Usage

Signing Up

You can sign up to create your own CommentBox.io projects via the dashboard at https://dashboard.commentbox.io. You can create an unlimited number of projects, each with their own pricing plans.

Signing up can be done via social login or by email. All sign ups require email verification.

Pricing

We offer two plans:

  • Personal - best for low-traffic sites

    • 100 comments per month for free ($15 after comment limit)
    • Unlimited page views
    • Basic moderation tools
    • No credit card required (we'll only bill you if you go over your limits)

  • Professional - best for high-traffic sites who receive more than 100 comments a month

    • $10 per month, or $100 per year (2 months free with the yearly plan)
    • Unlimited comments per month
    • Unlimited page views
    • Basic moderation tools

Additionally, we offer a Moderation Plus optional add-on, which unlocks extra moderation features.

  • $20 per month per group of 5K comments
  • Granular moderation filters
  • Search and filtering capability
  • Up to nine extra moderators

Moderation Rules

We offer three different kinds of moderation:

  • Manual - all comments must be manually approved
  • Automatic - all comments are automatically approved
  • Granular - all comments are automatically approved, except those that to not pass the enabled filters.

Granular moderation is often best suited for high volumes of comments, and is only available with the Moderation Plus add-on.

Here's the breakdown of the granular filters that you can enable:

  • Comments containing links - if a URL is found in a comment, it will not pass.
  • Comments from authors blocked on other websites - if a user posts a comment on your website, but they were previously blocked on another website, their comment will not pass.
  • Comments from authors with previously removed comments - if a user posts a comment on your website, but you have previously removed on of their comments, their comment will not pass.
  • Comments from anonymous authors - if an anonymous user posts a comment, it will not pass.
  • Comments matching previously removed comments - if a comment has the same content as a previous comment that has been deleted by you, it will not pass.

We plan to expand this list in the near future, so if there's a filter you'd like to see implemented, please let us know.

Extra Moderators

For users with the Moderation Plus add-on, you may add up to 9 extra moderators. To do so, simply add their email addresses to the corresponding section during project setup. Note that we will not notify these users via email, in order to prevent abuse or spam. However, they will be notifed once they log in to the dashboard using the email that you've specified.

Once logged in, they will be presented with the option to accept or reject your request. They also have the option to reject and block future requests to join that project.

If they accept, the project will become available in their projects dropdown in the dashboard. They will have limited access to the project's Setup page, where they will only be able to modify their email preferences. However, they will have full access to the Comments page, where they can take any action to approve or remove comments. The same is true for moderating directly in the plugin.

Webhooks

Webhooks are an excellent way to programmatically respond to events that occur. We offer two ways to implement webhooks: a generic event webhook, or a Slack webhook.

Generic Event Webhook

You can opt to implement a webhook to receive various events. To do so, create an endpoint that listens for POST requests with a JSON body. Then, set the URL in the appropriate section in the project setup in the dashboard. We will then ping that URL with relevant data as events occur.

Please note that your endpoint must be able to verify requests sent to it by inspecting the "Basic" Authorization header, whose credentials must match those generated in the dashboard after saving your project.

We will POST a request to your endpoint with a JSON body that includes two parameters: event and data.

The event parameter is a string that can be one of:

  • comment.pending
  • comment.approved
  • comment.deleted
  • comment.flagged

In the future, we may expand this list to include other events such as voting.

The data parameter is an object that has the following parameters:

  • id: the comment Id
  • body: the comment body, which is in Markdown
  • version: a string representing a number from 0-9, which increase by 1 each time a comment is edited
  • url: the URL of the box where the comment was created
  • tlcParam: the query parameter to use when linking to that specific comment on the page
  • createdAt: the date the comment was created, in milliseconds
  • updatedAt: the date the comment was updated, in milliseconds

Additionally, the comment may include the following parameters, if it is not anonymous:

  • userId: the author's user ID
  • userDisplayName: the author's name
  • userPhotoURL: the author's photo, if available

Note that for deleted comments, only the id parameter will be available.

