Comentario: The New Commenting Engine for NoLongerSet.com
NoLongerSet.com is migrating from Commento to Comentario for our comment hosting platform. Everything should look the same...but better.
tl;dr: You must perform a one-time password reset if you created an account with your email address to post comments on this site before March 29, 2025.
OUT: the Commento commenting engine
IN: the Comentario commenting engine
Migration Notes
Accounts and Comments Preserved
If you had an account under Commento, your username and comments should have transferred over.
Password Reset Required
However, Commento and Comentario use slightly different one-way encryption algorithms when hashing passwords, so the password you set on Commento will not work with Comentario. Luckily, there's an easy fix: request a one-time password reset. You can even use the same password as before if you still know it.
Comentario Supports Markdown
Comentario supports standard Markdown syntax:
If you want to paste source code, do everyone a favor and enclose the code in opening and closing triple backticks (```). For example:
```
'This is some sample code
Dim i As Integer
For i = 1 to 42
Debug.Print i
Next i
```Background and Further Details
Several years ago, I wrote about why I chose Commento as my commenting engine over other options including Cove comments, Facebook comments, and Disqus:
Mike Wolfe
Advantages of Commento over Cove
At the time, I wrote that Commento had the following advantages over Cove (for my specific use case):
- No dependency on Ghost membership feature
- Comments can be edited by their original author
- Markdown is clearly supported
- Markdown actually works!
Problems with Commento
The one major disadvantage with Commento when I switched to it all those years ago is that it had no central dashboard for moderating comments.
After several years of using Commento, the far bigger problem is that the project appears to have been abandoned:
In addition to the absence of activity in the open source project, there was also a complete lack of (human) support for the paid hosting service. All the automations have (mostly) worked for years:
- The hosted commenting service itself
- The automated comment data export
- The recurring billing (never a hiccup in the credit card billing process!)
However, on the rare occasions when I had to email support, no one ever responded.
For example, several years ago, I had a reader who had trouble resetting their password. I emailed support for assistance. ... [crickets] ... After a couple of weeks, I finally had to ask the reader to create a brand new account with a new email address to be able to post comments again.
The final straw came last week.
While I was presenting at J Street Technology's Access Day event in Redmond, WA, several readers wrote to let me know the commenting feature was down.
After the event, I logged into my admin account. While I was browsing for a status page, I suddenly found myself logged out. When I tried to log in, I received an incorrect password message. After a second failed attempt, I tried logging in via Firefox's private browsing window. Luckily, I was able to get in.
I went straight to the data export button, received a full dump of my comment data, and then absconded from the scene with my data before the gremlins realized I was even there.
I haven't looked back since.
Why Comentario?
Comentario has lots of great features, but these are my favorites:
- Privacy by design: No tracking scripts or pixels; no ads; no stealthy user data theft (looking at you, Disqus)
- Markdown formatting: Non-negotiable for a programming site in my opinion
- Hierarchical comments: I don't know about you, but I like to be able to collapse a commenting rabbit hole or a two-person flame war
- Moderation dashboard: This was the biggest feature missing from the Commento platform
- Data import/export: For many posts, the comments are more informative than the article itself
That last one was critical.
For me, leaving years of Commento comments behind was not an option. In fact, I pledged as much when I first implemented Commento all those years ago (emphasis added):
Please try out the new commenting feature and let me know how it works for you. I don't have plans to migrate to another commenting platform, but I promise to migrate any existing comments if I do.
Self-Hosting or Nothing
Unfortunately, if you want all these benefits, you have to host the project yourself:
The good news is–especially with AI as your pair programmer–self-hosting Comentario is not a huge lift, especially if you have some comfort working with Linux.
Also, while current generations of AI make decent software-writing interns, they're no replacement for the real thing. (Thanks for all your hard work on this project, Jonah Legg!)
Please Report Issues
I tested out the new comments, and everything appears to be in good working order.
As I wrote above, you will have to perform a one-time password reset if you previously had a commenting login under the Commento engine.
Other than that, though, everything should work very similarly to the way it has in the past. If you have specific issues, let me know in the comments below.
And if you can't log in or create an account to post a comment, send an email to mike (at) nolongerset.com.
Acknowledgements
- Cover Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay
