Editor's Note: In announcing the new commenting system, we warned that there would be "jagged edges" and asked for readers' forbearance.  Our tech consultants are working with Vuukle to overcome the glitches that have annoyed readers.

Now that the Vuukle comment system that AT sprang on readers and comment-writers earlier this week is a few days old, I think it is time for the AT staff to receive some reader feedback.  Vuukle is intended to be a replacement for the Disqus system of commenting.  Because I had never heard of Vuukle before this action, I think I can credibly say I am unbiased.  So as I see it, here are the Good Features and the Bad Features.

GOOD FEATURES

1. The transition from Disqus to Vuukle was easy and painless.  All I had to do was sign up on the AT site, and the rest was automatic.  It even transferred my avatar automatically.

(Of course, had AT not switched to Vuukle in the first place, this "advantage" would be moot and irrelevant.)

2. Vuukle blocks readers from providing upvotes to their own comments.  That's good.  Disqus lacks this feature.  Self-upvoting is an abuse of the Disqus system.

BAD FEATURES

1. I cannot figure out how a new user could introduce a new avatar, unless he already had one with Disqus.  And I cannot figure out how to change an avatar, should I desire to do so.

2. Vuukle lacks any feature that permits the user to edit his own comments after the initial posting.  This means that misspellings cannot be corrected, and the comment-writer cannot rewrite his comments later on with improved prose.  Disqus does allow subsequent editing of comments.  So a word to the wise Vuukle user: be sure to do a good proofreading job before hitting the POST button!  You won't get a chance for a do-over.

3. Vuukle doesn't allow the reader to select a permanent setting for the sorting of comments, while Disqus does.  In other words, Vuukle and Disqus both allow the option of allowing the reader to sort the comments by the categories of Latest, Best, Editor's Most Replied, Oldest.  But with Disqus, once the setting is selected, it is permanent for all threads until the reader decides to change it.  With Vuukle, it is permanent only within the given thread.  Every time the reader goes to the comments section of another article, Vuukle defaults to the Latest setting, and the reader has to select his own setting with every article, unless the reader actually prefers the Latest setting.  This is very, very annoying.

4. Disqus — and not Vuukle — enables any reader to discover the running total both of the comments that anyone has made and of the upvotes received.  For instance, by dragging my cursor over Schmutzli's avatar, I am able to make the interesting discovery that he has posted over 18,500 comments and has received over 235,000 upvotes.  He is a very prolific writer.  Vuukle utterly lacks this feature.  Under Vuukle, I have no idea how many comments I have made or how many upvotes I have received.

5. Furthermore, Vuukle provides no information as to who has awarded upvotes.  I am always curious to see who has upvoted me or others, and under Disqus, I had this capability.  With Vuukle, I don't.

6. Vuukle, like Disqus, does provide a visual indication that I have awarded an upvote.  However, in Vuukle, that indicator is visible only as long as the reader is logged in to that article.  If the reader logs off the article and then returns, that visual indicator is gone when the reader returns; in Disqus, it is permanent.  This enables an annoying situation in Vuukle, whereby I might try to award an upvote after having forgotten that I already did so.  Then I get a message blocking me from doing it.  This is annoying and is avoided in Disqus.

7. Vuukle, unlike Disqus, does not allow for downvotes.  (Although, in fairness, I don't know what practical significance this had in Disqus, since neither the number of downvotes nor the identities of their originators are depicted.)

8. Vuukle, like Disqus, does allow the reader to refer offensive comments to the site moderator.  However, Disqus allows the reader to designate categories of the offensive comments (e.g., anti-Semitism, threats, insulting language), and Vuukle does not.

9. Vuukle does allow offensive comments to be blocked to the reader.  However, any blocking in Vuukle is good only for that thread, while Disqus will block all comments from an offending writer in all subsequent threads, unless rescinded by the reader.

SUMMARY:

As I see it, the only advantage that Vuukle has over Disqus is the blocking of self-upvoting.  Otherwise, there is no respect in which Vuukle is a better comments system than Disqus.  In some ways, it is worse.

Since this article goes to the heart of the AT staff's recent decisions, one can take it as reasonably likely that the AT staff will read the Comments section, in order to assess readers' opinions — if it publishes this post.   Speaking for myself, I will say the following: overall, I don't like Vuukle.  Vuukle is not as good as Disqus.  It is no improvement.  Thomas Lifson, give us back our Disqus!

Image credit: Public domain logo via YouTube screen shot.