Disqus violating Twitter TOS and users trust
In the dark of night, without notifying their users/customers, Disqus made a change that negatively affected their users and their users' commenters.
Whereas before, you could login directly to Twitter or Facebook to make a comment, now you are required to create a Disqus account before being allowed to login via Twitter or Facebook ( http://help.disqus.com/customer/portal/articles/1165015-merging-your-social-login-to-a-disqus-account-has-important-benefits ).
That being said, Disqus still utilizes the Twitter and Facebook marks. When a user clicks on the Twitter/Facebook icons, after a series of redirects, they are prompted to create a Disqus account. This pretty clearly violates the Twitter "Developer Rules of the Road" (i.e. Principle #1 Don't Surprise Users). A user clicks on a Twitter icon and is prompted to register for Disqus...how is that not "Surprising users"?
Over a number of years Disqus has done a great job of building the trust of businesses to use their product. Now, if a business uses Disqus comments, when a user goes to login with their social profile on a businesses website, they are prompted to create an account with a third party.
If a website owner doesn't ask users to register to make a comment on their website, why does Disqus?
I guess the options are a) disable social service logins, or b) switch to a different service (Intense Debate?). While, c) Disqus letting us pay to disable this "registration step", would be acceptable too...ironically, that seems the least likely to happen. I don't think Disqus is the first service that does something like this. I recall the first time using Path, I was surprised in the same way. You're right. Just because it isn't the first doesn't make it right. That being said, Disqus has been around since 2007 and after six years of building trust with businesses and the community they decided to make this change without notifying anyone.