Wed Nov 06 2024 - ...
FastComments Affiliates Program Re-Launched
We've updated our affiliate program and have moved away from the third party provider.
Recent Posts
Wed Nov 06 2024 -
Mon Aug 26 2024 - ...
FastComments Can Now Show Comment Viewed Counts
FastComments now supports showing a count next to each comment that increments live as users view comments.
Fri Aug 23 2024 - ...
Page Reacts Launched
FastComments now supports displaying page-reactions along with counts above the comment widget.
Fri Jul 26 2024 - ...
Spoiler Support Added
Users can now add spoilers in their comments which are hidden until hovered via the mouse.
Tue Apr 16 2024 - ...
The FastComments WYSIWYG Editor is Out of Beta
Customers can now opt in to using the new editor which does not use visible anchor tags for formatting.
Wed Mar 06 2024 - ...
Languages Used in Comments Can Now Be Limited
Some communities want to restrict the languages used. This can now be done with FastComments.
Mon Jan 08 2024 - ...
Password Authentication is Now Supported
With this update FastComments now supports traditional password-based authentication in addition to the existing email based system.
Mon Dec 11 2023 - ...
Tenant Management Update
FastComments has improved the interaction for managing your tenants!
Mon Nov 27 2023 - ...
Releasing Display Names
FastComments always supported display names for SSO users. However, this was never exposed to regular commenters. Today changes that!
Thu Nov 16 2023 - ...
Announcing FastComments Trust Factor
FastComments now uses more heuristics when determining what is and what is not spam.
Tue Nov 14 2023 - ...
Webhook Structure Changes
We have made some behavior-related changes to the webhook structures.
Fri Nov 10 2023 - ...
Seamless Dark Mode Switching Added
FastComments always supported dark mode. However, it used to require a reload of the comment widget to switch to dark mode. This has been fixed.
Mon Oct 09 2023 - ...
New ChatGPT 4 Based Spam Filter.
FastComments adds to its list of spam filter options.
Mon Sep 18 2023 - ...
Spam Detection Training is Now Per-Tenant
FastComments has been training its spam prevention classifier for years. Now, training capabilities have been upgraded.
Wed Aug 23 2023 - ...
Introducing Commenter Name Formats
This is a small feature launch which we think will benefit some communities.
Mon Aug 21 2023 - ...
FastComments Upgraded to HTTP/2
We've made some infrastructure upgrades that improves the performance of FastComments even more!
Wed Aug 09 2023 - ...
Comment Menu Update
This update is mostly for developers that customize FastComments. We've made some API changes and made some optimizations.
Mon Jun 12 2023 - ...
Custom Email Templates Released
With this update you can now customize emails sent from FastComments to your customers.
Tue Apr 18 2023 - ...
April Badges Update
Some changes have been made to badges, some features have been added, and some improvements have been added to prevent badges from going away when reprocessing occurs.
Mon Apr 03 2023 - ...
FastComments Is Now Backed Up Across Multiple Cloud Providers
As of April 2023, the FastComments databases are now stored in multiple cloud providers for extra caution.
Tue Mar 14 2023 - ...
Moderation Update - Badges in Moderation Page
Moderators can now award or remove badges from users directly from the comment moderation page, without having to go to the comment thread viewer.
Mon Jan 30 2023 - ...
Moderation Comment Search Update
FastComments now lets you search by page and user in the comment moderation page.
Mon Jan 16 2023 - ...
Notification Emails Enabled For Subscriptions
FastComments now sends emails to users for pages they are subscribed to.
Fri Dec 02 2022 - ...
Scheduling and Replaying Comments Live With FastComments
FastComments can now be used to automatically schedule and play back comments over a period of time. This is useful for Webinars or other live events.
Mon Nov 21 2022 - ...
FastComments Now Supports Strict Third Party Cookie Settings
Up until now, FastComments required third party cookies to be enabled to fully function. This is no longer the case!
Mon Nov 14 2022 - ...
Comment Threads Can Now Easily Be Closed
FastComments has always allowed you to mark comment threads readonly via code or customization rules, but now it can easily be done from the comment widget itself.
Thu Nov 10 2022 - ...
Page Sizes are Now Customizable
FastComments has had a fixed page size of 30 comments since launch. This is now customizable!
