Introducing 💬 Comments!

Over a hundred writers, artists, and photographers wrote enough to fill a library with quality essays, insights, and guides here on Analog.Cafe. I’m beyond grateful for everyone’s insights and hard work.

And thank you all who gave me feedback about this project over the years. Especially those who advised me to add comments to Analog.Cafe — as it is the topic of this post and a gateway for greater community involvement.

I’ve been resisting the comment section for five years, relying on email, IRL, and social media to connect with the human world of photography. I did this because I didn’t trust myself enough to be a moderator and I don’t like the creepy, generic, slow plugins. But good people and the current broken state of social media have convinced me to code the comment tool for Analog.Cafe from scratch.

Of course, public discourse is more than system engineering. Fostering a welcoming, diverse community is something I am serious and excited about.

In this article, I’ll start by covering all the things you can do with comments on Analog.Cafe and conclude with the “Rules” section. This article will be updated often, which I hope is a sign of a community that is growing toward a diverse and welcoming space.

Features.

Comment sections appear below all new articles (unless the author requests to hide comments). Comment sections can also be locked upon request.

Analog.Cafe Comments is a place for general discourse, where comments are posted and threaded while not appearing below any article. It’s Analog.Cafe’s own Twitter clone.

There’s a ❤ button next to each comment. If it’s your comment, you’ll see the last five people who ❤’d it. This is a great way to spread positivity.

You can edit your comments. They’ll be marked as “edited.” This won’t store the history of edits — only the last revision.

Anyone whose article(s) have ever been published on Analog.Cafe can publish comments anytime without waiting for approval. Same with people whose comments I’ve approved previously. Everyone else will have their first comment reviewed before being allowed to post. I’m hoping this will facilitate ease of expression while also keeping this space clean and friendly.

There’s a limit of max 1500 characters per comment (with a minimum of 3). Comments are plaintext, but paragraphs are respected, links will be highlighted, and you can add images (10MB JPEG).

As you type, your text will be “beautified.” That is, straight quotes and apostrophes will become “curly,” short-dashes with spaces around will become long — em dashes, and three dots will be converted to a single character: ellipsis…

You will be able to subscribe to comment threads — but the work on that feature is still ongoing. 🚧

Data privacy. The comments hosted here will store only the necessary bits, like the comment itself, user ID, and article ID. I do not plan to create “shopping profiles” and sell any bits of private or public information to anyone.

Design and experience. I built Analog.Cafe from scratch to be the fastest and best-looking blog for film photographers. The comments follow this ethos by loading minimal, tailor-made code and designs.

Rules.

As you would expect, offensive, threatening, off-topic, and spam comments will be removed. Users known for repeat offences will be suspended. I will also not tolerate perpetual toxic traits on this website. I welcome your feedback and questions about this policy.

I am not blocking or censoring swear words as long as they comply with the above, but the content in the comments will need to be SFW for now.

ChatGPT. If you paste text blocks or images generated with machine learning models, you have to clearly identify it/them as such and use that type of content for demonstration/example purposes only. All text and images uploaded to this website are subject to Analog.Cafe’s TOS.

Publishing others’ content. You must have the rights to the content you publish on this website (this includes both text and images). This means that you must be the sole creator or have explicit written permission from the author(s). Fair use content (i.e., quotes/screenshots for the purpose of illustrating a point but not as a centre point) is allowed; the safest thing to do is to link to the original text/image/media instead of duplicating it here.

New community members will have their first comment pending approval until I get the time to moderate — I’m aiming to have a 24-hour cycle for approval and replies in comments. It may be longer if I’m on vacation or unavailable. I haven’t yet built a tool to notify you when your comment is approved — I’m working on that.

Like features, I expect the rules to evolve with your feedback. Which by the way, I encourage you to share below. 😁

Off-topic comments.

This is the continuation of the “Rules” section with a focus on moderation policy about content that isn’t necessarily offensive.

Off-topic comments have the potential to spiral into arguments or steal the focus from the original author’s work.

For example, in a photo essay about being an engineer on an oil rig, comments about the environmental impacts of fossil fuels (unless they are touched upon in an article) will be considered off-topic and removed. Whereas the same comment on a photo essay about the environmental impact of fossil fuels will be considered on-topic and welcome.

Comments are an excellent space to start new topics, short of writing your own article. For example, a comment about the environmental impact of chemical use in film photography would be considered on-topic and welcome. I am also OK with a comment about the environmental impact of running websites like Analog.Cafe. However, a general comment about the environmental impacts of fossil fuels would be considered off-topic and removed — unless (for example) it introduces a photography exhibition on the topic.

That said, I will try to remove as few off-topic comments as possible to keep the discourse free, friendly, and open. There’s no reason that a discussion about a camera-shaped gingerbread house that leads to the best candy for melting into a translucent glass to take pictures through can’t be an excellent discourse that is 💯 welcome here.

Communication about moderation.

As I’ve mentioned several times above and elsewhere, your feedback is very important to me. But if you have a question about your or someone else’s comment that addresses you, please email or contact me privately (please note that due to the volume of correspondence, I can not reply to all emails).