Some people create tumbelogs as a form of expression. Some people use them as another form of social media (like Facebook or Twitter). Still others use the medium as a way to share pictures, videos, articles, links, stories, chats, etc with the World. My favorite software platform, and the one used here, is Tumblr. Tumblr is a free, fantastically easy tool that allows you to setup a tumbelog in minutes, and post things with ease. There are even iPhone apps that will let you post on the go … but that’s another article.
The one thing that’s lacking on the Tumblr platform however, is a comment system. Some Tumblr purists believe that Tumblr is meant as a tool to post things and re-blog others’ posts as a way to communicate, thus there should be no need for comments. Some people want a way for their readers to leave direct feedback other than emailing the author. Whether by design or not, there is another free tool that plugs a commenting engine directly into your Tumbelog called Disqus.
First: You will need to create an account on Disqus.
Second: Next, you’ll need to add your website to Disqus. Click “Add Website” under the My Websites header.
Third: Add your website details
Fourth: Choose your platform. Click the Tumblr logo.
One of the great things about choosing Disqus as your comment engine is it’s ease of use. It’s available for ANY platform. But, as you can see above, they give you clear directions for a few of the more well-known sites as well. Also, if you’ve got more than one site that you manage (on multiple platforms), you can simply log into Disqus to manage comments from all your sites in one place.
Fifth: Follow the instructions on the next page to cut-and-paste the correct code in the correct locations. This step is best done with two tabs in your browser (or two browser windows) that you can flip between. The first bit of code will be the link that others will click to leave comments. It will also be the comment counter for each post.
I wanted my comment counter just beneath the article author’s icon. If you don’t know any HTML, these steps might take a little trial-and-error. Keep in mind, if you put the code inside a specific post type ({block:text} in my example) you’ll need to paste the Disqus comment count code in each of the other blocks in which you want to enable comments.
Sixth: Copy-and-paste the final bit of code from Disqus. This will serve as the comment posting area, and the comment threads at the bottom of each post. Note: place this AFTER the {/block:Posts} code as Disqus states. This also might take a little trial-and-error to get everything looking the way you want.
I placed mine before the {block:Pagination} because that’s the look I wanted to acheive.
Seventh: Click “Save Changes” in Tumblr and “Done” in Disqus. Your Tumblr blog should now have comments!
Before Disqus Comments
After Disqus Comments
Hopefully this task doesn’t seem too overwhelming. It really is easy to do once you understand what’s going on. If you have any questions, feel free to leave them in the newly enable comments.
