All commenters now welcome

I've finally bitten the bullet and disabled the Google+ commenting mechanism from this blog. I promised this in my 2014 annual review, and I figure I might as well not wait.

When Google announced they would integrate Google+ with blogger, it sounded like a good idea at the time. However it required that commenters needed a Google+ account as opposed to having a number of authentication options.

Unfortunately this means the many comments made since turning it on will disappear into Google+ land, and won't be visible from the relevant post. There's plenty on the topic out there, so much so I've lost whatever discussion I had with someone about it.

It's a shame because some comments were particularly useful, with clarification coming from the APEX team regarding functionality in coming releases. It does mean the bugs that came with it also disappear.

Update
- I get email notifications for comments - big win
- Post list now shows how many comments in each post - it's the little things
- Last comment found was March 2013 - 2 years into the G+ ether

Google+ comments are still available in web cache ... for now. According to this site I think these comments may disappear from cache after three months, I'd be happy to be enlightened otherwise.

Googling a URL with the cache: prefix will open the cached version immediately

cache:http://www.grassroots-oracle.com/2013/10/customise-totals-row-in-apex-classic.html

Or you can click on the little arrow next to search results to open the cached version.

Opening cached version of webpage using Google

I thought the Wayback Machine may also help but it doesn't seem to have archived any individual posts.

At the end of the day I'll be happy if this encourages more people to provide feedback. It's a great way to learn, particularly when I make mistakes in my posts or something mentions a better way.