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<h1>My Cheapskate Commenting System</h1>
<p>2022-02-03</p>
<p>My blog now has comments! Well, <em>kind of</em>...</p>
<p>I went down a two day long rabbit-hole trying to find the best solution for implementing comments on my static website (generated via Jekyll FYI). There are a ton of options out there and many open source models that allow you to spin up your own instance with something like DigitalOcean or AWS. But I'm a cheap bastard. I refuse to spend $5/month on a blog mostly used for fun and one that I have zero incentive to "monetize".</p>
<p>So, what <em>free</em> options did this old miser have left to chose from? To my surprise, there were two solid options that initially caught my eye! Let's take a look then, shall we?</p>
<h2>Remarkbox</h2>
<p>Overall I don't have many bad things to say about <a href="https://www.remarkbox.com">Remarkbox</a>. It looks nice, is easy to implement and runs a "pay what you can" pricing model. What more could you ask for?! The major issue (for me, <em>personally</em>) is precisely <strong>that</strong>; the free model. This makes it difficult for me to trust 100% that this system will still be around in 3-4 years. Now I know - even paid systems can shutdown unexpectedly, but I find free tier options end up shutting their doors sooner. There is an option to self-host Remarkbox, but that requires a yearly license and also comes back to the point I made about not wanting to pay for hosting...</p>
<h2>Utterances (Github-based)</h2>
<p>The other major option was <a href="https://utteranc.es">Utterances</a>. This system was almost the winner due to it's pretty great feature set:</p>
<ol>
<li>Open source</li>
<li>No tracking, no ads</li>
<li>All data stored in GitHub issues</li>
<li>Free!</li>
</ol>
<p>But take a look above at point number three. The fact that readers wishing to leave a comment are <strong>required to have a Github account</strong>. For me, this is a non-starter. I don't want to force my audience to sign up for or sign in to <em>any</em> account just to leave a simple comment on my humble blog. Considering a number of my readers are part of the FOSS community, this just seemed like a bad fit.</p>
<h2>Finding Inspiration</h2>
<p>I absolutely love the <a href="https://solar.lowtechmagazine.com">solar.lowtechmagazine.com</a> website (both for it's content and design) and indirectly found my comment system inspiration there. Okay let's be honest, I completely stole their commenting system "concept". Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, right?</p>
<h2>My Comment System is...</h2>
<p>E-mail. It's just <strong>plain e-mail</strong>.</p>
<p>I've setup a basic <code>comment-prompt.html</code> in my <code>_includes</code> folder that contains a <code>mailto</code> action button[^1]:</p>
<pre><code><a href="mailto:myemail.com?subject=RE: { { page.title | uri_escape } }">
<button>Comment via email</button>
</a>
</code></pre>
<p>This include template is placed at the bottom of every article automatically. Then, that action pulls in the article's title as the e-mail subject line in the user's default mailing app. That's it.</p>
<h2>Pros</h2>
<ul>
<li>No third party application needed</li>
<li>Privacy focused</li>
<li>More direct interaction with my audience/readers</li>
<li>Builds a much more close-knit community</li>
<li>Completely free!</li>
</ul>
<h2>Cons</h2>
<ul>
<li>Must be manually curated and posted</li>
<li>No notifications</li>
<li>No "built-in" reply functionality</li>
<li>Has the potential to become unwieldy...</li>
</ul>
<h2>Fun Experiment</h2>
<p>I figure either way, this will be an interesting experiment. I don't know my audience size (since I don't use any type of tracking) but I assume it's very small. Those willing to write me a personal e-mail in order to share their thoughts on my stupid little blog probably have something interesting to say. At least I hope so. </p>
<p>Let's see how this thing goes...</p>
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