Add a comment section

2023.06.29 • last modified 2026.08.10 • 3 min read

It took me a while to understand how to add a comment section underneath a post without the standard Disqus.

Bluesky linking

There’s always Bluesky, I suppose.

Advantage: gives voice to people who have bluesky accounts and not github. If you have a thought or comment, that’s always appreciated.

For a Jekyll-powered blog like this one, the process is simple (widget by Cory Zue). Bluesky comments are loaded onto the blog page.

Typical usage:

Step 1: get excited about something and write a github blog post. Step 2: post on Bluesky and copy the post URL. Step 3: back in github, edit the post markdown to include in the top frontmatter (yaml block) a line with the link from step 2:

bluesky_post_url: "https://bsky.app/directlink"

Install:

The only needed step is to edit the post layout template to add to the end the container and the JavaScript loader:

<!-- cross linking to a BlueSky post about a blog post -->
    
    <!-- end of: cross linking to a BlueSky post about a blog post -->

Nostr

The most interesting way is using NoComment, available on GitHub. It is made by the creator of the Nostr protocol, fiatjaf. I find it a very convenient way to allow anyone to add a comment as a Nostr account is not needed, or any log ins or permissions.

Another advantage is that I can link the comment section to a Nostr post that I made about the post. Any comments left under that post show up on Nostr on the note thread. That may be a disadvantage as well, as the optional note ID that links to a specific thread on Nostr goes inside the comment script, of course. That means the script gets added manually to each post, if I want to add the data-custom-base="note1..." field to the script - which I do!

GitHub Giscus - links to Discussions

Giscus app limitation: requires a GitHub user log in for authentication.

Advantage: links to GitHub Discussions and not Issues like Utterances.

Process: install giscus app to your GitHub applications and in your settings configure to allow access to your public static post repository. Then on giscus page top right click to configure it and provide you the script tag to add (ex: in my case, to /_layouts/post.html).

GitHub Utterances - links to Issues

Another way is by adding a GitHub app Utterances. There are a few steps to configure it, which starts with installing Utterances on the blog repository. To edit and view all the installed apps click on your username on the very top right of the GitHub page and select Settings. Look at the long list on the left of the page and scroll to Applications. Utterances will be there, and its Repository access.

One thing that confused me is how to set up the script for my repository. The instruction just says

repo="[ENTER REPO HERE]"

OK, I understand to delete everything between the quotes. What goes in there seems to be in the format of owner/repo so in my script that line for this blog is

repo="verityj/verityj.github.io"

That seems to work. Every other setting can be left as default. I was able to add Utterances to each post by adding the script to the post layout html file.

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