Wed Nov 09 2022 - ...
New Live FastComments Analytics Launched
FastComments has provided various Analytics since launch, but now it provides a number of live metrics that can be reported on.
Wed Nov 02 2022 - ...
Migrating From Hyvor Talk To FastComments
Read this post to see how to fully migrate from Hyvor Talk to FastComments.
If you're using the manual code installation with Hyvor Talk then it's simply a matter of removing the small snippet they give you and replacing it with our own. You can even run Hyvor and FastComments on the same site temporarily to test and tweak the look and feel. We can help with that.
If you're not using the code snippet based installation then the instructions will vary based on your platform - again reach out to us.
Tue Nov 01 2022 - ...
Karma is Now Retained After Comment Deletion
This year we introduced user profiles, and with it user karma. Up until now, if a comment was deleted, the associated karma was lost. No longer!
Tue Nov 01 2022 - ...
Unread Comments are Now Highlighted With FastComments
Ever come back to a page and want to resume reading the comment section where you left off? FastComments now styles comments you missed, making this easy.
Mon Oct 31 2022 - ...
Approvals Can Now be Done Once Per User
Previously, if manual approval was enabled, every comment would have to be moderated. Now, if desired, once a user is approved, their future comments don't require moderation.
Fri Oct 28 2022 - ...
New Floating Like Widget Released
A new widget has been released that lets users like pages or articles.
Mon Oct 24 2022 - ...
FastComments Launches Custom Vote Styles
Ever wanted to switch from the default up/down voting style to just a plain heart icon? Now you can.
Fri Oct 14 2022 - ...
Add Live Chat to Native Applications With FastComments React Native
After months of work, we're pleased to announce fastcomments-react-native-sdk is now at version 1.0 for general availability.
Fri Jun 17 2022 - ...
FastComments - The Disqus Alternative for The EU
FastComments now has a datacenter in the EU at https://eu.fastcomments.com.
Mon Jun 06 2022 - ...
FastComments Referral and Affiliate Program
Refer customers and get a recurring commission!
Thu Apr 21 2022 - ...
Profiles, Badges, and Direct Messaging
In this release we have many features that reward communities that use FastComments and help them communicate.
Sun Apr 17 2022 - ...
Hiding Flagged Comments with FastComments
Flagging has been added to FastComments. Additionally, comments can be hidden based on the number of times they are flagged.
Mon Mar 21 2022 - ...
Audit Log Released
FastComments now provides a detailed log of all modifications made via the platform.
Thu Feb 17 2022 - ...
Moderation Groups Released
Have more than one type of content, and want different teams of moderators to handle their own content? Now you can with FastComments!
Mon Feb 14 2022 - ...
FastComments White Labeling
White Labeling, with full API integration and automation tools, comes to FastComments.
Fri Jan 21 2022 - ...
FastComments Releases Server-Side Rendering
Add commenting to your site without the use of JavaScript.
Wed Jan 19 2022 - ...
Dropping The iframe for SEO
We've improved the visibility of your comments to search engines, and increased the likelihood the content will be attributed to your site.
Wed Dec 08 2021 - ...
Profanity Masking Update
FastComments Profanity Detection and Masking Gets an Upgrade
Tue Nov 23 2021 - ...
FastComments Adds Support for #HashTags
Ever wanted to #tag a topic or piece of information? Now you can.
Mon Oct 11 2021 - ...
FastComments Gets @mentions
Ever wanted to @mention one or more users in a comment? Now you can.
Tue Oct 05 2021 - ...
Adding Commenting to Notion Pages
Want to add comments to your Notion pages? We have you covered.
Fri Jul 09 2021 - ...
Moderating Comments Made Easier
You can now moderate comments without leaving your site!
Mon Jun 21 2021 - ...
FastComments Gets a New Look
FastComments has been updated. Learn about the update and how you can get it.
Wed Apr 14 2021 - ...
FastComments Goes Angular
Need to embed comments into an application developed with Angular? We got you.
Fri Apr 02 2021 - ...
Customizing Email Footer Logos
Have a more consistent experience for your users by branding the emails FastComments sends.
Sat Feb 06 2021 - ...
