social Media Reactions. Reactions from other services such as Twitter, FriendFeed and Digg also show up on the page itself.
  • A new moderation panel which makes heavy use of AJAX and is simply awesome:

moderate

  • New filters and tools which provide advanced control.
  • A new settings panel:

settings

However, what's really new is the Disqus Profile:
  • The profiles now have vanity URLs, i.e. public profiles can be accessed by going to disqus.com/'username'. For example mine is disqus.com/sjdvda.
  • A new redesign like the rest of the service:

dprofile

  • A 'connections' panel where additional services(Twitter, Facebook, OpenID, etc...) can be added:

connections

  • The ability to import comments that were written when you were not logged into your Disqus account.
Bottom line: Disqus V3 features many changes, is more aesthetically pleasing and works better under the hood.  I use it on my personal blog and I'm quite excited about it. I'm glad I switched from IntenseDebate some months ago. :) You can read the official announcement on the Disqus blog.
http://disqus.com/sjdvda/
]]> http://www.etiole.com/2009/08/commenting-system-disqus-launches-version-3/feed/ 12 URL shortener tr.im shuts down http://www.etiole.com/2009/08/url-shortener-tr-im-shuts-down/ http://www.etiole.com/2009/08/url-shortener-tr-im-shuts-down/#comments Mon, 10 Aug 2009 14:42:18 +0000 http://www.etiole.com/?p=1277 The Nambu network; owners of tr.im, a URL shortener, has announced that the service will be shut down as from today.

Recently, the service has gone through many outages and the ‘fail banana'(yes, a banana) has been seen frequently.

The reasons stated are that it’s impossible to monetize it and bit.ly has won the URL shortener ‘war’ since it was announced as the default shortener for links on Twitter. They say that “We made our best efforts to sell tr.im before this announcement.”. Personally, I think that it’s really unfair that they didn’t allow users to export their statistics before closing the service. The links will work until at least December 31 2009.

I agree with the first statement as it’s really difficult, if not impossible, to monetize it. For example, if they decide to insert ads on redirected  pages, people will flock to the plethora of ad-free URL shorteners. However, I don’t agree with the second as I believe that as long as people are using a service, it has a chance of becoming popular: Two years ago, TinyURL was the ‘king’ of URL shorteners, today it’s bit.ly, next year it could be another, who knows?

The service had many advantages, namely:

  • A killer domain name.
  • Good and beautifully-presented statistics.
  • A Firefox add-on.

If you were a frequent user and are looking for an alternative service or you just want to try something new, please checkout the Etiole Network’s very own URL shortener Hop.im.

P.S. I’m Saajid Vawda(sjdvda), one of the new writers on Etiole, you can visit my blog or you can follow me on Twitter.

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