I didn't particularly do it voluntarily. At this point, it's a forced upgrade for $10, or you lose all your comments from all posts.
Theoretically, there is a way to export and import haloscan comments to another system; but according to basically everyone, it doesn't work.
Apparently, after you fully convert to echo, you can resync all your comments with blogger; and then if you want to use someone elses blogger comment import/export tools, that'll work... But you have to pay the $10 and upgrade first.
I don't like forced upgrades.
I don't begrudge a company trying to make money, and I was a haloscan premium member anyway so the $10 a year isn't an issue...
And I actually really like the features available on the new platform. Some of them could really end up being useful, or improve the user experience etc...
I just hate the new interface for me as a site administrator. I cant find a way to view all my comments for all posts in a single interface, as haloscan had.
I LIKE that feature. It allows me to see comments on older posts very easily, catch spam immediately etc...
Yes, theres the moderation interface, but it's nowhere near as useful to me (though it is certainly better implemented). It doesn't even tell you the title of the post the comment is from (and the title isn't anywhere on the comment box either).
Oh, and this one is killing me. Only comments made on posts after I converted to echo appear in the moderation boc... Ok, I get that, it makes sense....
...but...
They've also disabled my access to the old comment management interface, even for older posts that aren't converted to echo; so there is no way for me to see, edit, or moderate those comments at all. I can read them by going to each individual post, but I cant moderate or edit them.
Also, the Halsocan interface was perfectly usable on my iPhone. Not so much for echo.
Oh and I don't like comments in reverse chronological order, and I prefer my comment post box to be AFTER the existing comment thread(so that people will actually READ other folks comments before posting maybe?); but there is no officially supported way of doing so. You can hack their .css but I shouldn't have to do that to get things the way I want them. I'm the site owner, I should have control.
So, to my readers, would you please test commenting on this post, and then provide feedback for what you like and dislike etc...
Thanks
