Today's Deep-Dive: Comentario

Hey everyone and welcome back to the deep dive today.

We're going to get into something that I know a lot of you have been asking

about, uh, commenting systems and specifically are we're going to look at

Comentario, which is a pretty neat little platform for adding, uh, discussions

and comments to websites.

So think of this as like a crash course on Comentario will unpack the features,

the pros, the cons, and who it might be a really good fit for right before we get

started though, just want to give a quick shout out to our sponsor, save server.

Absolutely.

If you're looking to, you know, get up and running with Comentario, they

can absolutely help you with that.

Yeah, they can help you with all things.

Digital transformation actually.

Yeah, definitely check them out at www.saveserver.de.

All right.

So let's dive into this.

Let's do it.

When we talk about Comentario, you know, you see those comments

sections on articles or blog posts.

Yeah.

Comentario is that engine behind the scenes powering those discussions.

Now what makes Comentario kind of stand out from the pack is

that it's free and it's open source.

Exactly.

And that means that anyone can access it.

They can modify the code if they want to.

Wow.

Um, and the code is hosted on GitLab.

Okay.

Open source.

Yeah.

For someone like me, who's not like, you know, a tech genius or anything.

Right.

What does that actually mean?

Well, um, is it kind of like a recipe that anyone can tweak?

Yeah, that's a really great analogy, actually.

Think of it like a cake recipe.

Okay.

You can swap out the ingredients if you want or add your own little

twist to make it unique to you.

Okay.

And with Comentario, you have two main parts that you work with.

The embedded comment engine.

That's what you see on the webpage.

Got it.

And then you have the administration UI and that's where you manage

all the behind the scenes stuff.

So like the front of the house and the back of the house in a restaurant.

Yeah, exactly.

One for the customers and one for the chefs.

I like that analogy.

That works.

And one of the things that really sets Comentario apart, especially these

days, is it's focused on privacy.

Okay.

They call it privacy by design.

Privacy by design.

That sounds promising.

It is.

Especially, you know, with everything going on these days, when it feels

like every website wants to know everything about me.

Exactly.

Yeah.

What does that actually mean for people who are using Comentario?

Well, it means that Comentario is built from the ground up to respect user privacy.

They don't use tracking scripts, no ads, and they don't collect a

lot of unnecessary data.

Oh, so what do they collect?

By default, all they gather is your country, your browser, and your preferred

language.

So if I'm just, you know, a casual visitor on a website, it's pretty low key data-wise.

Exactly.

You can just focus on the discussion without feeling like you're being watched.

Yeah.

That's a big plus.

It is.

Let's talk about actually using Comentario.

Okay.

What's it like for someone who wants to just jump into a discussion?

Well, first off, you have options when it comes to logging in.

You can comment anonymously if you want.

Oh, interesting.

You can use your social media account, you know, like Google, Twitter, Facebook,

even GitHub or GitLab.

Oh, wow.

Or you can create a local account just for that website.

Got it.

And if the website uses single sign-on, then you can use that too.

So it's kind of like choose your own adventure for logging in.

Right.

And once you're in, you can dive into those threaded conversations.

Okay.

You know how you can reply to a comment and then someone can reply to your reply

and you get that whole chain going.

Yeah.

Comentario lets you do that.

Okay.

And it can go really deep.

So you could just keep replying forever.

You could.

Yeah.

Wouldn't that get chaotic?

Well, it could.

Yeah.

But Comentario has a solution for that.

Okay.

They let you set a limit on how many levels of nesting are shown by default.

Oh, that's smart.

Yeah.

So the conversation stays manageable on the screen.

Right.

But you can always expand it to see the full thread if you want.

Got it.

So it's like, you know, just keeping things tidy.

Yeah, exactly.

What about formatting?

Can you do more than just plain text?

Oh, absolutely.

Like bolding and italics and links and stuff.

All that.

Okay.

Comentario uses something called Markdown and that lets you add all sorts of

formatting.

Okay.

You can bold, italicize, create links, add images, even embed tables or codeblocks

if you want to.

You can really jazz up your comments.

Exactly.

You can really make your point.

I like it.

And to make things even more dynamic, the comment updates happen in real time.

Okay.

You don't even have to refresh the page.

So it's like a live chat almost.

Yeah, exactly.

Makes it much more engaging.

