Why I Removed Livefyre Comments From My Blog

Sharp readers are noticing that the Livefyre comment system has been removed from my blog and replaced with normal WordPress comments. I’ve been using Livefyre since November of last year and for the most part, it’s been a positive experience. However, Livefyre has quite a few drawbacks that made me remove them.

It Slowed The Loading of The Blog

Site performance took a slowdown with Livefyre comments. You really noticed it on the 728×90 top banner. It would be the last thing to load and took a long time to do it. This might be caused by the Livefyre plugin not playing nice with my OIO advertising plugin, but the instant I turned off livefyre, load speed decreased noticeably.

You Can’t Edit The Comments

It drove me up the wall that I couldn’t edit a commentator’s comment. Ninety-nine percent of the time, I never touch a comment, but there are rare occasions when I need to edit for swearing, incorrect data, or personal attacks on another commentator. Livefyre has no comment editing features. You can either delete the entire comment or let it stand.

Livefyre told me they’re working on a comment edit feature, and it should be ready in 30 days. However, they told me that 60 days ago. I got tired of waiting.

Livefyre Can Get Your In Trouble with Google

To help prevent spam, Google has stated that links in blog comments should be nofollow. However, links in Livefyre comment don’t have any nofollow tags. Not only could this get you trouble with Google, it could increase the amount of spam your blog gets. This is funny because the number one reason for switching to Livefyre was to get rid of spam.

I have noticed an increase in the number of comments with links in them. And since Livefyre doesn’t have a comment edit feature, I couldn’t remove the links. I had to delete the entire comment.

No Integration with Aweber

Aweber has a great WordPress plugin that allows subscribers to sign up to your list when they leave a comment on your blog – without having to fill out a separate web form.

Newsletter sign up

This is a great way to build your mailing list because potential subscriber doesn’t need to fill out a separate form. Checking a box while already leaving a comment is a lot easier than commenting, then finding and filling out a completely different web form. However, Livefyre and Aweber don’t work together. The Aweber plugin works only with normal WordPress comments.

The number of spam has increased tremendously since Livefyre was removed. However, Akismet is doing a great job killing them. I have to go back to check the spam folder everyday to check for legit comments. When Livefyre was running, the spam folder always said zero, so I never had to check it. This is what I will miss most about Livefyre.