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I couldn't disagree more. Comments have been a plus on every blog I've run. I've learned from my readers, been able to answer their questions and even become fr

I couldn't disagree more. Comments have been a plus on every blog I've run. I've learned from my readers, been able to answer their questions and even become friends with a few of them. The idea that every blog comment system should be run by a multi-billion dollar company like Facebook, Reddit or YC is fundamentally at odds with the open web.

rdtwo 5y ago
I do wish there was a way to just transfer ids better between systems. I don’t really want to b have users create an account every time but no good way to prevent spam. Maybe h-capcha but even that is cheap to spam.
- jagger27 5y ago
  As much as it pains me to mention it here, as I wholeheartedly do not support it for a number of important reasons, something like Metamask and an identity on a blockchain could work for this. The more obvious solution is OAuth (or OpenID Connect), and there are plenty of providers that aren't Apple, Google, Microsoft, Twitter, or GitHub.
  - rdtwo 5y ago
    Yeah I don’t really care about I’d but the problem is spam. Maybe phone text authentication is an alternative, idk how much that costs to implement though.
    - fhackenberger 5y ago
      About 5c per msg, a bit lower for some countries, a bit higher for others.
      - rdtwo 5y ago
        Is there no service out there where you can just buy a number and use it for text validation
        7steps2much 5y ago
        You could build one yourself by grabbing some hardware that includes a modem and grabbing a sim card from a local provider with "unlimited" text messages. Might violate ToS though
- amelius 5y ago
  Perhaps Mastodon could be a solution?
quaintdev 5y ago
> The idea that every blog comment system should be run by a multi-billion dollar company like Facebook, Reddit or YC is fundamentally at odds with the open web. Agree but don't you think there needs to be a better way at handling comments on web. What I do not want is: 1. sign up on every blog just to comment 2. something like discuss either Maybe a federated comment section?
- mro_name 5y ago
  indeed – you might locally mirror comments from other webmention/activitypub etc. places and black/whitelist as usual.
- AlchemistCamp 5y ago
  If you don't want to sign up, then just lurk! I often go from just reading the posts to reading posts and comments to talking about the site elsewhere to signing up and just posting there. Having used federated comment systems, they've been a complete loss. They increase page load times, lead to more low-quality drive-by comments and then inevitably eventually start trying to load their ads on my page. The one exception is crypto sites, where people just log in with their wallet creds. Those are pseudonymous, shared across sites and have very frictionless UX. That would be a highly polarizing choice for a non-crypto-focused site, though.
  - cuteboy19 5y ago
    It's the equivalent of sharing your bank account number with scammysitedotcom. Even if there are no security implications, sharing your entire financial history with any website is very privacy hostile.
    - 3np 5y ago
      Not necessarily. You should use a different account (preferably one with 0 transaction history, if no on-chain txes are needed) than your main financial account (and really, anyone not living paycheck to paycheck should have more than one of those in the first place. Cold/hot, have a separate one for any defi activities, use a new one for each L2, etc) Just like you may not have the same email for job applications and dodgy e-commerce, or bring all your cash and cards with you in a purse to the nightclub. (GP did say “shared across sites”, which should be a very deliberate decision and not the default. UX needs to improve to have better privacy by default. I could imagine Metamask defaulting to generating and connecting a unique address for each domain, requiring manually selecting accounts to have them shared)
srg0 5y ago
A mailto: link provides most of the advantages of the comments: a way to report errors, suggestions, ask questions and even get to know each other. And it uses the most popular federated protocol, so most users won't have to create a n ew account. Also spam is not a problem, comments stay private.
- AlchemistCamp 5y ago
  My old blogs all had an email address on them as well as comments. Some people did email me and it was useful, but far more preferred to comment because they wanted to share their thoughts publicly. It's probably why you wrote this comment rather than just emailing someone.

rdtwo 5y ago

I do wish there was a way to just transfer ids better between systems. I don’t really want to b have users create an account every time but no good way to prevent spam. Maybe h-capcha but even that is cheap to spam.

jagger27 5y ago
As much as it pains me to mention it here, as I wholeheartedly do not support it for a number of important reasons, something like Metamask and an identity on a blockchain could work for this. The more obvious solution is OAuth (or OpenID Connect), and there are plenty of providers that aren't Apple, Google, Microsoft, Twitter, or GitHub.
- rdtwo 5y ago
  Yeah I don’t really care about I’d but the problem is spam. Maybe phone text authentication is an alternative, idk how much that costs to implement though.
  - fhackenberger 5y ago
    About 5c per msg, a bit lower for some countries, a bit higher for others.
    - rdtwo 5y ago
      Is there no service out there where you can just buy a number and use it for text validation
      - 7steps2much 5y ago
        You could build one yourself by grabbing some hardware that includes a modem and grabbing a sim card from a local provider with "unlimited" text messages. Might violate ToS though
amelius 5y ago
Perhaps Mastodon could be a solution?

quaintdev 5y ago

> The idea that every blog comment system should be run by a multi-billion dollar company like Facebook, Reddit or YC is fundamentally at odds with the open web. Agree but don't you think there needs to be a better way at handling comments on web. What I do not want is: 1. sign up on every blog just to comment 2. something like discuss either Maybe a federated comment section?

mro_name 5y ago
indeed – you might locally mirror comments from other webmention/activitypub etc. places and black/whitelist as usual.
AlchemistCamp 5y ago
If you don't want to sign up, then just lurk! I often go from just reading the posts to reading posts and comments to talking about the site elsewhere to signing up and just posting there. Having used federated comment systems, they've been a complete loss. They increase page load times, lead to more low-quality drive-by comments and then inevitably eventually start trying to load their ads on my page. The one exception is crypto sites, where people just log in with their wallet creds. Those are pseudonymous, shared across sites and have very frictionless UX. That would be a highly polarizing choice for a non-crypto-focused site, though.
- cuteboy19 5y ago
  It's the equivalent of sharing your bank account number with scammysitedotcom. Even if there are no security implications, sharing your entire financial history with any website is very privacy hostile.
  - 3np 5y ago
    Not necessarily. You should use a different account (preferably one with 0 transaction history, if no on-chain txes are needed) than your main financial account (and really, anyone not living paycheck to paycheck should have more than one of those in the first place. Cold/hot, have a separate one for any defi activities, use a new one for each L2, etc) Just like you may not have the same email for job applications and dodgy e-commerce, or bring all your cash and cards with you in a purse to the nightclub. (GP did say “shared across sites”, which should be a very deliberate decision and not the default. UX needs to improve to have better privacy by default. I could imagine Metamask defaulting to generating and connecting a unique address for each domain, requiring manually selecting accounts to have them shared)

srg0 5y ago

A mailto: link provides most of the advantages of the comments: a way to report errors, suggestions, ask questions and even get to know each other. And it uses the most popular federated protocol, so most users won't have to create a n ew account. Also spam is not a problem, comments stay private.

AlchemistCamp 5y ago
My old blogs all had an email address on them as well as comments. Some people did email me and it was useful, but far more preferred to comment because they wanted to share their thoughts publicly. It's probably why you wrote this comment rather than just emailing someone.