FastComments Goes React Native
Need to embed live commenting into an application developed with React Native? We got you.
Tue Jan 26 2021 - ...
Indexing Your Comment Threads in Search Engines
We've improved the information that search engines see when crawling your site with FastComments.
Fri Jan 22 2021 - ...
Pinning Comments with FastComments
Top-level comments can now be pinned in comment threads!
Tue Jan 05 2021 - ...
Introducing Commenter Links
Our first release of 2021 brings the ability (if enabled at tenant level) for users to add their blog link when commenting.
Wed Dec 30 2020 - ...
Migrating From JustComments To FastComments
Read this post to see how to fully migrate from JustComments to FastComments.
It's usually a matter of removing the small snippet they give you and replacing it with our own. You can even run JustComments and FastComments on the same site temporarily to test and tweak the look and feel. We can help with that.
Fri Dec 18 2020 - ...
Admin & Moderator Labels Now Showing on Comments
A small change that simplifies interacting with your community.
Thu Nov 19 2020 - ...
Protecting Comment Threads With Single-Sign-On
Don't consider your comment threads public? Have SSO setup for authentication? This might be for you.
Fri Nov 13 2020 - ...
Customizing The Default Avatar
The default avatar image can now be customized.
Wed Nov 11 2020 - ...
Embeddable Comments For Webflow
Instructions, including a video, on installing FastComments on a Webflow.io site.
Mon Nov 09 2020 - ...
Sorting Comment Threads with FastComments
Since launch, FastComments did not allow you to change the sort order of the comment thread. That changes with this release!
Mon Oct 26 2020 - ...
Using FastComments in VanillaJS Single Page Applications
While we have dedicated React and VueJS components, the vanilla widget can be used in single page applications too.
Wed Oct 21 2020 - ...
Commenters Can Now Remove Their Comments
A much anticipated update, you can now delete your comments left with FastComments.
Fri Oct 16 2020 - ...
Comments Are Now Editable With FastComments
A much anticipated update, you can now edit comments left with FastComments.
Mon Oct 05 2020 - ...
Embedding Comments on a VueJS site With FastComments
Need to embed comments into an application developed with Vue? We got you.
Sat Sep 26 2020 - ...
Webhooks Come to FastComments
FastComments can now call your API for comment creation, updates, and removal.
Thu Sep 24 2020 - ...
Debugging Your FastComments Installation Made Easier
Comments not showing? Settings don't seem to be applied? Figuring that out just got a whole lot easier.
Thu Sep 10 2020 - ...
Customizing The Widget Text
Customizing the widget text is a frequent support question. Now it's self-service.
Wed Aug 12 2020 - ...
Embedding Comments on a GatsbyJS Site with FastComments
You can now use FastComments to embed comments into a site made with Gatsby!
Wed Aug 12 2020 - ...
FastComments Goes React
Need to embed comments into an application developed with React? We got you.
Fri Jul 10 2020 - ...
Migrating Your Comments Across Domains
Life changes. Companies evolve. Domain names and URL patterns change, and FastComments can help.
Thu Jul 09 2020 - ...
Comments For The Jamstack
What's old is new again. Pre-rendering and serving sites from a CDN is now called the "JamStack" - but they don't have to be completely static!
Wed Jul 08 2020 - ...
Create an RSS Feed from Your Comments
RSS is still alive and well, and now FastComments supports it. Don't know what RSS is? Don't worry, we'll fill you in.
Tue Jul 07 2020 - ...
FastComments on Sites with Dark Backgrounds
FastComments now adjusts to your site's theme, whether it's light or dark.
Fri Jun 26 2020 - ...
Embedding Comments on GitHub Pages
Want to add comments to a static site, like GitHub Pages?
Wed Jun 24 2020 - ...
FastComments on Mobile - Less Whitespace More Content
We've improved the readability and appearance of FastComments on mobile.
Sun Jun 14 2020 - ...
FastComments Redesign - With a Toolbar!
We've recently taken a stab at giving our core commenting widget experience a face lift.
Sun May 24 2020 - ...
Easy Code Snippet Support With FastComments
Some of our customers have software-development related sites and blogs. In these communities it's common to share code snippets. Here's how FastComments makes that easy.
Sun May 24 2020 - ...
