Making some noise

We’ve been quiet the last few weeks. Our most recent releases primarily focused on usability fixes and back end improvements, but Disqus hasn’t made any huge announcements as of late. Disqus has been working on a few things which we’re giddy about, and I think it’s time we started making some noise again.

The main goal of this is to hear your thoughts and concerns throughout the development and release of a new feature. Disqus has over 55,000 websites in the network (and closing in on 1 million commenter profiles); new features and changes in the service impact a lot people and we want to know that every move we make is a good one for most.

I’ll go into some more detail about new features in a future blog post. Some current issues that we are focused on fixing are better spam handling, fixing OpenID support, internationalization support, fuller API documentation, and improving the moderation tools.

One of the first things I’ll make noise about is the introduction of two new members of the Disqus team, both starting this week: Anton and Giannii.

Anton comes all the way from Uzbekistan to help work on many of the new features coming into Disqus. We were so impressed with his knowledge, ideas, and technical ability that we had to pull him out of his country and into San Francisco. Case in point: Anton fixed a Disqus bug while on his flight to SFO.

I am proud of the way that Disqus communicates to the community of Disqus users. There’s quite a few of you now. Giannii has joined the team as our community manager and will be helping the rest of us better understand Disqus and the people using it. Most importantly, he will be making sure Disqus continues to be the service that makes all of you happy. He has a lot of experience in this area and we’re excited about his ideas.

I’ll let both Giannii and Anton introduce themselves here and talk a bit about what they’ll be up to at Disqus.

Daniel on November 18th 2008 in disqus

  • Howdy Disqus!! My name is Giannii and I am very excited about being your community advocate at Disqus. I am here to continue the amazing job Daniel, Andrew, and Jason have done by listening to your issues, opinions, suggestions, and ideas. So you know a little about my background, I have been helping develop communities for a several years now. I started in the handheld gaming industry as a community advocate and until recently was the helping companies such as coComment develop their community. If you want to learn more about me check my personal website at http://life.giannii.com as I am pretty much an open book. If you would like to chat feel free to ping me at help@disqus.com and follow my Disqus profile at http://disqus.com/people/giannii/

    Talk soon?

    Giannii
  • Seesmic video reply from Disqus.
  • I didn't realize that the DISQUS video comment link led to Seesmic. Thanks for the demonstration, Faboo!
  • Hey Anika,

    Good to see ya! Hows are the kids? If you have any questions or need help feel free to ping me at help@disqus.com.

    Giannii
    Community Manager

    P.S. I loved that video about the with the robot toy. It reminded me when my father bought me a robot toy that smoked. I was not fond of smoke and was out the door before they knew it. lol
  • congrats congrats!
  • Following.. good to see more people here!
  • Congrats on the new features and hires!
  • Howdy Disqus!! My name is Giannii and I am very excited about being your community advocate at Disqus. I am here to continue the amazing job Daniel, Andrew, and Jason have done by listening to your issues, opinions, suggestions, and ideas. So you know a little about my background, I have been helping develop communities for a several years now, starting in the handheld gaming industry as a community advocate and until recently was the helping companies such as coComment develop their community. If you want to learn more about me check my personal website at http://life.giannii.com as I am pretty much an open book. If you would like to chat feel free to ping me at giannii@disqus.com and follow my Disqus profile at http://disqus.com/people/giannii/

    Talk soon?

    Giannii
  • Seesmic video reply from Disqus.
  • congrats Giannii! yip!
  • I didn't realize that the DISQUS video comment link led to Seesmic. Thanks for the demonstration, Faboo!
  • Hmmm. Certainly seems like a boy's club to me. Why not hire some women and prove that you aren't sexist.?

    Women are the underrepresented majority in the U.S.

    The ratio of full professors in computer science the U.S. versus the number of women Ph.D. graduates in computer science is sickening. Look at the numbers yourself.

    You can be part of the solution.
  • Giannii works at Disqus now, yay!
  • Gianni is a bad (shut your mouth)
    I'm just talking 'bout Gianni
  • Oops.... Giannii, sorry bro.
  • Congrats to both of the new guys! Glad to seeing Disqus getting better and better. :)
  • Congrats on the new features and hires!
  • vogelvision
    Congrats on the new job Giannii! I look forward to seeing the disqus community grow.
  • congrats Giannii! yip!
  • Thanks Beach, I look forward to hopefully seeing you Thursday.
  • Giannii works at Disqus now, yay!
  • Gianni is a bad (shut your mouth)
    I'm just talking 'bout Gianni
  • Oops.... Giannii, sorry bro.
  • Howdy Papyromancer,

    Thanks and I wanted to let ya know there is a lovely edit function after you make a post for next time. =) Good to see you!
  • Congrats to both of the new guys! Glad to seeing Disqus getting better and better. :)
  • vogelvision
    Congrats on the new job Giannii! I look forward to seeing the disqus community grow.
  • Thanks Vogel,

    It has been too long, we should catch up soon. If you have any questions about setting Disqus on your site, I am your man.

    Giannii
    Community Manager
  • sarah smile
    yay
  • cbrown22
    Just checking his out for the first time. Should be interesting to see how this community comes together.
  • sarah smile
    yay
  • WayneSMT
    "The ratio of full professors in computer science the U.S. versus the number of women Ph.D. graduates in computer science is sickening. Look at the numbers yourself."

    I have been reading over that for about 10 minutes and I still cannot figure out what you were trying to compare. I will rephrase that statement a few different ways and just choose which one is correct so I will understand the point that you were trying to make.

    1.) The majority of full professors in computer science who are male, in relation to the available pool of doctoral candidates which is predominantly female is sickening in the United States. Meaning that in higher education men are generally appointed to full professorhips over equally qualified female candidates.

    I couldn't really come up with any other options that were coherent in structure, so I hope I nailed it in one.

    "women are the underrepresented majority in the U.S."

    Yes and the highest and hardest glass ceiling in the world now has a million and one cracks in it thanks to Hillary and Sarah.

    "You can be part of the solution."

    The bigger question is can you? Instead of welcoming the new people you went negative, slipped in a "boy's club" without the traditional word "old" in front of it and then made the statement. "Why don't you hire some women to prove that you aren't sexist?" Hiring of anyone to prove that you are not something is not the dumbest thing I have ever heard, but probably will be the dumbest thing I have heard today. But the night is still young

    Most computer science people are somewhat like engineers. They are really good at figuring stuff out in their area of speciality but when it comes to working and playing well with others and building a community they often fall short.

    In my opinion, one of the most predominant skills for building a community is working with people not machines.

    Welcome Giannii - Is that pronounced Johnny or Gee-ah-nee?
  • cbrown22
    Just checking his out for the first time. Should be interesting to see how this community comes together.
  • congrats on new members and we're excited for the new updates!
  • congrats congrats!
  • congrats on new members and we're excited for the new updates!
  • Wwelcome Anton and Giannii -- and we're all looking forward to seeing the shiny new toys. ESPECIALLY the spam control improvements. :-)
  • Wwelcome Anton and Giannii -- and we're all looking forward to seeing the shiny new toys. ESPECIALLY the spam control improvements. :-)
  • Thanks Chris! That picture you have for your profile reminds me of my old one. The spam controls will be improved and I am excited about them as well. =)
  • Congrats for being a new member. And for having such a nice job.
  • Hey Anika,

    Good to see ya! Hows are the kids? If you have any questions or need help feel free to ping me at giannii@disqus.com.

    Giannii
    Community Manager

    P.S. I loved that video about the with the robot toy. It reminded me when my father bought me a robot toy that smoked. I was not fond of smoke and
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