After almost nine months of using Disqus, we've decided it's in the site's best interest to switch to another service. When we initially installed Disqus, we had to do some tweaking to the code in our theme (the pretty face of our site) to make things look right. Our tech guy did a great job, but on the down side, this code would have to be re-applied every time our site upgraded. Everyone who contributes to ADvindicate does so for free and in their spare time, so it's essential that minimal time be wasted on tech related issues as we do not have technical support readily available. For this reason, and a few others related to apparent incompatibility issues between Disqus and our theme, we've decided to part ways with Disqus.

Welcome Livefyre. We're quite pleased with the way Livefyre integrates with our site. No extra coding required. It also has all the features of Disqus with the exception of a few such as post ratings and reactions (showed who had shared a post on Twitter). Four features Livefyre has that Disqus doesn't are Listener Count, One Click Follow, LinkBack and Social Tagging. These features will be explained along with the other features below. We've pulled a list of Livefyre's feature summaries for your convenience.

Please use this post to ask any questions you may have as you migrate to Livefyre. We hope you like Livefyre as much as we do.

SocialSync

You love the comments and conversation going on about your blog posts, but they’re not all happening on your site. Your friends, family and loyal readers are also commenting on your post via Facebook and Twitter and you haven’t been able to capture that conversation. Until Now.

With Livefyre SocialSync, the conversation happening on Facebook and Twitter automatically syncs directly to your content, where it belongs. SocialSync comments can be replied to and interacted with just like any other comment, including being automatically posted back to Twitter or Facebook.

Social Sign In

Livefyre makes it simple for readers to join your community. Users have the option to sign in with multiple social networks to put a face to their name and comments. That way they can jump right in and join the conversation. No new log-in required.

Sites can also use our guest commenting option to let their community comment without even creating an account.

Friend Tagging

Getting your friends in on the conversation is as simple as typing the “@” sign. Easily invite Facebook and Twitter friends to join the conversation right from the comment box. Give your readers access to their entire social network to bring specific friends that would be interested in the conversation.

Comment Sharing

You have a great community with some smart ideas. Okay..maybe not all of these comments are Mensa quality, but a lot of them are interesting, funny or just a bit insightful.

Let your community share those thoughts! With one click, users can easily share comments with their friends on other social networks including Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. Empower your community to spread the best reactions to your content and bring more traffic to your site.

Comment Liking

There’s a reason teachers gave out gold stars in elementary school- who doesn’t love being told “job well done?” Let your community members recognize those users who elevate the conversation. Livefyre even shows the avatars of every user who’s liked a comment.

Rich Text Editor

Sometimes you just need to be bold. Comments 3 includes new visualization tools like rich-text editing so that you can emphasize your point of view in flourishes of bold italics, or create a bulleted list to drive home your argument.

LinkBack

Most of us look to our friends for their recommendations about a new restaurant, book, or a hair stylist who won’t give you the Dorothy Hammill wedge. It makes sense to discover new ideas, places and people through our community.

Blogging is no different. Actually, one of the best parts about blogging is discovering new content and connections. LinkBack encourages community interaction by letting other Livefyre bloggers display a link to their latest post when they leave a comment.

Live Listeners

Most of us are more inclined to think about what we’re saying when speaking to a crowd. And no one likes to feel like they’re speaking to an empty room. Our Live Listener count lets readers know exactly how many people are on the current page or have followed the conversation, giving them more incentive to leave a thoughtful response. It encourages more participation and higher quality conversations.

Comment Notifiers

Livefyre Comment Notifiers make it as simple as possible to follow conversations in real-time, even if you’re not looking at the comments! The widget shows you who is participating in the conversation and what they are saying as it happens, all without losing your place on the page - so you never have to miss out.

Media Embedding

Livefyre Comments 3 enhances your media embedding options so that you can share photos from Flickr and Instagram, play videos from YouTube and Vimeo, flip-through slide decks on SlideShare, listen to songs from SoundCloud and Spotify, geek-out on animated gifs from Myspace, and even feature Wikipedia articles directly in the conversation stream.

Comment Editing

Comment Editing allows users to edit their own comments within a specific time frame so that they can fix their spelling mistakes without changing the context of the following comment stream. Site admins can make edits to all comments as well. Livefyre realizes mistakes are inevitable. But your comments shouldn’t have to show them.

User Profiles

Conversations and comments are about the people behind them and Livefyre User Profiles make it easy to form a community. Our user bios allow community members to share a bit about themselves and the topics they care about, while also showing the conversations where they have left comments. If users choose they can also receive email notifications when a new comment is left as an easy way to stay engaged.

We've modified a few features and added a new one. All comments will now be displayed chronologically, and the most recent comment's widget has been removed. Also, we've added a new section to the website that will feature only news articles. While ADvindicate encourages readers to interact with its content, the site does not primarily exist to act as a forum. Our primary focus is to publish Christ-centered, Bible-based, Seventh-day Adventist perspectives on current events and issues within the church. We believe removing the comment widget reflects this philosophy.

Nested comments will no longer be supported. With the absence of the comment widget, it will be difficult to locate new nested comments. Also, despite the few advantages of nested comments, readers tend to find chronological comments easier to follow.

Truncated Comments Whenever you see a comment that has been truncated, it means the author has exceeded the 200 word limit. Instead of deleting comments that exceed our limit, we've decided it is sufficient to truncate these comments. This way those who wish to read the longer comments can do so by expanding the truncated comments.

Replying to Comments There are a few ways you can reply to another reader. A simple salutation to get their attention works:

Joe: I agree with what you said, but your last point needs some clarification.

Disqus does allow commenters to use the @ symbol; however, it appears they haven't worked out all the kinks, because instead of showing the commenters name, it often shows a jumble of numbers. If you want to give it a try, place the @ symbol in front of their user name: @Joe.

Flagging Comments We encourage commenters to hold each other accountable to the rules. If you feel a comment is in violation of one of ADvindicate's rules, please flag it, and a moderator will be notified and make the final judgment.