Comment Area Widget

The Comment Area Widget is one of several "Community Widgets" available to all users on ShinePages.

While ALL community widgets offer the ability to create interactive discussions or "commenting" on your pages, they each have slightly different aesthetics, structure and functionality - lending themselves to slightly different uses.

All Community Widgets (Discussion Widget, Wall/Forum Widget, Comment Area Widget, Reviews Widget, Circle) require users to "login" (or create an account) as a "Member" of your site in order to participate/comment.  

Note: You may notice that the Comment Area widget can act similarly to the Discussion Widget if the Discussion Widget has been set to "single-channel".  There are simply some aesthetic differences and no "poll" option with the comments of the Comment Area widget. 

Once the “Comment Area” widget is added to your page, (simply drag the widget where you'd like from the Widgets menu) several settings become available in the widget panel to help you control how the comment thread functions and who can interact with it.

FIRST STEPS: 

Initial setup - Name your Comment Area: 

When the “Comment Area” widget is added to a website or funnel for the first time, the system will prompt you to create your first Comment Area thread. This comment thread then becomes available across all pages/steps within the website/funnel.

Creating and managing comment threads:

Each time the widget is added again, it will default to the first created comment thread within that website/funnel. If you want to create a new thread instead of using an already existing one, simply change the name in the widget settings. Once the name is updated, you will be provided with the option to create and display the new thread.

Now let's look at the other Settings that are a part of your Comment Area widget: 

-Who can comment?
This setting determines which users are allowed to post comments and interact with the thread. There are three options:

• All Members (default): Any logged-in member of your site or funnel can comment and interact.
• Only Admins: Commenting and interacting is restricted to users with admin permissions.
• Admins & Moderators: Only users with admin or moderator roles can comment and interact.

Even when “All Members” is selected, members must be logged in to interact with the comment area. If a visitor is not logged in, they will still see the Comment area, but will be prompted to Register or Log In as a Member of your site before posting, replying or reacting. 

(Note: When a visitor Registers - they will become a "Website Member" of your site (part of your Default Member Group). If the widget is within a Community Circle, they will also become a "Circle Member")

-Require approval on new comments
When enabled, any comments submitted by members who are not admins or moderators will require manual approval before becoming visible. This feature is useful when you want to allow broader participation while still maintaining control over what gets published, as it adds an additional level of moderation.

While a comment is awaiting approval, it’ll only be visible to the person who posted it, with a “Waiting Approval” badge displayed next to it. Other users will not see the comment until it has been reviewed and approved.

Comments awaiting approval can be reviewed and managed from Website Settings > Moderation > Waiting For Approval (Community > Moderation > Waiting For Approval also leads to the same area). 

-Additional interaction options
Two optional toggles are available to control how members can engage within the comment thread:

-Allow images: When enabled, members can upload and include images in their comments. 

-Allow mentions: When enabled, members can mention other members by using “@” followed by their name

-Sorting & Display
These settings control how comments are displayed within the thread.

Order (sets the order of root (top-level) comments):

Ascending: Older comments appear first. 

Descending: Newest comments appear first.

-Initial number of comments to display (controls how many root comments are shown when the thread first loads):

You can choose to show 3, 5, 10, or 20 comments by default. Additional comments can be revealed using the “Load more” button.

Note: Root comments are the main comments posted directly to the thread, not replies to other users. When the initial number of comments is set (e.g. 5), the system will show the oldest or newest 5 root comments (depending on the “Order” settings) along with all of their replies. Replies are always loaded together with their parent comment - you won't see a root comment without its full reply thread or isolated replies without context.

-Allow Reactions:
This toggle allows you to turn on the ability for others to "react" to comment threads. 

-Dark mode: Applies a dark background style to the comment area. Useful for consistency with dark-themed pages.