I have installed the IntenseDebate comment system in many blogs and I constantly received a lot of spam comments, although I had activated all of the spam filters available at IntenseDebate. Those spam comments came from guests leaving almost identical comments day after day, including links to their commercial websites. Until now you couldn’t disable guest commenting without also removing the option to login via the most popular social networks, Facebook or Twitter. It was about time IntenseDebate figured out a way to do just that, since most visitors do have a Facebook or Twitter account, which will use willingly to post their comment in your posts instead of as a guest.
Bloggers like comments, that’s a fact. Receiving comments in your posts is not only rewarding and fun, but also the best way to interact with your blog’s visitors. However spam comments destroy the whole experience. While my blogs aren’t anywhere near to viral or even popular, I did get about 10 or so spam comments every day in each of my blogs! And although deleting them wasn’t such a difficult task – select all and mark as spam – the one worrying thing was that I could possibly delete a useful comment coming from a loyal visitor. That led to scanning all comments in order to make sure I don’t drive away any visitors by removing their meaningful comment.
Time is money and obviously no blogger wants to spend their time reading tens of spam comments, instead of adding new content in their blog. IntenseDebate finally thought of a solution to the problem by offering the option to remove guest commenting from their comment system. Previously, IntenseDebate adopters had the option to allow comments only from WordPress or IntenseDebate users. That wasn’t so acceptable since most casual internet users don’t use WordPress, let alone IntenseDebate. They just surf the net and when an interesting post attracts their attention, they just need the easiest way possible to leave their comment. Creating new accounts and logging in via networks they come by for the first time is a no-go and will eventually drive them away from your blog. So, logging in with their Facebook or Twitter accounts was simply a must have as the majority of internet users do use social networks and won’t have an objection sharing their identity, while contributing with a smart comment.
In the end, removing guest commenting from your blog’s IntenseDebate comment system won’t just reduce spam from your inbox but also let your blog populated by valuable comments that will certainly add up to your blog’s value. Here is the code you need to add to your custom CSS page to get rid of guest commenting.
#idc-container-parent #idc-container .idc-postnav-label,#idc-container-parent #idc-container
.idc-c-m.idc-signup {
display: none !important;
}
#idc-container-parent #idc-container
.idc-postnav-list {
margin: 5px 0 8px;
}
