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Once upon a time, when we read awesome blog posts, we would blog about those posts, or maybe we would share them with others through email or message boards. We might even use a social bookmarking tool to share those posts just a little more. And, we left comments. Lots of comments.
Today. we have so many more options when it comes to sharing and we leave fewer comments than ever before. Instead, we share the content we care about through StumbleUpon, Google+ and of course Facebook and Twitter. Conversations about blog posts are happening all over the Internet -- and that's why we've decided to work with Livefyre to bring a more robust type of comment platform to BlogHer.com.
Because we have six years of comment history to import to Livefyre, we have to do this roll out in stages. We'll start with the newest comments and work our way back, so don't be surprised if you click into an older blog post and see the old-style comments instead of the shiny new Livefyre comments. During this process, we actually have to close down email notification of new comments (and RSS feeds for comments), so we will do most of the hard work in the evenings since that will be least disruptive to all of you. We're hoping to have the whole thing finished in about a week (fingers crossed!).
Let's pretend you haven't scrolled down to take a peek, or you haven't already seen the new comment box on another post, and I'll tell you a little bit about these new comments.
- Take a look at this first screenshot and you'll see some big differences. The newest comments appear at the top of the stream, rather than at the bottom. And they update in real time -- no need to refresh the screen!
You'll also see the number of "listeners" (the people who are on that post at the same time you are), and the number of followers (the people who are subscribed to the comments of that post).
- Your signature block (located in the Account Settings area of your BlogHer.com profile) will no longer be pulled into your comments. This means it's extra important that you've filled out your BlogHer.com profile completely. People will click your name and photo to learn more about you, and we want them to be able to find your blogs when they do that. Here's a link to information about How to fill out your profile on BlogHer.com.
- HTML will not be available with Livefyre comments. If you insert a link, such as http://www.blogher.com, that link will be clickable. If you insert a link to an image or a video, you'll see a small thumbnail image of if, and readers will be able to click to view the full image/video.
- You can receive email updates when new comments are left on posts you've commented on by clicking the "Follow Conversation" link. If you don't want to receive those updates, click the "Following" link to "Unfollow" and this will stop the email notifications from arriving in your inbox. (These notifications will be sent to the email address that is located in the Account Settings section of your BlogHer.com profile.)
- You can connect to either Twitter or Facebook, then use the @ symbol to refer to your friends/followers within comments and notify them that you've referenced them. (And others will do the same for you!) And you can decide whether you'd like to send your comment to either Twitter or Facebook.
I think you can see why we're really excited about this new comment platform, and we'd love to have you play around with it and tell us what you think. In fact, go right down to the comments on this post and try out every single feature, and then leave a shiny new comment letting us know what you think.
~Denise
BlogHer Community Manager
Life. Flow. Fluctuate.