Yeah, that's nice.

It is.

Okay.

Here's the big question.

Moderation with all these features and, you know, tons of comments potentially.

Right.

How does Comentario handle keeping things civil and on topic?

That's a really important aspect of any commenting system.

Yeah, for sure.

And Comentario has some really great tools to help with that.

It uses a role-based access system.

Hold on, role-based access.

Explain that like I'm five years old.

Okay.

So imagine it's like a team and everyone has different jobs.

Okay.

You've got the owners, they have full control over everything.

Right.

Then you've got moderators.

They can keep things tidy, delete comments and stuff.

Okay.

And then you have regular commenters who, you know, participate in the discussions.

Yeah.

And then there's read only people.

They can only observe.

Got it.

So they can just read the conversation.

Exactly.

And then if things get a little bit heated or, you know, go off the rails on a

particular page or even a whole website, the moderator can step in and lock the

thread.

So there's a way to hit the pause button.

Exactly.

That's good.

That's important.

Yeah.

You need that sometimes.

So there's like rules for editing and deleting comments for users and moderators.

Yep.

For both.

Okay.

It's all about creating a balanced environment.

Right.

You don't want it to be a free for all.

Exactly.

So there's a lot of flexibility for, you know, website owners to sort of tailor

the rules to their community.

It gets even more sophisticated though.

Right.

What about things like spam and just nasty offensive content?

Yeah, that's a big problem with any online community.

You don't want that.

Right.

Exactly.

So how does Comentario handle that?

Well, for starters, they have a comment voting system built in.

Okay.

So that lets the community up vote or down vote comments.

Okay.

So it helps to surface the good content and push down the less desirable content.

So it's like a community powered filter.

Exactly.

And then there are these flexible moderation rules that you can set based on

a few different factors, like if the user is registered or not, they're

commenting history or even how long they've been a member of that particular

community.

So if someone's brand new,

they might get like a little bit more scrutiny.

Right.

Exactly.

Until they build up some trust.

Yeah.

You want to prevent those hit and run comments that can cause problems.

That's smart.

And if all that's not enough.

Oh, there's more.

There is.

Comentario takes it one step further by actually integrating with external

services that are specifically designed to detect spam, offensive language, and

just toxic content.

So these are like what the online bouncers.

Exactly.

Think of it like that.

Keeping everybody safe.

Yeah.

So what kind of services are we talking about?

So there's Acosmet, there's API layer, there's perspective.

Those are just a few.

They can analyze the comments, flag anything suspicious.

That's cool.

It gives moderators an extra layer of protection.

So it's like a multi-layer defense system against all the

bad stuff on the internet.

You could say that.

Yeah.

I like it.

And it's all configurable.

Okay.

So website owners can decide how strict they want the moderation to be.

So it seems like commentary has really thought about, you know,

giving people the freedom to express themselves, but also making sure that

things stay safe and respectful.

It's all about balance.

It's not just a free for all.

Exactly.

They've clearly put a lot of thought into building a healthy community.

Absolutely.

Now I know we've covered a lot about privacy and user experience and all

moderation features, but I'm guessing there's even more to commentary.

Oh yeah.

There's a lot more.

We've only just scratched the surface.

Right.

There's a lot of cool additional features that make commentary a really shine.

Okay.

Well, let's get into it.

Let's do it.

There's a lot more.

We've only just scratched the surface.

There's a lot of cool additional features that make commentary a really shine.

Okay.

Well, let's get into it.

Let's do it.

So remember how we were talking about user avatars, those little profile

pictures that help you personalize your comments commentary has a ton of options

for those you can use your profile picture from your social login.

Okay.

You can use your Gravatar.

Yeah.

Or you can upload a custom image.

So like if I wanted to use a picture of my cat, you can do that.

It's all about expressing yourself.

I love it.

What else?

Okay.

So for people who like to stay in the loop, Comentario has email notifications.

You can choose to get notified when someone replies to one of your comments and

moderators can get alerts, you know, about new comments that need approval or even

every new comment that comes in.

So you can be as involved or as hands off as you want.

Exactly.

And if you're managing multiple websites, you don't have to jump between a bunch of

different systems because Comentario lets you handle multiple domains all from

that one central administration UI.

That's, that's pretty handy.

It's a huge time saver.

Yeah.

