Dave has been using Disqus for a while to add comments to his blog. It’s a small improvement from no comments at all, even if he does still censor them when he doesn’t like them. One of the great things about Disqus, though, is that they’ve added some social features, like global user accounts and comment ranking. As anyone who has ever had both of those things in a web service can attest, the next logical step is to create some sort of ranking based on it.
For Disqus, that ranking is called “Clout:”
Clout (measured in points) is a person’s reputation across the Disqus network of blogs. Clout is determined by a few different things, but mainly by the rating of comments by others.
Clout helps blog moderators separate top commenters from trolls. This number also helps our system detect spam and unsavory behavior. Since it may imply greater legitimacy, a higher clout will allow for more privileges in the near future.
Dave’s current “Clout” rating, as pictured above, is -30.
For reference, here are some other Disqus users’ clout ratings:
- EyeOnWiner: +1
- Scoble: +11
- Gabe Rivera: +5
In fact, scrolling down a few of Dave’s posts, it’s hard to find anyone with a negative clout rating besides Dave himself.
Update: I took the screenshot above anticipating this: after this post, Winer’s rating shot up to above 50. Whether that’s Dave creating ghost accounts to vote for his posts, his sycophants going nuts, or his buddies at Disqus helping him out I can’t say… but it is pretty funny.