FastComments Now Supports Markdown
A richer commenting experience has arrived at FastComments with the use of Markdown!
Fri May 22 2020 - ...
Admin and Moderator Comments Are Now Auto Approved and Reviewed
A minor announcement - but welcome to many!
Fri May 22 2020 - ...
Monthly Engagement Overview With The FastComments Digest
Want a regular reminder of comments that may need attention, without getting emails every hour?
Fri May 08 2020 - ...
How to Only Auto Approve Verified Comments
Have auto approval enabled but only want verified comments to show on your site or blog?
Sun Apr 26 2020 - ...
FastComments Now Supports Live Commenting
With this product launch FastComments is able to improve the engagement of your audience even more!
Mon Apr 13 2020 - ...
Setting up SSO With FastComments
FastComments provides SSO solutions for various platforms and custom integrations.
Thu Apr 02 2020 - ...
Banning, and Shadow Banning With FastComments
The FastComments moderation toolset now has the ability to ban or shadow ban a user.
Sun Mar 29 2020 - ...
Preview Widget Customization in Real Time
Customizing your comment widget taking too long? We've launched a solution!
Fri Mar 27 2020 - ...
Close a Comment Thread With FastComments
Have a discussion you want to close? The option is here!
Tue Mar 24 2020 - ...
FastComments is on WordPress!
Considering switching from another WordPress comment plugin? Try FastComments!
Tue Mar 24 2020 - ...
New Widgets! Top Pages and Recent Comments
Today we're introducing two new widget types, bringing the total supported widgets to three: Comment Count, Recent Comments, and Top Pages.
Sun Mar 22 2020 - ...
Customize Your Comments Blacklist With FastComments
For some, the default word blacklist is too restrictive or too open.
Sun Mar 22 2020 - ...
Full Text Search Comes to FastComments
Moderators now have the ability to search a combination of user names and comment text via the moderation page.
Thu Feb 27 2020 - ...
Giving Moderators The Full Picture at FastComments
Sometimes the difference between marking something as spam and approving it can be the context - so FastComments provides an easy way to go from an individual comment to an exact spot in a thread.
Sun Feb 23 2020 - ...
How to Require Approval for All Comments
By default no approval process is required with FastComments. Your users comment and their comments immediately are available to the whole internet to see (albeit with the unverified tag if they are not logged in). So what if you want to manually moderate and approve every comment?
Sun Feb 23 2020 - ...
The FastComments Comment Count Widget
Want to show off the number of comments on a page before a user clicks in? No problem with FastComments.
Mon Feb 17 2020 - ...
Creating a Team of Comment Moderators with FastComments
A one-man army only scales so far. What do you do when you're overwhelmed by the number of comments you have to review?
Read this post to see how to invite comment moderators to FastComments.
Wed Feb 12 2020 - ...
FastComments Default Avatars Using Gravatar
What's an Avatar?
An avatar is the profile icon associated with every account and shown next to every comment.
What's Gravatar?
Gravatar brands themselves as "A Globally Recognized Avatar". It's a service where you can define an avatar for a given email. Any products you sign-up to using that email can then use that avatar. This removes a step for people signing up to FastComments since their avatar is setup automatically.
So what's the change?
FastComments will now pull default avatars from Gravatar. You or or users don't have to do anything to get this feature.
If your existing users have already defined their own avatar - no worries - we aren't going to overwrite their custom avatars. Also, users can still overwrite the Gravatar avatar in FastComments.
Wed Feb 12 2020 - ...
Using FastComments in Multiple Places On The Same Page
FastComments is flexible. It attaches to a regular element on a page so it works with any web framework.
Read this post to see an example of multiple instances of FastComments on the same page.
Sat Feb 08 2020 - ...
Migrating From IntenseDebate To FastComments
Read this post to demonstrate how to fully migrate from IntenseDebate to FastComments.
Wed Feb 05 2020 - ...
FastComments Gets Localized
Localization is no small step - and it's arrived at FastComments. The embeddable comment widget is now fully localized in English (en-us), Spanish (es-es), and French (fr-fr).
You'll notice that we haven't slowed down, either. Generally when most applications add localization support the bloat starts to set in. In our case the client-side script has actually decreased in size as we've done some housekeeping and other optimizations at the same time.
