
I’ve been doing a lot of thinking on commenting recently. Most of our information is out on the web already, why is it that we still have to re-enter it every time we want to make a blog post comment? Good design is all in the details and the only reason for the email form is to keep in contact, I can do that on twitter. Besides, isn’t this a little overkill?
I am not a big fan of authentication badges, due to the very fact that people are not quite sure what they will be giving up or posting by clicking. I am even hesitant to click on the badges when there is no clear call-to-action what they actually will do.
I decided to come up with a completely custom commenting system that is a super fast, simple and auth-free way to collect all the data needed. The solution – a wordpress twitter hybrid commenting system.
It’s easy. You enter in your twitter username and comment and this pulls the avatar (transient thanks to Joe Stump’s http://tweetimag.es/), full name, location and website url. The obvious caveat is that you have to have a twitter account, but I anticipate the target audience to have one already, even if not active.
Next step… comments across the web are more fragmented than ever. There needs to be a unified way to federate them together (ie Google Wave commenting example across platform).
Interested to know what you guys think, leave a message in the groovy comments below.
[UPDATE] – Download the official wordpress plugin here
Matt Deegan
WOW, this is very cool!
Jun 21st from London
Joey Primiani
Thanks Matt!
Jun 21st from Silicon Valley/NYC/The Future
Mariana Martins ☮
love this joey
Jun 21st
Mariana Martins ☮
oooh like the colors
Jun 21st
Joey Primiani
Thanks Mariana
Jun 21st from Silicon Valley/NYC/The Future
Zach Allia
too easy
Jun 21st from iPhone: 37.438751,-122.128036
Joshua Wright
Your site is sick man!
Jun 21st from Daytona Beach
Zach Allia
my twitter pic is not my current pic.. hmmm
Jun 21st from iPhone: 37.438751,-122.128036
Joey Primiani
Thanks Joshua
Jun 21st from Silicon Valley/NYC/The Future
Joey Primiani
No such thing as too easy Zach
Jun 21st from Silicon Valley/NYC/The Future
Joey Primiani
Hey Zach, it is pulling it from http://img.tweetimag.es/i/zachallia_n – when was the last time you changed it?
Jun 21st from Silicon Valley/NYC/The Future
Joey Primiani
The colors matches the person through the conversation thread.
Jun 21st from Silicon Valley/NYC/The Future
Ian Atha
The colors are magnificent. The tech is pretty sweet too.
Jun 21st from San Francisco, Calif.
Parth Shah
UberCool!
Jun 21st from San Francisco Bay Area
Manmohanjit Singh
Amazing job!
Jun 21st from ÜT: 3.040577,101.58355
joshuatly (Lien Yu)
Wow interesting! But i think the only way to comment is using twitter is not a good idea. since not everyone got a twitter account.
Jun 21st from Pahang, Malaysia
Joey Primiani
Thanks Ian, glow stick party!
Jun 21st from Silicon Valley/NYC/The Future
Joey Primiani
Thanks Parth!
Jun 21st from Silicon Valley/NYC/The Future
Joey Primiani
Thanks Manmohanjit, appreciate the RT.
Jun 21st from Silicon Valley/NYC/The Future
Joey Primiani
Hey Lien, Apple bit the bullet on floppy drives and flash. I will do the same with people who don’t have twitter accounts.
Jun 21st from Silicon Valley/NYC/The Future
John Breslin
Awesome job man, very smart.
Jun 21st from Washington, DC / Baltimore, MD
Trish Johnson
Joey you are a design GOD – I want this on mine
Jun 21st from Vancouver, BC
Allen Caeg
Nice to meet you.. big fan of your work.
Jun 21st from in your closet
Angelika Schmeing
LOVE IT!
Jun 21st from Philippines
Joey Primiani
Thanks guys, I really appreciate it.
Jun 21st from Silicon Valley/NYC/The Future
Nicole Salamanca
I like this a lot. Keep up the great work!
Jun 21st from My room
nicolagreco
Really smart
Jun 21st from Rome, Italy
Shinichi HISAMATSU
awesome!
Jun 22nd from Tokyo
ধ্রুব
Blooming marvellous!
Jun 22nd from London, England
Jaap Walhout
very good idea! i would like to use it
Jun 22nd from Maastricht, Netherlands
flxfxp
nice!
