They called it Remark.as.

Today it’s officially open to all paid Write.as subscribers. You can log in with your Write.as account, and create your profile now.

getting started

Step 1. Create your Remark.as profile Step 2. Enable comments on your blog — go to its Customize page Step 3. Find a conversation on Read Write.as — any you can discuss will say “Discuss…” under it

If you want people to comment on your posts, link directly to your profile: remark.as/@yourusername, or add a special “comment” shortcode to your posts to automatically get a “Discuss” link, like what you see at the end of this post.

features

You can finally comment on the posts of anyone that allows it. They’ll live on a dedicated Remark.as page like mine: https://remark.as/@matt. You can add an avatar, plus a distinct title and description that only live here on Remark.as (i.e. they don’t impact your Write.as blog).

You can use Markdown in your bio! But emoji don’t work there yet 😞 I’m looking into it!

You can also use Markdown and rich embeds in your comments! Emoji work great there 😄 (Computers are fun.)

The Home page just gives you an overview of what this all is.

The Café shows you what conversations are happening now. Public posts will show up here once they receive a comment. Click on any post to see the discussion.

The Mail page shows which of your posts have received any comments. It won’t ping you or anything — check it when you’re ready.

access

This is all open only to paying Write.as users right now, to make sure we’re including dedicated community members, and hopefully keeping spammers and trolls at bay. That means, for now, you won’t be able to access it with a completely Free account, or a free Pro trial.

limitations

• There’s no delete or edit button yet. So it’s like web3 / the blockchain, which I hear is the future!
• There’s no auto-saving on your comments, in case you’re relying on that.
• You can only create a profile and comment as the primary blog on your account. So since that’s “Matt” for me, I’ll always be commenting as “Matt”.

what now?

As you’ll see when you log in, this is a grand experiment. I have some general product plans, but otherwise the platform will grow entirely around you — even down to how it’s governed and moderated. Maybe the names of things change over time, or we vote on things, or have common spaces anyone can modify. Who knows! This is just the start. So please use it, share your thoughts about it right here on Remark.as (Discuss...!), and help make it a warm, welcoming place where you want to hang out online.

See you soon!

If you have Email Subscriptions enabled on your Write.as blog, this new feature allows readers to reply directly to an email address of your choice. That way, when they receive your latest post, they can reply directly to you to have a conversation.

For anyone writing personal, intimate blogs, this should work perfectly — a blog just for your family or friends could include your personal email address, so replies go directly between you and your loved ones. Or if you’re going for wider reach, you might give your audience a professional, public email address, where you can then filter replies in your inbox.

To get started, simply navigate to your Blogs page on Write.as, and click Customize under the blog where you want to enable replies. Then, be sure to enable Email Subscriptions, and add the email address you’d like to use in the text box below it. Finally, save your changes!

With that done, any future posts you send out will include this email address in the “Reply-To” field. That way, when a reader presses “Reply” in their email client, it’ll go to the address you’ve provided.

Pretty easy!

If you’re already subscribed to this blog, you’ll see this at work — reply to this email, and it’ll go straight to our inbox! Otherwise, you can let us know what you think in our forum announcement.

And if you haven’t subscribed yet, add your email below to get future updates on Remark.as! See you again soon.