We're going to be moving all our game comments, profile comments, MMO comments and editorial comments over to Disqus as early as this Friday. Because of this, I wanted to give you a FAQ to help solve any mysteries on the process...
What about Merits?
Merits will not live on our website in the same way, they can't be tied directly into the Disqus system which means they will no longer be comment-based. A simple Merit system will be created on our launch Friday that will grow more robust with time - allowing moderators/admins to merit people directly. Later e-mail notifications will be added to this as well.
You can also "Feature" a comment in Disqus, so that could also be awarded with your merit.
What about non-AG armatars?
A big concession we had to make with the Disqus system is that a Disqus account trumps our normal user accounts. This means users can name themselves whatever they like, and associate any armatar they like to their profile.
There will be alterations in our rules that discuss impersonation of other users, especially Moderators/Admins that will result in permanent bans. Also utilizing any exclusive armatars will result in a warning and possible further punishment.
Guest Accounts?
Guest accounts will be killed on site, and your real account warned. Guest accounts are not allowed on our Disqus comments.
Colored text for Knights/Admins/Moderators?
Not available right now in Disqus. You'll notice our accounts have "Moderator" next to our names. This text may change, but it means that person has moderator powers over Disqus comments.
What about total comment count?
This should be worked on before launch as well, nobody should lose their comment counts, just add on to their total.
What about old comments?
Still unknown the degree we'll be transferring over old comments. I'd love to hear your opinions though. This obviously is very tedious work, but I think me and @boppins agree that certain games (or comments) should make it over.
1. No more tedious then now. 2. This will happen, they will be dealt with harshly. Part of the charm of Disqus is that it's a larger entity, and bans on other websites may also be used to help moderate nefarious individuals. 3. True, however they have a very strong history and are on very large websites, for example IGN.com. 4. We have complete control over everybody posting on the site. 5. This is something I hadn't considered, I'll be testing it.
First merit on Disqus, and maybe the last pre-Disqus rollout.
Am I special?
2. This will happen, they will be dealt with harshly. Part of the charm of Disqus is that it's a larger entity, and bans on other websites may also be used to help moderate nefarious individuals.
I don't actually understand, if such users just keep popping up under different guises at different sites, it's not going to help, and it'll still be tedious in monitoring them....right?
Without going into the inner workings of Disqus, there are ways to deal with those users. So far though nobody has done this in all the Disqus sessions we've put out there.
We will be denying non-users automatically. You must be logged into this website in order to see the comments at all.
We're still looking into Guest accounts, but again - you'll need to be logged into the site.
A key thing that you need to remember with Disqus is its self-moderating as well. Users can flag content and vote down users. This is all helpful in our moderation of the comments or even preventative.