Jun 22nd from The Netherlands
flxfxp
But how do you deal with fake identification?
Jun 22nd from The Netherlands
Joey Primiani
In current comments formatting, there is nothing to stop you from leaving a comment as someone else either. I believe overall, this ease will increase communication on the site and identification verification won’t be that big of an issue. Akismet still does a great job at preventing spam.
Jun 22nd from Silicon Valley/NYC/The Future
Joey Primiani
Thanks Londoner dhrubo and Netherlander flxfxp!
Jun 22nd from Silicon Valley/NYC/The Future
Joey Primiani
Thanks Jaap, there are no plans to make it publicly available yet. But, if I get enough requests I might.
Jun 22nd from Silicon Valley/NYC/The Future
Jeff Waugh
Win!
Jun 22nd from Yass, Australia
Jeff Waugh
That you do not authenticate — or even attempt the most basic of checks — with Twitter (simple enough using OAuth, though it does add a step to the process) renders this useless, I’m sorry to say. The above comment was not left by biz, for example.
Jun 22nd from Yass, Australia
Csaba Okrona
Neat idea!
Jun 22nd from Akira
TheMegaIdiot
Beautiful work
Jun 22nd from Bristol, UK
noah robischon
Very simple and useful, nice work.
Jun 22nd from 40.718399, -73.994835
open source warrior
Great Demo, huh
Jun 22nd from Kiev
John Turner
I was just thinking about this the other day.
Jun 22nd from Charleston, SC
Matt Vickers
Jeff, I don’t think the point is to create a super secure, post your life type comment system. Most people leaving a comment aren’t going to put someone else’s name. If I want to talk to joey, I’ll put down my twitter ID. This is one of those rare occasions where no auth isn’t necessarily the end of the world.
Jun 22nd from Winnipeg, Manitoba
Enrique Dans
What if someone else uses my username here?
Jun 22nd from ÜT: 40.438768,-3.689195
Andrew A. Vazzano
Now you need nested comments and you’re good to go!
Jun 22nd from NJ / CT
Nicholas Greens
Fantastic.
Jun 22nd from Washington, DC
Melissa Ward
Joey, HAI! <3 This was retweeted by someone I follow, small world!
This is way sweet… love it!
Jun 22nd from USA
teddyrised
Ditto that. I feel that this is a great idea, although there have to be some way that allows us to authenticate the identity of the user before publishing the comment – a similar system such as OpenID could be adopted, but I believe it’ll be cumbersome.
Matt is right about authentication though – it simply serves no reason to abuse a person’s Twitter identity, unless we’re talking about a malicious bot. If I spent the last 5 minutes writing a comment the last thing I want to do is to credit it to another person on Twitter
I have to second your opinion that comment management systems have gotten too diversified for people to manage – we have the default WP commenting system, Disqus, BackType and a lot other. There is a need to call for an open standard and feel that this might be the best way out.
Jun 22nd
Paul Greer
Yes, I think I am liking this.
Jun 22nd from Bristol
Giles Van Gruisen
Cool stuff!
Jun 22nd from Newport, RI
@DandC WebDev
Authorization might be cool
Jun 22nd from Rochester, NY
Jevaun
Pretty sweet
Jun 22nd from Breuklen, New Amsterdam
Mark Armstrong
interesting
Jun 22nd from New York
maxescu
This is as brilliant as it is simple!
Jun 22nd
Renan Alessio
I liked it!
Jun 22nd from SP, Brazil
Vitor
Like that!
Jun 22nd from Vitória-ES / Brasil
Márcio Handerson
Muito bom mesmo …. muita gente no Brasil vai adotar esta ferramente =D
Jun 22nd from Recife - PE, #bra
Jevaun
Quick and easy, but very insecure…
Jun 22nd from Breuklen, New Amsterdam
Rosana Hermann
rebolation tion, o rebolation tion
Jun 22nd from -23.525317,-46.661808
Xong Lee
two thumbs up
Jun 22nd from Brazil
Vida de Gayroto
Wonderful!
Jun 22nd from Brazil
XL
test
Jun 22nd
Matias Singers
this is a great commenting system, anyway to protect your own twitter id.
Will you post some code or something to show how it’s done?
Jun 22nd from Aarhus, Denmark
Jeff Macpherson
Great comment solution!