And here's a feature that I think might appeal to our data loving listeners.

Okay.

Comentario has built in statistics, right?

So you can see data on views and comments, including some high level demographic

information about your audience.

Oh wow.

Like what kind of stuff, like their country, their language, what operating

system they use, what browser they're using, and even their device type.

So you can get a really good sense of who's interacting with your content

and how they're doing it.

Exactly.

It's a valuable insight for anyone who wants to understand their audience.

For sure.

And improve engagement.

Right.

Yeah, absolutely.

Cool.

What else?

I'm liking this stats stuff.

All right.

Well, let's not forget about RSS feeds.

Okay.

With Comentario, you can subscribe to comment updates for the whole website

or even just a specific page.

Got it.

And you can filter those updates to follow specific users or replies.

So if I'm like old school, and I love my RSS reader, I'm not left out in the cold.

No, not at all.

That's cool.

And if you're switching from a different commenting platform, like Disqus or

WordPress,

Comentario makes that easy too.

They have data import and export functionality.

So you don't have to start from scratch.

Exactly.

You can just bring your existing comments over.

That's super convenient.

It is.

And lastly, there's a really simple comment count widget.

You can just add it to your webpage to show how many comments a particular article

or

post has.

It's like a little badge of honor.

Exactly.

For the popular Disqus.

It really encourages participation.

All right.

So we've covered privacy, user experience, moderation.

And now all these cool additional features we have.

So for someone who's like considering Comentario, what does all this mean for them?

Well, I think it really boils down to this.

Comentario is an awesome option for anyone who really values privacy, flexibility

and

you know, a robust set of features, all without having to pay anything.

It's free.

It's free.

And don't forget that open source magic.

Yeah.

You can customize it to fit your needs perfectly.

You can tweak it to your heart's content.

So do you think would benefit most from using Comentario?

I think website owners, developers, online communities of all sizes, especially

those

who are just tired of all the data hungry giants out there.

Right.

Yeah.

If you're looking for a system that respects privacy and gives you control, Comentario

is definitely worth checking out.

I agree.

All right, so we've established that Comentario has a lot going for it.

Yeah.

But how does someone decide if it's the right fit for them?

All right.

So we've established that Comentario has a lot going for it, but how does someone

decide if it's the right fit for them?

Yeah, that's a good question.

There's no like one size fits all answer, but I think it starts with understanding

your priorities, you know, what are your non-negotiables?

Like is privacy your biggest concern?

Yeah.

Do you need a ton of moderation features or is it more important that

it's really easy to use?

Right.

It's all about figuring out what's important for your website and your community.

And then there's the technical side of things too.

Do you have like developers who can help you customize the system if you need to,

or are you looking for something that's more, you know, plug and play?

Right.

If you're not super tech savvy, you probably want something that's a

little bit easier to set up.

Absolutely.

And don't forget about the size of your community.

Okay.

A small blog is going to have different needs than like a giant forum, you know?

Yeah, that's true.

Or a news website with thousands of comments.

So it's finding that balance, right?

Yeah.

The system that works for your values, your resources, and just the

whole vibe of your online space.

Exactly.

And that's where I think Comentario's open source nature is so cool.

Yeah.

Because if there's a feature that you need that it doesn't have,

you can build it yourself.

Wow.

Or you can contribute to the project and make it better for everyone.

It's like having a toolbox.

Yeah.

But instead of building a birdhouse, you're building this awesome

space for online discussion.

I love that.

That's a great analogy.

And it really does feel like, you know, in a world that's

kind of chaotic online, it's refreshing to see a tool like this.

It is.

That puts users first, gives communities control, and just helps

create a more positive online experience.

I think that's really what it's all about.

Yeah. It's a reminder that we have options.

We do.

And we can make the internet a better place.

One comment at a time.

I love it.

Well, thanks for joining us for this deep dive into Comentario.

It's been fun.

Yeah, it has.

And a huge thank you to Safe Server for making this episode possible.

Absolutely.

If you're looking for secure hosting or some guidance on your digital

transformation journey, check them out at www.safeserver.de.

They can even help you get Comentario set up.

Yeah, that's right.

They're a fantastic resource.

They are.

So until next time, keep those conversations flowing.

Yeah.

And let's keep working towards a more thoughtful and engaging online world.

Absolutely.

I'm all for that.