Update: although the announcement post didn’t mention it, apparently Sponsored Comments are optional:
@brennandunn @tnorthcutt Sponsored Comments will only show if you enable ads (which are optional) — "just comments" is always an option.
— Amanda Nudelman (@DisqusAmanda) April 7, 2014
As if you needed another reason to own your content, Disqus announced today that they’re launching what they call “Sponsored Comments”, a.k.a. ads at the top of your comments section.
Sponsored Comments let businesses deliver a message to the people they need to reach. A Sponsored Comment can use all types of media to get their point across, just like any other Disqus comment.
Disqus is a free service, so this really shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone, as Jonathan Christopher pointed out:
https://twitter.com/jchristopher/status/453269146969448448
Disqus claims that it will be a good thing for everyone, of course:
So how are we thinking about the overall experience?
Quality – Businesses don’t want to ruin your fun. We have a team that is continually refining our approach to advertising content so that it’s in keeping with the site you’re on.
Positioning – Sponsored Comments aren’t there to interrupt the conversation.
Feedback – We want to hear from you. If you have feedback, please provide it in the comments section of this post.
But really, the top comment on their announcement (at time of this writing) sums up quite nicely what everyone is thinking:
I can’t WAIT to read more about that cousin that makes 2000 dollars a week on the internet.
Meh, worst idea they could have.
Questionable intro, though: it’s not really “your” content to own here, it’s your users’ 🙂
Fair point! I almost included that caveat, but it didn’t roll off the tongue quite so well. 🙂
Oh, see, all this time I thought those comments I’d been flagging as spam were, in fact, spam. Now I know they were actually sponsored.
Haha! If only the spam comments would pay to advertise…