"The user experience for a visitor to your site will be completely different from your own experience as administrator testing it. "

For a few weeks now, I have tried to test the new and revolutionary Disqus commenting system together with Facebook Connect, a system that allows users of Wordrpress Blogs to cross-post comments to their Facebook  News Feed (otherwise knows as the “Wall”).  Unfortunately, previous attempts to explain this system have been flawed due to the fact that I was testing with my Blog administrator account. The user experience for a visitor to your site will be completely different from your own experience as administrator testing it. I suppose I knew that subconsciously, but it wasn’t until I decided to try the system from a new and “unspoiled” Facebook account, that I really felt it.  Here is the user experience of connecting a WordPress Blog comment to a Facebook News Feed, as told with pictures for every step.

1.) New Facebook Account set up. A new Facebook account was set up with a new name and profile picture.

2.) Used a new Browser to test – no saved passwords, cookies, logins, or anything in the cache

3.) Facebook Connect box asks for email and password (to Facebook account)

4.) Redirected to Blog post, but confirmed as Guest. This is wrong. After you log in with your Facebook email and password, you should be redirected to the original post with your Facebook Profile name.

5.) New login attempt with cleaned cache in Browser, this time successfully redirected to Blog’s comments with Facebook profile as user name.

Note Facebook picture is squeezed to fit within a square, so a square FB profile pic is a good idea

6.) Blog then adds Application to “Authorized Applications” list in Facebook – in this case Jnote.org. You can find out how to add your Blog to Facebook with this post.. Note that mine is written in plain text and is not clickable. This is because my Jnote.org application is merely a method of posting and doesn’t have any additional functionality. Removing the link is done by leaving the Canvas Page URL blank in the Application’s settings.

7.) If all works as it should, you’ll see a “Share on News Feed” check box. If you check that, you’ll then post to your Facebook Wall.

8.) You’re even able to comment on your comment. This is the equivalent of making a comment on a link, picture, or anything else posted to your Wall.

9.) Comment appears both on WordPress Blog and on Facebook.

Comment on WordPress Blog

...and on Facebook Wall. Apostrophe bug should be fixed soon.

10.) If you remain logged in to a given Blog, you can also post to other Disqus-enable blogs without adding their application or relogging in. This might be a bug or a flaw, but it does save time and effort.

Cross-posting on another blog with previous login. Note that share box is pre-checked.

11.) Users who connect to Facebook using Disqus will get a profile on Disqus.com They’ll also get a link to their Facebook profile.

• Why I switched from Disqus back to IntenseDebate (again), and why it’s probably permanent (0)
• Towards a more perfect union: linking your WordPress blog to Facebook, volume 2 (3)
• (WordPress) Blog versus Facebook: how they’re different, how they’re similar, and how they can be integrated into one another (3)
• Reformat your Facebook RSS Blog feed into a clean-formatted excerpt with backlink to your Blog (3)
• How to turn your boring and imprecise WordPress search into a cool, accurate, and mildly profitable Google search (0)