# Commenting

**URL:** <https://discuss.write.as/t/commenting/188>\
**Category:** Feature requests\
**Created:** [November 30, 2018, 2:25am UTC](https://discuss.write.as/t/commenting/188 "2018-11-30T02:25:59Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 16\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![drequivalent](https://discuss.write.as/user_avatar/discuss.write.as/drequivalent/32/138_2.png) [@drequivalent](https://discuss.write.as/u/drequivalent)\
**Post date:** [November 30, 2018, 2:25am UTC](https://discuss.write.as/t/commenting/188/1 "2018-11-30T02:25:59Z")

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Suggesting a thing that’s pretty standard around the Fediverse: show replies to an article as a comment section.

Also, add an option to enable/disable them, globally or on a singular article.

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**Author:** ![pixtolero](https://discuss.write.as/user_avatar/discuss.write.as/pixtolero/32/62_2.png) [@pixtolero](https://discuss.write.as/u/pixtolero)\
**Post date:** [December 4, 2018, 8:39am UTC](https://discuss.write.as/t/commenting/188/2 "2018-12-04T08:39:48Z")

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It would be nice to have this feature.

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**Author:** ![valvin](https://discuss.write.as/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/v/35a633/32.png) [@valvin](https://discuss.write.as/u/valvin)\
**Post date:** [January 28, 2019, 7:11am UTC](https://discuss.write.as/t/commenting/188/3 "2019-01-28T07:11:03Z")

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i think it is must have because it means if someone comment the publication you’ve pushed on the fediverse you can’t see it nor reply to it.

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**Author:** ![matt](https://discuss.write.as/user_avatar/discuss.write.as/matt/32/2760_2.png) [@matt](https://discuss.write.as/u/matt)\
**Post date:** [January 28, 2019, 2:00pm UTC](https://discuss.write.as/t/commenting/188/4 "2019-01-28T14:00:31Z")

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Actually, if you follow your blog from the fediverse, you can open up the post in Mastodon / Pleroma and respond to any replies from your Mastodon/Pleroma account. But yes, this would be good to have – see the [Remark.as thread](https://discuss.write.as/t/remark-as-privacy-first-portable-comments/25).

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**Author:** ![Aris](https://discuss.write.as/user_avatar/discuss.write.as/aris/32/58_2.png) [@Aris](https://discuss.write.as/u/Aris)\
**Post date:** [January 28, 2019, 7:13pm UTC](https://discuss.write.as/t/commenting/188/5 "2019-01-28T19:13:33Z")

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Globally I don’t use comments…

I like the idea that commenting is a separate instance/service like the [Remark.as](https://discuss.write.as/t/remark-as-privacy-first-portable-comments/25) project. Something like the relation between Write.as and [Snap.as](https://snap.as/)

And I like also the idea that, if necessary, i can discuss with somebody from my Mastodon account, or from an other federated service.

For me Write.as & Write Freely must remain focused on publishing, minimalism and federation. Not become an heavy CMS project.

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**Author:** ![valvin](https://discuss.write.as/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/v/35a633/32.png) [@valvin](https://discuss.write.as/u/valvin)\
**Post date:** [January 28, 2019, 7:49pm UTC](https://discuss.write.as/t/commenting/188/6 "2019-01-28T19:49:27Z")

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Oh I’ve not seen your product Remark.as. It looks like something totally independant and not related to the Fediverse account ?

I was thinking something more integrated like the publication. As we have an account on Fediverse, mine is valvin@write.as if someone comments on my publication it sounds to me logical to see it on write.as side at the bottom of the post. And be able as the user valvin@write.as to reply to it from write.as.

Using separate account looks strange to me. When I activate Fediverse on my account sends something on it but there is no possibility to see answers and replies to what have been sent if we don’t follow the discussion from elsewhere ?

Comment could be a settings disable by default which required Fediverse to be checked.

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**Author:** ![matt](https://discuss.write.as/user_avatar/discuss.write.as/matt/32/2760_2.png) [@matt](https://discuss.write.as/u/matt)\
**Post date:** [January 29, 2019, 3:36pm UTC](https://discuss.write.as/t/commenting/188/7 "2019-01-29T15:36:52Z")

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> [@Aris](#):
>
> For me Write.as & Write Freely must remain focused on publishing, minimalism and federation. Not become an heavy CMS project.

Agreed, and I’m going to make sure it maintains this focus.

> [@valvin](#):
>
> It looks like something totally independant and not related to the Fediverse account ?

The goal is to make it an independent product that works on its own, but also integrates with Write.as/WriteFreely, like Snap.as does.

With the integration, it would simply add a commenting interface, and the necessary API endpoints / ActivityPub handlers to process incoming comments. These would directly become a part of your Write.as/WriteFreely blog, so your handle in the fediverse would stay the same – it’s just that now, you’d actually receive comments and be able to reply.

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**Author:** ![valvin](https://discuss.write.as/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/v/35a633/32.png) [@valvin](https://discuss.write.as/u/valvin)\
**Post date:** [January 29, 2019, 9:23pm UTC](https://discuss.write.as/t/commenting/188/8 "2019-01-29T21:23:46Z")

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> [@matt](#):
>
> These would directly become a part of your Write.as/WriteFreely blog, so your handle in the fediverse would stay the same – it’s just that now, you’d actually receive comments and be able to reply.

Oh nice, so it means it’ll do what I requested 🙂

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**Author:** ![prologic](https://discuss.write.as/user_avatar/discuss.write.as/prologic/32/288_2.png) [@prologic](https://discuss.write.as/u/prologic)\
**Post date:** [June 1, 2019, 1:01am UTC](https://discuss.write.as/t/commenting/188/9 "2019-06-01T01:01:43Z")

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For those of us that don’t use Mastadon or anything similar I’d like to see something like this added. Is this planned in the near future? I’d like to interact with my posts and audience.

