The discussion revolves around a Discourse blog post outlining how publishers can create high-quality comment sections using Discourse. The playbook highlights key strategies, including using AI to screen new commenters for spam and toxicity, translating threads into multiple languages, keeping readers on the article page, assigning permanent threads to each article, and empowering regular users to assist with moderation. Setup instructions are provided for WordPress, Ghost, and other JavaScript-capable sites.
A significant portion of the thread focuses on the statement that “our engineers can move your old comments over for you.” stromfeldt asks for clarification on whether this refers to internal moves or imports from external platforms like Substack or WordPress. mcwumbly confirms that Discourse performs migrations from various publishing platforms and commenting systems, suggesting the official page be updated to list supported sources.
stromfeldt expresses enthusiasm for this service, planning to migrate colleagues’ publications to a shared Discourse instance, and hopes that support for platforms like Blogger is available. In response, mcwumbly explains that while open-source migration scripts exist, they require manual effort and often follow an “80% rule” where most data transfers easily but fine-grained decisions take more time. He notes that the team has developed many bespoke tools that are not yet fully productized but are working to integrate more capabilities into the open-source tooling.
What if your comment section was the best part of your website?
Your commenters are your most valuable readers. They read to the very end, debate your writers, and keep coming back for more. When publishers give these readers a premium space to connect, they increase time on site, boost organic search traffic, and build a loyal, owned community.