I received an email from a reader who suggested that I switch to Haloscan commenting. Personally, I've found that Blogger has worked well for me over the last two years, but I'm not married to the Blogger commenting system and if Haloscan would be better, I'd definitely consider it. I've perused the Haloscan website a bit and found nothing that sends up any immediate red flags.
I'm curious how those who have Haloscan consider it? Is it better than Blogger? Do you regret switching? Are there any pitfalls that I should know about before I leap? In short, any advice you'd care to offer would be helpful.
The Wolf
6 comments:
I prefer haloscan for two reasons.
One, it is easy to manage comments. I guess I get a lot of comments, and it's easier than being emailed each time someone comments.
Secondly, spam prevention. Haloscan isn't perfect, but only one or two spam comments come by a month, and no word verification is necessary, which I find makes conversation halting.
Cons: Although haloscan comments are archived by google, blogger comments are kept on the same page as the post, which means that people searching for terms which appear even in your comments can end up on your blog via search.
haloscan allows for ip verification, so it is easy to ban people, or ban a range. You also know when someone is posting using several names. Not really necessary on your blog, but a must for the larger blogs.
On the downside, haloscan will archive comments after a while,and you will need to upgrade ($$$) to get them back. :)
I love Haloscan. I've had it for a while and its easy to manage your comments and trackbacks. I also like the fact that I've only ever gotten a single spam comment with Haloscan (keneinehora).
Also, its easier on the commenter- no annoying word verification and (in Firefox) it remembers my information.
I have H. I hate word verification, and often have to do it three or four times (or I don't realize it didn't go through and my comment is lost)
I've had one spam message since I started, but my blog is not large.
One disadvantage is that when I get an email about a comment, H doesn't tell me what post it was on. I also don't like that the comments don't show up on google search.
The big thing for me is that Haloscan charges for the archived comments, and I like that the new Blogger comments tell you exactly what post it was on (with a link to click to) when it comes to your email. I probably get only slightly more comments than you, and with GMail find it manageable. If I were getting comments like Harry, Gil, DB, I'd probably consider switching.
It would be nice to know the IPs of some of the nastier commenters, though.
i don't have any spam problems with blogger (though i'm not exactly on the radar, so i'm not sure if my spam experience is indicative of anything)
as a commentor i prefer blogger (even though i have the same problem mother in israel above has) because it lets me delete my more impetuous comments that i regret posting. i don't think haloscan lets me do this
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