Evaluating Discourse as a replacement for WP’s built-in commenting system and I’m having a difficult time judging if my customer’s desired use case is possible.
I’d like to be able to allow blog post readers to comment without logging in, exactly as they can with the built-in commenting system (WP requires they leave a name and email address, but there’s no login requirement—just two fields to fill out). I’d also like Discourse to function as a forum, with its own accounts and the possibility of logging in to comment, but the primary concern is being able to comment directly on WP post pages without logging in and without toggling on anonymous comments for the entire Discourse forum.
The idea here would be to continue to offer a no-friction commenting option, but to allow folks who want to stick around to register a Discourse forum account and discuss other stuff as well on the forum instead of in blog post comments. Building a community, however, is not the primary goal—the “commenting without logging in” requirement is the most important one.
I recognize that Discourse might not be the right tool for this—WP’s built-in comment system does most of what I want, but its moderation & housekeeping tools are essentially nonexistent. I’d like to have some more tools at hand, and I’d also like to offer a forum for frequent posters to hang out in.
Is my use case doable, or should I look for a different solution?