Recently I read the blog post Why Comment Sections suck – re:I want to comment on your blog post | Kami’s Corner. The article discusses the various problems of comment sections in blogs.
And actually, I wondered if a Fediverse-integration couldn’t address some of those issues:
- Lack of ownership: Replies are under your own identity, especially if self-hosting.
- Privacy issues: No ad tracking etc!
- Inaccessible to non-users: Public content is viewable without an account, though replies still require joining.
- Moderation burden: Each server handles its own moderation, reducing centralized overhead.
- Shallow engagement: Encourages more thoughtful replies compared to typical comment sections.
Yet, the Fediverse is no silver bullet:
- Low-quality: Trolls and low-quality replies still can and will very likely happen.
- Ephemeral content: Posts and replies can still disappear without notice.
- Technical weight: well, the fediverse integration doesn’t come for free – obviously
Hi! This is the exact approach that I took. I have integrated mastodon posts/comments for each of my blog posts. You can see the implementation and the results here: http://readbeanicecream.surge.sh/2025/02/22/integrated-mastodon-comments/.
So far, it’s working well for me and requires little overhead to manage.
Yeah! awesome, Congratulations!