If you'd like FastComments translated in your language, or you've spotted a translation issue, let us know.
Wed Feb 05 2020 - ...
How to Disable Image Uploads In Your Comments
With FastComments you can disable image uploads in the comment section of your website for either the entire site or just a particular page.
Mon Feb 03 2020 - ...
Configure How Long to Keep Unverified Comments
By default FastComments will keep your unverified comments for three days.
What does "unverified" mean?
When a user comments and leaves their email FastComments will send them an email asking them to verify their comment. This helps fight spam, and highlights the comments that their authors really want shown.
If you enable Anonymous Commenting they won't even have to leave their email!
But now you can configure how long to keep these comments - maybe you don't even want to automatically remove them! This is all configurable ia Moderate Comments -> Edit Moderation Settings
Mon Feb 03 2020 - ...
Threaded Pagination Comes to FastComments
FastComments now supports pagination without collapsing content! Also, if you want to read a long thread quickly FastComments has a "Load All Comments" button on long threads (like here).
This means that if you have hundreds of replies on a page we aren't going to bog down your site by loading them all up at once. One the user scrolls down to your comment section, and reads past the 30 comments we load initially, they can click "Show Next 30 Comments" to quickly load the next set and continue reading.
It's also well optimized, as usual. If you're into that kind of thing read about it on our engineering blog.
This requires no additional setup from you! Existing customers will get this feature. Enjoy FastComments.
Sat Feb 01 2020 - ...
How to Allow Anonymous Comments With FastComments
By default FastComments requires an email to comment if you are not logged in. We use this email to automatically create an account for the user and let them verify their comment. In order to allow anonymous commenting you just have to create a customization rule. Define the domain, and optionally page, that you want to allow anonymous commenting on.
Thu Jan 30 2020 - ...
Image Uploads Come to FastComments
A picture is worth a thousand blog posts, right?
Wed Jan 29 2020 - ...
How to Hide Your Comment Feed Under a Link
Don't want to show a comment feed at the end of your pages, but want to let users comment? We got you.
Tue Jan 28 2020 - ...
How to Prevent Spam in Your Comments
There's no way to 100% combat spam. But FastComments deploys a number of measures to help.
Mon Jan 27 2020 - ...
What Notifications Does FastComments Send?
Learn about how FastComments might - or hopefully might not - bug you.
Sun Jan 26 2020 - ...
Migrating From Muut Comments To FastComments
Read this post to see how to fully migrate from Muut to FastComments.
It's simply a matter of removing the small snippet Muut gives you and replacing it with our own. You can even run Muut and FastComments on the same site temporarily to test and tweak the look and feel. We can help with that.
Sat Jan 25 2020 - ...
Migrating From Commento To FastComments
Read this post to see how to fully migrate from Commento to FastComments.
Gotchas
Commento doesn't give us full URLs. What they provide is just the domain name that a comment thread belongs to - like "fastcomments.com/some-page". This means that the FastComments importer has to assume what the protocol is, and it defaults to https. If you run the import and are not seeing your data you may want to check that your site is properly secured.
Fri Jan 24 2020 - ...
How to make a comment system like Hackaday.com
Here we'll explore creating a comment thread that looks like the one on Hackaday.
If you click the link to this post the overall page styling as well as the FastComments Blog will change.
Thu Jan 23 2020 - ...
Migrating From Disqus To FastComments
Read this post to see how to fully migrate from Disqus to FastComments.
If you're using the Generic Site Integration with Disqus then it's simply a matter of removing the small snippet they give you and replacing it with our own. You can even run Disqus and FastComments on the same site temporarily to test and tweak the look and feel. We can help with that.
If you're not using the Generic Site Integration then the instructions will vary based on your platform - again reach out to us.
Wed Jan 22 2020 - ...
FastComments Gets Avatars
After launch this was the most asked for feature, so here it is.
If you are logged in and comment, or view your existing comments, you'll see there is now an empty profile picture next to your name.
Mon Dec 30 2019 - ...
FastComments Demo
View this blog post to see a live demo of FastComments. Feel free to comment and play around.
If you leave a comment and don't verify it via email within three days it'll automatically be removed. This is one of FastComment's powers to fight spam.