Comments I don't host

The star, boost and reply counters sitting right under this post's title belong to a toot, not to this site. And the comments at the bottom of this page are that toot's replies. That's the whole system — here's how it works.

When a post is published, the engine announces it on Mastodon or Bluesky — one network per site, never both; the build refuses a config with two, because comments live in exactly one place. Replies to that announcement are the comments: your browser loads the thread straight from the network's public API, no login, no key, no middleman. The counters under the title are the same numbers, read from the same toot.

What falls out of that

No comment database — nothing to migrate, back up, or moderate at 2am. No spam filter, because the network already has one, and it's better funded than mine. The comment count is just the reply count. And moderation is your instance's moderation: block, mute and report all work exactly where the conversation actually happens.

The comments also belong to the people who wrote them, in their own timeline, under their own name. A reply here is a real post by a real account — not a row in my database wearing a nickname.

What it costs

Honesty first: if you're not on the Fediverse or Bluesky, you don't get to comment. That's a real cost and I won't pretend otherwise. You can still read the thread — it's public — and the bar for joining is an email address. For a personal blog, I'll take that trade over hosting a login system every day of the week.

Two details that earn their keep

unpublish deletes the announcement too. A toot pointing at a dead URL helps nobody, so taking a post down takes its thread anchor down with it.

Imported posts don't announce. The auto-announcement has a 24-hour window around "now" — so migrating a thousand posts from your old blog doesn't turn into a thousand-toot night for your followers. (You can still announce any post manually, whenever it deserves it.)

Try it on this very post

This is the part I can't fake, which is exactly why it's the demo. Reply to this post's toot — what's missing here, what would make you use this engine, or what convinced you not to — and your reply appears below, hosted by no one, moderated by your instance, owned by you.