Slack Webhook

You may opt to receive particular notifications via Slack. Simply paste the Slack Webhook URL into the appropriate section in the project setup in the dashboard, and select the events you'd like to post to Slack.

Moderating Comments

You or your moderators can moderate comments in the dashboard, in the Comments page.

The dashboard allows you to see which comments are pending moderation as well as which published comments have been flagged.

To moderate a comment in the dashboard, simply select the checkbox to the right of it, which will bring up a toolbar with the relevant options. You can select up to 1,000 comments at a time to bulk-moderate them.

  • For pending comments, you can choose to either approve or remove them.
  • For flagged comments, you can choose to remove the flagged status.
  • For approved comments, you can choose to remove them.

You can also moderate comments within the plugin, with the ability to remove published comments, block users, and pin comments.

Blocking Users

You or your moderators can block users either in the dashboard or within the plugin. You can block a user forever, or choose a specific length of time to block them. This will display their blocked status in the plugin, and prevent them from commenting for the duration of the block.

If you have subscribed to the Moderation Plus add-on, you can also "shadow" block users. The option to do so will appear in the same blocking modal, as the question "Should they be aware that they are blocked?". Selecting "No" means that this user will still be able to make comments, but no other users (including moderators) will see these comments. Note that this does not apply to comments made before blocking the user.

Changing Payment Method

You may change your credit card details either from the Account modal, or in a project's setup page. Note that there can only be one payment method established for a user, which is applied to all projects created by that user, so setting a new payment method applies to all existing projects as well.

Importing Comments

We support importing comments from both Wordpress and Disqus.

Some items to be aware of:

  • We won't duplicate comments, even if you try uploading the same file twice. However, if you upload the same file twice and specified a different box ID each time, the comments will be uploaded twice, since they will be considered to have been associated with two different comment boxes on your site.
  • If you are on the Personal plan, importing comments counts against your free quota.
    • This means if you are on the Personal plan and you import over 100 comments, you will be charged $15 for that month.

Wordpress

To import Wordpress comments:

  • Navigate to your Wordpress Admin Panel > Plugins and deactivate all plugins.
  • Navigate to your Wordpress Admin Panel > Tools > Export.
  • Under "Choose what to export", select "posts".
    • If you have a lot of posts and comments, we recommend breaking up the download into several smaller files by specifying a start and end date.
  • Click on "Download Export File".
  • Navigate to the CommentBox.io dashboard, to the project you wish to import your comments to.
  • Navigate to Comments > Import.
  • In the file input, select the file you exported from Wordpress.
    • For most cases, you won't need to specify a box ID. If you are using a custom box ID with the CommentBox.io plugin, enter it here. Only do this if you know what you are doing and why.
  • Click on "Import from Wordpress".

Disqus

To import Wordpress comments:

  • Navigate to your Disqus Admin Panel > Community > Export.
  • Click on "Export Comments".
  • You will receive the exported file via email.
  • Navigate to the CommentBox.io dashboard, to the project you wish to import your comments to.
  • Navigate to Comments > Import.
  • In the file input, select the file you exported from Wordpress.
    • For most cases, you won't need to specify a box ID. If you are using a custom box ID with the CommentBox.io plugin, enter it here. Only do this if you know what you are doing and why.
  • Click on "Import from Disqus".

Exporting Comments

You may export all published comments from the Comments page of a project. The comments are organized by the unique comment boxes from where they originated, and are saved in a JSON file for each box.

Each file is a JSON object that contains a data and sig property. The data property is an array of comments, while sig is a signature unique to the comments in the file as well as their versions.

You can download all files as a single zip file, or individually by selecting the appropriate option in the menu.

Deleting a Project/Cancelling a Subscription

You may delete an existing project via the "Delete Project" link at the bottom of the project's Setup page. Note that this removes all existing project data, including comments.

Your billing plan will be cancelled automatically as well.

Deleting Your Account/Cancelling all Subscriptions

You may delete your account at any time via the "Delete Account" button in the Account modal. Note that this removes all your projects' data, including comments.

All billing plans will be cancelled automatically as well.