And Steve, what you are really saying when you offer your assurance that commenters can use a pseudonym, is that commenters had better use a pseudonym unless they don’t mind Disqus mining their words for profit.

When commenting on a site that maintains ownership of its content instead of handing it over to a carpet-bagging comment system, we readers feel like we’re part of a community, which is why we often don’t mind using our names or offering a link to our own site. But how do we know, when commenting on a site that uses Disqus, whether or not the site has sold us out? Do we now avoid all Disqus commenting or do we have a separate identity that we use on a site using Disqus, just so we can keep Disqus from selling our identity along with our words?

While it’s true that we’re being sold out at almost every turn, I’d really rather comment on a site’s content without my own words being used for Disqus’ profit.

I head marketing and PR for Disqus. I just want to answer a few questions here.

To confirm, we are sharing advertising revenue with publishers. Publishers can turn off or adjust the discovery features any time they choose.

On the privacy front, we enable commenters to use pseudonyms. It’s a very common way that people choose to use Disqus. Using Disqus requires an email address, username and password. It’s a very low barrier to participation for those who choose to do so.

If anyone has more specific questions, send me an email: sroy@disqus.com

Thanks,
Steve

Another case of content stealing (see the story about the Washington Post swiping Twitter photos).

1. Who owns the data?
2. Who owns the user’s account?

If the answers to those questions are not either the user or the publisher (ideally both), then they’re giving the farm away. While initially revenue sharing on promoted content may seem like a good deal, over the long-term what publishers can do with their own data and what their users will increasingly demand for their own.

The WSJ recently exposed whom the top 50 web sites share user data with. Not surprisingly, companies like Disqus are in the mix. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324640104578165651354042798.html

Alternatively, choose Realtidbits or Echo for your social layer. They are the only true white-label providers intent on protecting information for both the consumer and the publisher.