Over the last couple of weeks I was trying various commenting system available for bloggers. And I am really surprised to say that even though there are couple of good options there but none of them is perfect.
I tried DISQUS some time back on Knowliz just because it had an option to use Facebook connect but JS-Kit also provides that option and in fact there is not even a need to setup application profile on Facebook to enable that option.
What I liked the best in JS-Kit:
  1. Best user support I have seen from any of these companies. JS-Kit CEO (Khris Loux) himself alongwith Head – Product Strategy (Chris Saad) are involved in providing best user experience and to see if the users are facing any issue while using JS-Kit. So you don’t have to go through another forum to get answers of simple problems.
    Even better, tweet your problem to @JSKitSupport on twitter to get an immediate attention.
  2. You don’t have to be geek to use JS-Kit on your Blogger blog. Installation of JS-Kit on your blog is just 5 minute job. That requires you to know how to download and upload a template to Blogger. Very easy and flawless.
  3. You don’t need to know lot of HTML or CSS to use JS-Kit.
  4. You don’t have to sign up for yet another account to use it.
  5. Facebook connect and Open ID both are available by default. So don’t worry about losing any of the goodies provided by any of these systems.
  6. The comments left using JS-Kit are synchronised with the default blogger platform. In case you wanna remove JS-Kit later on, you won’t lose your comments ever.
  7. Your existing comments on Blogger are intact and visible to all as earlier.
  8. SPAM protection is provided using Akismet.
  9. JS-Kit comments support WYSIWYG rich text editor, embedding videos and the use of emoticons.
Observations and suggestion for JS-Kit team:
  1. Blogs enabled with JS-Kit loads a little slower. I have got the same message from some fellow users.
  2. Provide a better web interface. Current web site looks pretty raw and crude. Though it provides all the information but the user interface is just un-intuitive.
  3. Provide more default options for comment appearances (skins). I know I can do it with some CSS edits mentioned on the site. Still non-geeky bloggers will love you for that.
  4. Move the ‘Add Picture’ link on the bottom of the comment box to under Avatar default box. I think it makes more sense there.
  5. I will love to see better profile management for admins.
  6. I think some clutter can be reduced from the comment drop down.
    • First of all, merge the two options ‘Existing JS-Kit profile’ and ‘New JS-Kit profile’ into just one ‘JS-Kit’ profile. Then provide an option to either sign-up or sign-in.
    • Change couple of other entries to make them more intuitive.
    • I think finally there should be 4 entries in the drop down as mentioned below:
      1. Guest/Anonymous
      2. JS-Kit/Haloscan Profile
      3. OpenID/Email
      4. Connect with Facebook
  7. How about combining various user profiles into one. For example a comment left using Facebook connect should reflect the same user even if he/she leaves a comment using OpenID. (Provided user has linked those account obviously.)
  8. I would love more web 2.0 goodies like fetching information from various social networks/profiles just like other commenting system do.
  9. Make it possible to reply, approve, delete or spam comments by email. DISQUS and IntenseDebate both provides that option.
  10. Provide an option to use video commenting from Seesmic and likes.

I am not sure if it is too much to ask for from any one commenting system to do all of them. And if some of the option are already available.
But if any service is going to replace the basic blogger commenting system on any blog, it better provide most of these options. Else there is no problem with the existing Blogger comment system as well.

Only thing they (Blogger) need to do is to enable Facebook Connect and add an option to reply to comments by email. I am sure everyone will stick to their basic commenting systems. Right…
I am open to discussion, if any of you feel any information provided here is false or in some way misleading. I am also open to discussion with the JS-Kit team if they need elaboration on any option I have suggested/observed above.

Thank for the great and easy to use service.

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