Jun 22nd
Wes Thompson
I’d LOVE to be able to use this approach. It’s such an incredibly elegant solution.
Jun 22nd from Chicago, IL
Xong Lee
2 thumbs up
Jun 22nd from Brazil
Tarikh Korula
very interesting idea!
Jun 22nd from Brooklyn
Marcello Morsello
Introducing a simpler blog commenting system by @jp
Jun 22nd from Pedreira - SP - Brazil
devolute
I’m not 100% sure I trust this.
Jun 22nd from Sheffield, UK
John Sico
This is brilliant.
Jun 22nd from New York, NY
Zoyx
That couch is resisting that chair. Must reestablish living room furniture hierarchy.
Jun 22nd from Shakopee, MN
boingboing
Authenticate as anyone. Love the idea, maybe if they are logged in already?
Jun 22nd
Eren Emre Kanal
clever idea @jp
Jun 22nd from San Francisco, CA
Nate Maggio
This is great, but I do miss threaded comments.
Jun 22nd from San Francisco, CA
bmert
This can own with authentication
Jun 22nd
Çağatay Öztürk
cool
Jun 22nd from istanbul
Thiago Borbolla
yes!
Jun 22nd from SP, Brazil
Brad Kelly
It’s a great idea. Without some way to prove I am who I say I am though, I think it would be abused if put to widespread use. I imagine a heated argument where one person posts a concession as the other. Childish, yes, but those people are out there.
Jun 22nd from Fenton, MI
josh hailey
testing
Jun 22nd from Jackson, MS
Marco Zamlutti
Nice idea, I really didn’t like authentication pages, but yeah I can put someone else’s nickname and comment as it.
Jun 22nd from São Paulo
Cristiano Oliveira
Great!!
Jun 22nd from Novo Hamburgo
bilge kagan
test 1-2-3.
Jun 22nd from Turkey
Eduardo Wöetter
Pretty interesting. Gotta give it a try
Thanks!
Jun 22nd from Rio de Janeiro
Brittany Bohnet
Very nice
My only question is, why is the comment field below the comments, instead of at the top? Also, at first glance, I didn’t notice the difference b/t the bottom of the comments and the top of the tweets. Maybe you implement headers?
Jun 22nd from San Francisco
Xuxa Meneghel
aids
Jun 22nd from Rio de Janeiro
Michael Koenig
Very cool JP. I came across this via @laughingsquid. It might be cool to see how this could work with IntenseDebate (which offers a lot of cool features like comment threading, email subscriptions, and a way to keep track of all of your comments, among others). Maybe an IntenseDebate plugin? If you’re interested, check out http://www.intensedebate.com/docs/plugin-resources for info on our Plugins API. Let me know if you have any questions or want to chat further – michael at intensedebate.com
Jun 22nd from Chicago, Illinois
Michael Koenig
Just a quick follow-up to my comment above: per your screenshot of IntenseDebate above, pretty much all of those components can be removed from the comment section (Facebook Connect, Twitter Sign-in, OpenID, WordPress.com login, PollDaddy Polls, After the Deadline, email subscriptions, and guest commenter info fields). You can have a completely clean comment form if you’d like. Still, I love the style of what you’ve done and I think it’d be cool to bounce around some ideas and ways we could work together.
Jun 22nd from Chicago, Illinois
Zé Hilário
ALAKA
Jun 22nd from São Paulo/Recife, Brasil
Goku
testando
Jun 22nd
Ted Boyer
Very cool.
Jun 22nd from Avon Lake
Alexandre Lima
Isso sim, é interessante.
Jun 22nd from Belo Horizonte - MG
Oliver Emberton
Ok, I admit – this is cool.
Jun 22nd from Derby, Derby (52.937611,-1.495
Alexandre Lima
The problem is: we could do fake coments, using real profiles.
Jun 22nd from Belo Horizonte - MG
Luiz Augusto Andrade
Great idea!
Jun 22nd from Santos, BR, Terra...
Gustavo Serafim
so cool
Jun 22nd from Vinhedo
Teng Siong, Ong
a really nice idea. is it a wordpress plugin that anyone can install?
Jun 22nd from Siebel Center
Fred Dyson
Everything is pie.
Jun 22nd from Providence, RI
William Gibson
Wow, that’s crazy. Especially considering I’m not William Gibson.
