I think I already threw that idea on the (Diaspora) wall, but now I had a bit longer to ponder about it, so: how about we make a Diaspora-based comment system for websites/blogs?

How it could work¶

When creating a blog (or brag) entry, a post with the whole or part of it, and a link to original source, would be created, e.g. using a user specifically created for that particular website. The website operator could then facilitate discussion of that entry by either:

• including the Diaspora comment system through an IFrame (with a proper post and discussion of it), or
• using some API to feed comments to Diaspora and get replies from it.

Of course, there could be other ways to use that comment system on a website.

Advantages¶

I can see at least a few serious advantages of that approach:

• discussion could go on on Diaspora and on the website, while still being perfectly in sync;
• Diaspora users wouldn’t have to set-up accounts with the website just to partake in the discussion;
• anonymous posts could be catered for by creating a special, pod-wide user for anonymous postings on all website using a given pod, or by a website-specific anonymous user - both ways enable easy enabling and disabling of Anonymous comments (via aspects), even down to given entries;
• who is able to comment on a given story would be also trivially controlled by simply setting the aspects that the entry is being posted in on Diaspora.

I don’t, however, see any disadvantages. Though that doesn’t mean there aren’t any.

What would be needed¶

Some good, stable, thought-through API, obviously; maybe a dedicated pod just for such a use would be a good idea, too. I think OAuth functionality would be required to be able to give users a possibility to comment on the website and yet get the comment posted on Diaspora under their UID.

Comments?¶

I’d love to hear your comments and ideas on that – let’s experiment with that and already use Diaspora to that end: here’s the thread.