Now in testing: Like buttons and a new posting interface

The “early adopter” setting lets your community preview new Disqus features before they’re released across the network. Today there are hundreds of communities that are previewing new features on Disqus. Below are a couple new features that we’re testing now. If you go to your settings and tell us you are an early adopter, you can preview these new features too.

Improvements to the posting experience

This is what Disqus looks like today if you are not logged in.

It’s clear that registering and logging into an account is the ultimate barrier that prevents real conversation. Disqus has always made this easy by supporting many different ways to identify yourself: either with Disqus, Facebook, Twitter, Yahoo, OpenID, or simply by providing your name. It’s much more appealing to participate if your audience sees a login button from something they already recognize.

This week we are testing a new default interface.

We think this is the most attractive comment box on the web. No login buttons, no fields to think about; just a place to write your comment. It’s a simple change, but one with many enhancements baked in.

Commenters just need to write and then click “Post”, after which a box appears for them to quickly identify themselves. All the recognizable login choices are still there, but now commenters don’t need to think about it until after they’ve finished writing. 

We’ve also simplified the sharing options for when you post a comment. It’s now clearer how and whether you are sharing your comment to Facebook and Twitter.

Simplicity is the goal of these changes, and we’ve made other changes to simplify the look and experience of the system. Play around with it and let us know what you think in the comments.

Like buttons

Commenters have always been able to “Like” comments. It’s a quick way to give feedback by clicking a button instead of responding with a comment.

We’re previewing a new feature that extends “Liking” to the page itself. It could be a blog post, article, or just your personal homepage; it’s all likeable. You’ll also notice a second button: the “Dislike” button (represented with a thumbs down). Our inspiration comes from Youtube.com and we’ve seen it used well there.

It’s pretty simple right now, and we’re just looking to learn how communities use these new features. Soon we’ll be rolling out the “share” component of the Like buttons, which will be compatible with Facebook’s likes but also other networks like Twitter and Google Buzz.

This is one of a few new things we’re rolling out to make Disqus a broader community system. Good conversations build communities, but it’s only one of many layers. We’ll be talking more soon about how Disqus can help.