Jun 22nd from Vancouver
DJ Versianni
Mas e é? Será mesmo…
Jun 22nd from Aracaju, Sergipe, Brazil
Silvio Luiz
olho no lance
Jun 22nd from São Paulo, Brasil
Silvio Luiz
ahuhauhauhauhauahuha
Jun 22nd from São Paulo, Brasil
Joey Primiani
Wow many comments, I’ll try to keep up
1) Looking into making it an intensedebate or wordpress plugin (thanks to the official guys for contacting me)
2) As I said before, yes you can comment as anyone. In current comments formatting (wo auth), there is nothing to stop you from leaving a comment as someone else either. I believe overall, this ease will increase communication on the site and identification verification won’t be that big of an issue. I want people to leave connected to each other, not me. Akismet still does a great job at preventing spam.
3) Clean, simple and fast was my main intent – doing one thing really well. Don’t want to get feature crazy.
Thanks to all the talented developers, designers and entrepreneurs for sharing and writing in, you guys are the best.
Jun 22nd from Silicon Valley/NYC/The Future
Kevin Chan
this is pretty darn cool!
Jun 22nd from Malaysia
Kevin Chan
(:
Jun 22nd from Malaysia
Graeme Hamilton
Very cool, I like your style a lot
Jun 22nd from Scotland
Beau
This is a pretty rad implementation. I was thinking of something similar a while back, but glad to see someone actually do it!
Jun 22nd from iPhone: 37.789509,-122.414116
abc123
So this doesn’t do any authentication?
Jun 22nd
Matt Vickers
Zero Auth.
Jun 22nd from Winnipeg, Manitoba
Paulo Cesar
Gostei da novidade
Jun 22nd from Rio Branco - AC
Gustavo Gusmão
Sério? E seu eu não for o verdadeiro @goozgooz?
Jun 22nd from Recife, Brazil
A Prancheta
Too easy to make fake comments. No credibility.
Jun 22nd from Recife
Joey Primiani
Hey Gustavo and Aprancheta, yes that is the caveat of the system. Like Matt said above “I don’t think the point is to create a super secure, post your life type comment system. Most people leaving a comment aren’t going to put someone else’s name. If I want to talk to joey, I’ll put down my twitter ID. This is one of those rare occasions where no auth isn’t necessarily the end of the world.” Beautiful work on your potfolio site btw.
Jun 22nd from Silicon Valley/NYC/The Future
Rafał Janik
nice post
Jun 22nd from Gdańsk
asdfasdf
asdfasdfasdf
Jun 22nd
florian fangohr
The only problem is spam, right? I just posted the comment above from an account that isn’t mine. Guess there is a point for auth after all.
Jun 22nd from Windsor Terrace, Brooklyn
Jack DeFuria
Awesome!
Jun 22nd from New York
Ernie Chiaradonna
cool!
Jun 22nd from Boston, MA
Jolie O'Dell
This is perfect.
Jun 22nd from San Francisco
Spencer Schoeben
this is amazing Joey!
Jun 22nd from Palo Alto / Manhattan Beach
Joey Primiani
Thanks Jolie, I can still tell by IP
Jun 22nd from Silicon Valley/NYC/The Future
Joey Primiani
Thanks Spencer!
Yeah, this is what I was going to ask you about yesterday. Haha.
Jun 22nd from Silicon Valley/NYC/The Future
Joey Primiani
Correct Florian. Beautiful work btw!
Jun 22nd from Silicon Valley/NYC/The Future
Daniel Brusilovsky
Awesome work, Joey!
Jun 22nd from Silicon Valley, CA
Simone Mozzilli
Jun 22nd
steph
very cool
Jun 22nd
blah
Hello
Jun 22nd
Benjamin Alijagić
Very nice. Had same idea for comments form when twitter made that possible but has no time for blogging.
Jun 23rd from Croatia, Lovran
Nikhil Nigade
This is fantastic. Very simple to understand for the current e-gen.
Jun 23rd from Pune,India
Joey Primiani
Thanks Daniel, I’ll see ya soon.
Jun 23rd from Silicon Valley/NYC/The Future
Joey Primiani
Thanks Ben for the nice words and RT. Looking forward to your site coming up, send me beta
Jun 23rd from Silicon Valley/NYC/The Future
Joey Primiani
Nikhil, love your site. What are you using for CMS?
