Reader Comments Matter

If you're gonna allow comments at all, best do it right

Photo by Scott Graham on Unsplash

This post is intended for collaboration amongst users of Substack, on a campaign to improve the ‘BTL’ (Below The Line) commenting functionality available to us.

The commenting system as it stands, is slow and lacking in features, when compared to other similar systems that exist.

What should we be asking for? Just for Substack to improve/change their in-house system for reader comments?

Or how technically feasible would it be for Substack to allow their content creators to choose which commenting system will appear below their posts? Choosing from a selection including Substack’s own system, some 3rd party providers, some open source products, etc.? Would the resulting fragmentation be a good or bad thing? Would we expect the use of open source products to be relatively easy, from a legal compliance perspective?

And what should we actually do about it? Just start a petition? Get the attention of some of the leading content creators? Please feel free to comment below with your thoughts! And if you see people on anyone else's Substack 'site' complaining about the functionality of the comments section, please consider replying, and directing them here.

I'm not committing to 'leading the charge' on this. I'm just getting the ball rolling.

I promise to only ever use this Substack 'site' ("megaleaf2023") for things related to this issue, and to try to do so responsibly. So feel free to subscribe to it, so that you don't miss anything. Or make a note to check back here occasionally and see if any progress is being made that you need to be aware of. Another option is for like-minded groups of people to find each other in the comments section of this post, but beware, comment notifications don't work perfectly (as we know!).

In the unlikely event that Substack tries to restrict my efforts here, I'll post about it at: https://bsky.app/profile/megaleaf2023.bsky.social