Let's face it—as extraordinarily busy people, we don't always have enough time to respond to everything we see on the internet. Sometimes we only have enough time to react.

The first month of Disqus's 2022 Summer Internship is coming to an end and we thought it would be the perfect time to introduce our new additions to the Disqus team!

We took some time to ask our interns some questions to get better acquainted.  First, we have your writer Imani Thompson, our Content Marketer who will focus on connecting with you all through Disqus's blogs, newsletter, etc. As our Social Media Intern, Tiarra Banks will oversee outreach through our Twitter, Instagram, and many other accounts. David Lesser will work directly with clients managing sales and current accounts, keeping our clients satisfied as the Technical Account Manager.  Lastly, we have Sucharitha Vallabhaneni who will ensure Disqus's efficiency by processing anything from services to the product as our Business Analyst Intern.  As we continue to acclimate to our daily roles and the business, we are finding ourselves confidently growing and enjoying the creative reign our awesome managers allow us.

We’re thrilled to announce the release of the new beta version of Standalone Recommendations! This update to the previously released Recommendations feature now allows publishers to place the Recommendations unit anywhere on the page and on any page, even pages without Disqus comments present. 

We have a new update allowing our business publishers to customize their fonts on Disqus! Today, Disqus utilizes a default Serif or Sans Serif font that we have chosen for all publishers.

So, what’s changing? Now, instead of Disqus selecting the font, publishers will be able to specify which font they’d like to use with the new font dropdown.👇

Being able to make your comments section align with your community values and goals is something we work towards every day here at Disqus. Today we have a number of new capabilities available to our publishers to further customize the Disqus embed on your site. Please keep in mind that these new features are available to our Pro and Business accounts only. Check them out below:

Disqus is built for engagement and to enable community development for publishers and voting on comments is a simple way for readers to interact with content with just a click. Last October, we made the decision to display downvotes. We believe that either liking or disliking something is a large aspect of how we communicate with each other and engage with content, and we want to create spaces for people with different opinions to have more constructive interactions.

2020 has arrived, and yet we still catch ourselves thinking twenty years ago was 1980! Not only has so much changed in the last 20 years, especially with all of the exciting new tech that has emerged, but a lot has changed in the last year alone too. From the rise of new social platforms to the widespread growth of podcasts, to better optimizing voice assistants for search, digital publishers everywhere have been busy in 2019. And while the digital landscape we live in is ever-changing, it’s also important to appreciate these advances as they create new opportunities to evolve and grow. 

Virtual Q&A’s are a powerful and efficient way to create a more personal experience for your audience. A virtual Q&A is an interactive gathering that takes place on the internet, and isn’t restricted to a single location, so attendees can join and participate from anywhere in the world! 🌎  The host will typically provide an area to submit questions, which can take the form of a survey, online forum, or a commenting thread. This usually takes place before the event starts, allowing readers time to input their questions about topics the host typically covers and everything in between! Whether you’re doing a Q&A write up, video or live video, this type of virtual event allows you, or your guests, to reach your audience in a more personal and direct way. Having this particular approach to your content will also let your audience to put a face to your brand. Q&A’s provide an opportunity for digital publishers to educate their audience, foster healthy debate, and share knowledge.

In January of 2018, Facebook changed its News Feed algorithm to prioritize more “meaningful interactions” from friends and family. The algorithm doesn’t just promote posts with the most comments but rather posts with replies to comments that can propel a conversation forward. As Facebook de-emphasized content from businesses and brands, many publishers lost significant referral traffic and had to re-evaluate their strategies to maintain and grow their readership. Facebook’s algorithm change was a challenge to most publishers, but particularly difficult for the ones that relied heavily on the social media platform to distribute content and drive traffic. So, over a year later, let’s take a look at what publishers are doing to replace that lost referral traffic. Many changed their approach on Facebook and explored different social platforms for distribution, such as LinkedIn or Instagram. They also took a look within to see how they can tweak their internal strategies.