Jun 23rd from Silicon Valley/NYC/The Future
Dave Cooper
huzzah
Jun 23rd from New Zealand
Dave Cooper
Twitter commenting system, bah! This internet thing is never going to take off.
Jun 23rd from New Zealand
Dave Cooper
Twitter comments, that’s hawt!
Jun 23rd from New Zealand
Dave Cooper
Jump on the bandwagon why don’t you. Oauth 4 eva!
Jun 23rd from New Zealand
Manmohanjit Singh
I’m sure some jQuery-ness would do some good
Jun 23rd from ÜT: 3.040577,101.58355
Ed Ceaser
The auth-free is probably bad.
Jun 23rd from San Francisco
Rob Hyndman
You are a genius, love your work! Keep up the great job.
Jun 23rd from Toronto
ug
very cool indeed
Jun 23rd
Jenn Vargas
wow joey. i’m LOVING this commenting system! trying to figure out how I can implement it on @101in365. you are r0x0rs. as usual!
Jun 23rd from San Francisco, CA
Joey Primiani
Now available to download as a wordpress plugin here:
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/jpcomments/
Jun 23rd from Silicon Valley/NYC/The Future
Joey Primiani
You are a rockstar Jenn, already checking off some 101s.
Jun 23rd from Silicon Valley/NYC/The Future
Joey Primiani
@jennjenn Do you mean for the blog? If it is a wordpress CMS you can use it. Or do you mean building it custom on the site?
Jun 24th from Silicon Valley/NYC/The Future
José Serra
teste
Jun 24th from Brasil
José Leonardo
Jun 25th from Brasil
Pavel Miller
genius
Jun 25th from London
Aldiantoro Nugroho
nicely done!
Jun 26th from Bekasi, Indonesia
Nikki Lee Ezelle
You are universe denting divine : ) Absolutely brilliant – Robot round of applause – fembot seal of approval.
Jun 26th from Your Future
Mike Pinkowish
It’d be cool if the system remembered who you are so you don’t need to type your twitter name each time.
Jun 26th from Pacifica, CA
Joey Primiani
Hey Mike, it should do that for you already.
Jun 26th from Silicon Valley/NYC/The Future
Jake
Hey this cool
Jun 26th from Mountain View, CA
urza
funny, I was thinking about the very same thing
Jun 27th
Wesley Avante
This is very very cool. Nice!
Jun 29th from 22º 19’18”.9 S. 49º 04’13”.5 W
Ryan Fairchild
testing comments
Jun 30th from Orlando, FL
Ryan Fairchild
^ that was me. Not trying to dog the system that you have here, but do you have plans/ideas to deal with that?
Jun 30th from Orlando, FL
Ryan Fairchild
Sorry I wish you had a demo setup so I don’t have to spam you blog. One more test
Jun 30th from Orlando, FL
Joey Primiani
Hey Ryan, thanks for testing it out. Long time no talk, hope you are doing well!
I addressed your questions you had above in the comments. Feel free to shoot me an email jprimiani@gmail.com if you want to chat further.
Jul 7th from Silicon Valley/NYC/The Future
Joey Primiani
Thanks Jake for the RT
Jul 7th from Silicon Valley/NYC/The Future
passerby
Interesting
Jul 9th
Sticker Mule
very cool. thanks!
Jul 9th from 90069
Jeremy Bronson
!
Jul 15th from Grand Rapids, MI
Ben Mawhinney
Whack!
Aug 3rd from Newcastle-upon-Tyne
Ben Mawhinney
Doesn’t it mean you can comment as other people?
Aug 3rd from Newcastle-upon-Tyne
Kyle Reed
I like this. What about threaded conversations though?
Aug 3rd from St. Louis MO
John Saddington
neato.
Aug 3rd from The Internets.
David Haywood Smith
Beautifully simple idea!
Aug 3rd from Newcastle, UK
Joey Primiani
Thanks everyone – I really appreciate it!
Ben, it is moderated by IP. Threading is something that adds complexity, don’t feel it is necessary for this implementation – keeping it fast and simple.
Aug 3rd from Silicon Valley/NYC/The Future
Abi
This looks great!
Aug 3rd from Palo Alto
laiju thomas
very nice
Aug 12th from India