What is a ReplyBox account?
I’ll try to make this brief. I use Squarespace to build the site and send emails to your lovely inboxes. In its current form, Squarespace native comments are very broken. For example, readers do not get notifications when I reply to their comments. This is the biggest part of it that frustrated me, as I want us to be able to talk in the comments. I tried Disqus, Facebook, and many other options, and most were broken in some way (Facebook is broken by default in Safari on iOS, for example). I could write a whole newsletter on my experience with the state of decay of third-party commenting systems, but I’d be digressing.
What I did find was ReplyBox and I really like it. It’s simple and lightweight. It does require you to create a free account to comment, like Disqus and Facebook do. The plus side of that though is that it gives you the ability to review your past comments, edit them, delete them, upload a profile picture, and of course delete your account as well.
Getting Started with ReplyBox
Go to the comments section of any post on the Newsletter page. You will see this dialogue:
You can sign up by email using the ReplyBox button or with your Google account. After singing up, click “Allow Access.” Depending upon your browser, you may get a pop-up asking you to allow cookies. Allow them for the comments section and you’re good to go.
In the future, you should be able to login, if you aren’t already. If you see the “Allow Access” button again, simply click it to allow again.
That’s it. It’s pretty simple.
When Logged In
Looking at the image above, you can see a few options. There’s the text field for writing your comment and the “Comment” button is how you submit your comment once finished. There is also markdown options for formatting your comments with a handy cheatsheet link. You can also sign out.
The “Account” link takes you to your account page at ReplyBox. From there you can review all of your comments, edit, or delete them. You can also access your profile info and upload a profile picture. Please upload a profile picture as I have a visual memory and it helps me a lot to remember people. I remember faces better than names.
Two links, both alike in dignity on the Internet, where we lay our scene: