Riposte
Comments for static sites.
No server. No sign-up. No ads.
Paste one script tag. Readers post with a passkey and a few seconds of their device's work, so there's no account wall and no captcha. The comments live on a public chain, not on your server or ours.
How it works
<div> and one <script> in your post template. Nothing to host, no database, no API key.Compared with what you'd use now
| Riposte | Disqus | giscus / utterances | Self-hosted | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reader needs | Nothing: a passkey is made in place | An account | A GitHub account | Varies |
| Ads and tracking | No | Yes, on the free plan | No | No |
| You run | Nothing | Nothing | A GitHub repository | A server and database |
| Against spam | Work per comment, and your marks | Filters | GitHub accounts | Captchas, filters |
| Who can delete | Only the writer | The company | GitHub, the repository owner | You |
Install
First, if you want to moderate, get your moderator ID. It goes in the tag, so the widget follows your marks on your pages.
To moderate, open one of your posts, choose Moderator sign-in under the comments, and use the same Selfhold account. Hide and Block author then appear on each comment.
Options
data-page="…" names the page's thread. By default it's the page's host and path, so https://www.example.com/post/ and http://example.com/post share comments. Set your own (a post's slug, say) to keep comments when a post's path changes. Threads belong to your site's host, so a new domain starts new threads.
data-moderators="id1,id2" follows more than one moderator.
The widget uses your page's font, text color and link color. Set --riposte-accent on the element to pick another accent.
Discuss any page
Comment on a page that has no comments: paste its address, or drag this button to your bookmarks bar and press it on any page.
It's the same thread Riposte would show on the page itself, so if the site adds Riposte later, these comments are there. Nobody moderates it for you: signed in, you can mute an author, and their comments fold away for you, there and on every page with Riposte.
Questions
What does it cost?
Nothing, for you or your readers. Each comment's fee is paid by a fee sponsor in exchange for a few seconds of work from the reader's device. Nobody holds or buys coins.
What are tips?
A reader who holds coins can tip a useful comment. The coins go straight to its writer in the same transaction, and the comment is highlighted with its total. Tips are paid from the reader's balance; the fee is paid like a comment's.
Where are the comments kept?
On Riposte's chain on Lattice, which any node can serve. The widget reads from public nodes and checks every piece against its hash, so a node can't make up comments. If this site disappeared, the comments would still be there.
What do you learn about my readers?
Nothing. There are no cookies, no analytics and no server of ours. The widget loads from GitHub Pages and reads from Lattice nodes. A reader's account ID is kept in their own browser's storage.
Can I delete a comment?
No, and neither can anyone else except the person who wrote it. You can hide it on your pages, or block its author there. A hidden comment folds away, and a reader can still open it. Other sites decide for themselves whose marks to follow.
What stops spam?
Every comment costs its writer's device some work, so flooding a page is slow and costly. Past that, your marks hide what gets through, and blocking an author hides everything they write on your pages at once.
Can readers edit a comment?
No. A comment is written once and can be deleted by its writer, so a reply always answers what was actually said.
Guestbook
This is the widget itself. Say hello.