Hello folks

I have made some changes to the Geekzone blog so we can offer a more flexible platform for users who wish to blog.

First we made Custom Domain official. Although it's been in use for months, it wasn't an option in the Blog Configuration page until now. 



Once you create the appropriate DNS records and verify your domain is accessible you can change the domain name in the blog configuration page. Instead of having a geekzone.co.nz blog you will have your own blog address. Here are examples of some Geekzone blogs already on custom domains:
  • 3bit (used to be www.geekzone.co.nz/nate)
  • freitasm (used to be www.geekzone.co.nz/freitasm)
  • juhasaarinen (used to be www.geekzone.co.nz/juha)
  • techjungle (used to be www.geekzone.co.nz/paulspain)
  • scottjpalmer (used to be www.geekzone.co.nz/scottjpalmer)
The other new feature is a DISQUS option for comments in your blog. Many people asked us to implement features such as email notification when a blog comment was posted, threaded replies and more. We could have developed this but looking around I felt Disqus offered a great conversation platform and once you create an account your comments will be part of a larger network.

When you login on DISQUS you can see other blogs you have commented on, change how your profile appear everywhere you comment and even follow the blog discussions on your smartphone using their official apps. You can also create your own white/blacklist and manage keyword filtering.

To use DISQUS you have to enable comments in the blog and in the blog post and check the option to use Disqus instead of Geekzone for comments. You have to create your own account on DISQUS and signup for DISQUS for websites. Once you complete the process and have a short name, use that in your Geekzone blog configuration.



The blog will automatically show this:



You will also find a link to a download to export existing comments in your blog so you can load into DISQUS so you won't lose anything.

You can see the Disqus implementation in my own blog now: freitasm.