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**Author:** ![matt](https://discuss.write.as/user_avatar/discuss.write.as/matt/32/2760_2.png) [@matt](https://discuss.write.as/u/matt)\
**Post date:** [June 2, 2019, 3:49pm UTC](https://discuss.write.as/t/commenting/188/10 "2019-06-02T15:49:10Z")

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Thanks, that’s good to know.

We don’t have a solid timeline yet, but we’d like to build it this year. As I mention in the official thread for this planned add-on, we’re hoping to see more demand for this feature before we start building it out:

> [@Remark.as - privacy-first, portable comments](https://discuss.write.as/t/remark-as-privacy-first-portable-comments/25/14):
>
> No actual progress on this yet, besides gathering ideas. What would speed up development is if we see more demand for this, or if people were willing to pay for it, or contribute to a small crowdfunding campaign to get it launched. Would you say this a much-needed feature for you?

We just have to prioritize it among our other big features and general strategy, and right now other functionality is more pressing for us. But please feel free to add a vote and / or comment on that thread.

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**Author:** ![remram44](https://discuss.write.as/user_avatar/discuss.write.as/remram44/32/508_2.png) [@remram44](https://discuss.write.as/u/remram44)\
**Post date:** [March 27, 2020, 8:38pm UTC](https://discuss.write.as/t/commenting/188/11 "2020-03-27T20:38:56Z")

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To expand a bit on this, I think it’s weird to federate with ActivityPub but ignore comments (“replies”). Being able to comment on someone else’s post using a Mastodon instance might be sufficient, but if the author doesn’t get notified of those comments then the workflow is broken.

Whether or not comments are shown under the post, at the very least if the WriteFreely server is accepting replies and displaying to other ActivityPub clients, the author should be notified in some way too. People posting replies expect this to be the case (with any ActivityPub server really).

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**Author:** ![cjeller1592](https://discuss.write.as/user_avatar/discuss.write.as/cjeller1592/32/128_2.png) [@cjeller1592](https://discuss.write.as/u/cjeller1592)\
**Post date:** [March 30, 2020, 3:14pm UTC](https://discuss.write.as/t/commenting/188/12 "2020-03-30T15:14:18Z")

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Totally agree @remram44! We are trying to work towards a more integrated solution. The next step towards this is in the upcoming WriteFreely release with ActivityPub mentions. This means that you can now insert `@handle@their.instance` in a blog post to mention a user on Mastodon or any other ActivityPub account.

With this you can mention your own personal Mastodon account in your blog posts (could be a recurring footer for instance). That way you’ll receive notifications on that account when someone replies to your blog post. It’s a step towards making it easier for authors to get notified when someone replies to their blog posts.

If you want, you can try out the release candidate for the upcoming WF release to try this functionality out. Would be curious what you think!

> **[Releases · writeas/writefreely](https://github.com/writeas/writefreely/releases)**
>
> ely/releases

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**Author:** ![blake](https://discuss.write.as/user_avatar/discuss.write.as/blake/32/408_2.png) [@blake](https://discuss.write.as/u/blake)\
**Post date:** [July 13, 2020, 8:30pm UTC](https://discuss.write.as/t/commenting/188/13 "2020-07-13T20:30:51Z")

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Hi–is this feature coming to Write.as?

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**Author:** ![zerojanvier](https://discuss.write.as/user_avatar/discuss.write.as/zerojanvier/32/843_2.png) [@zerojanvier](https://discuss.write.as/u/zerojanvier)\
**Post date:** [December 24, 2020, 1:26pm UTC](https://discuss.write.as/t/commenting/188/14 "2020-12-24T13:26:30Z")

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> [@cjeller1592](#):
>
> With this you can mention your own personal Mastodon account in your blog posts (could be a recurring footer for instance). That way you’ll receive notifications on that account when someone replies to your blog post. It’s a step towards making it easier for authors to get notified when someone replies to their blog posts.

Just a reply to let you know I used this feature and it works **perfectly**.

Actually, I combined 2 features: ActivityPub Mentions + Post Signatures : this way, I can add a mention to my own Mastodon account in the footer of each of my posts.  
Then, when someone replies to one of my Write.as posts on Mastodon, I am automatically notified on my Mastodon account, and I can reply directly. Great for interacting with readers!

**Many thanks to you !**

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**Author:** ![grin](https://discuss.write.as/user_avatar/discuss.write.as/grin/32/915_2.png) [@grin](https://discuss.write.as/u/grin)\
**Post date:** [January 29, 2021, 12:17pm UTC](https://discuss.write.as/t/commenting/188/16 "2021-01-29T12:17:08Z")

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To me it is so _weird_ to have a service using ActivityPub push but being completely unable to handle pulls.  
AP seems to be just natural to have a feedback/comment section, people would tag the address (which would never arrive), also people reading posts on AP are inclined to reply (DM), which also will not arrive ever.  
It seems also weird to create yet another comment service while AP is there.

To me it was the first observation that “oh wow, this integrates with AP, cool” and later came the “uh, this isn’t integration it’s just blindly pushing”. ☹

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**Author:** ![Dorkside](https://discuss.write.as/user_avatar/discuss.write.as/dorkside/32/3166_2.png) [@Dorkside](https://discuss.write.as/u/Dorkside)\
**Post date:** [August 12, 2023, 7:00am UTC](https://discuss.write.as/t/commenting/188/17 "2023-08-12T07:00:04Z")

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Yeah, exactly the same train of thoughts that happened for me. I guess It might come along at some stage.

I guess for now adding a Mastodon handle in the signature is an OK workaround.
