Posted on 09/24/2013 8:57:28 AM PDT by BerserkPatriot
Proviso, I fully realise that FR doesn’t use that accursed system, but this is meant to be cautionary tale of sorts and as a warning to those of you who venture out and come across the devil’s spawn of commenting systems. (Also realise that I restricted my self to just 5 items to keep this vanity short and sweet – and to make it easier on myself to order the top 5).
5). Disqus allows trolls to change their names on the fly. This may seem strange to those who are used to FR where your screen name is your ID of sorts, but this is the case with that system. Most people are honourable in this regard but some trolls take full advantage of this "feature" to disguise their trolling.
You can have a troll attacking you one day and you learn to avoid it, then the troll will change it’s name and the process of troll avoidance will begin anew.
4). Disqus allows impersonations Impersonations - While Disqus portend to disallow impersonations they do in fact ignore it when trolls use this tactic. While I don’t know what extent other systems screen these types of tactics out, Disqus seems to be particularly egregious in their lack of enforcement of their "rules" on this practice. Example: Your screen name could be something like: Bourn1943 and the system will allow someone else to impersonate you with a similar name like B0urn1943 [0 for o] or BournI943 [I for 1]
This can be a big issue when combined with the first issue in that a troll can decide to punish you by impersonating your screen name and avatar if you get into a heated argument. The discussion can quickly become confusing at best and at worst you can be banned by the moderators for being a ‘troll’.
3). Disqus allows trolls to stalk people and harass them into silence. One “Feature” of Disqus is the ability to “follow” other users – while this may sound innocuous in practice experience has shown to be quite the opposite. While this “Feature” let’s you see what others you agree with are posting in real time it’s also allows trolls to do the same thing – and you have no recourse in the matter. Disqus has not seen fit to address this issue and let you block followers as in other systems.
When someone "follows" you, they can see everything you post and thus they can incessantly troll you at every turn. The old canard is to not feed the troll – with the stalking “feature” – EVERYTHING you post feeds the troll.
Example: with this Stalking “Feature” a troll can simply post “You’re Lying” after every one of you posts and you cannot escape from this incessant harassment aside from creating a new account and starting over – up and until the stalker finds you once again and begins the process anew.
As I mentioned, this ongoing problem has been brought to Disqus’s attention, but they have yet to really fix the problem by simply letting people have control over who "follows" them.
2). Disqus won’t address their glaring security vulnerabilities. Several months ago in an attempt to address the Stalker troll issue, Disqus implemented an option to have your account set as Private – the sales pitch was that this would stop trolls from stalking users.
Except it quickly became evident that at least one of the more egregious stalkers wouldn’t be deterred by this security measure. Despite the advertising that the ‘privacy’ setting can stop troll stalking, this still occurs.
Initially Disqus pretended that this security measured worked – and they still recommend it to users with this issue. But now since it’s been repeatedly shown that their security had been breached they now just say they are ‘working on it’ or that it isn’t an issue or some other such nonsense.
Meanwhile this particular stalker troll is able to somehow hack their system and access these accounts – which begs the very important question – if someone is able to get around that security measure, what else are they able to hack?
So now we are at the number one reason why Disqus sucks – and I know what you’re thinking:
Given 5 through 2, those are a lot of reason why Disqus would suck big time, what does she have as the top Issue? it has to be a dosey – and it is.
…..Drum roll…..
1). You cannot ‘Disqus’ these issues on Disqus – Try bringing these things up on Disqus’s own blog and other places and you comments will simply evaporate into thin air with nary an explanation. Poof! They disappear into the either. [This is why copy and paste in highly recommended with those folks]
Trust me I tried going up the ‘chain of command’ as they say. Questions to “support” are ignored, postings about these issues disappear, perfunctory responses are spotted without the least bit of follow-up.
Thus is the rationale for my ‘venting’ here – and to beg - for all that is Holy for – those in charge to Never, Never, Never, even consider that system for this forum. I really had to get that off my chest, thanks for listening.
Not too many issues using it on GatewayPundit but the most annoying thing, not on your list, are the ton of ads which have to load every time you switch to another topic or refresh.
Until all the ads load, the position of the screen image will jump up and down and only becomes stable which every ad is displayed.
Most discussions on GP are biased to the right but rather than just an echo chamber the occasional liberal will try to post and expose their utter ignorance for all to see. That is always fun.
That’s a good idea – It is most preferable to keep one’s real information hidden for various reasons.. I mean it’s not like the government isn’t watching us every minute…. Oh yeah, they are.
It’s like Rush said over 15 years ago...’if they have to call themselves “fairness in media”, they are anything but fair.’
And the same would apply to disqus, where it’s only what the Soros funded, pie faced, fully indoctrinated college kid, unofficial moderators of public speech have been authorized to “disqus”.
That’s a good idea – It is most preferable to keep one’s real information hidden for various reasons.. I mean it’s not like the government isn’t watching us every minute…. Oh yeah, they are.
My bogus account is attached to a gmail account that is used for nothing but that and any sites that require a real email address, but I don’t want to have to actually deal with.
Surprising. Well, no, that’s not. What’s surprising is that Twitchy use disqus, which I haven’t signed up for, but I’d rather not put my FB, Google+ or twitter names into it. I’ve thought of making a fake account to go with it, but that’s a pain signing out from, say, my current gmail to use the fake email. My usual workaround is to have a Chrome, IE, and Firefox browser open ACTH e same time, each logged into something different.
We ought to be questioning the people at outfits like the Washington Times, National review, CNS news and Washington Examiner as to why they are utilizing such systems.
Systems like disqus may portend to be “fair”, but in practice they are far from it.
If anything, I’m hoping my little ‘rant’ will dissuade others from taking on that danger to free-speech.
Hmm I didn’t even think about that – it puts me in mind of stories I’ve heard of other commie regimes [yeah, I said that and I’m too damn happy about even thinking it] .. Where the no only go after someone personally, but also go after their family.
Try this: Cookieswap .. you can find it at https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/
It lets you have multiple accounts on a separate profile so you can log in on several at the same time.
Thanks for the info. I’ll try it when I get home.
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