Add Live Commenting to WordPress Sites
Quick Start 
This is the "too long; didn't read" version of the WordPress instructions.
- Go to your WordPress dashboard Plugins page. Click
Add Plugin. - Search for
FastComments. - Install and activate our plugin.
- Click
FastCommentson the left navigation. - Follow instructions. This usually takes a few minutes, but not more.
- If you have tens of thousands or millions of comments, it may take some time to sync.
Installation
The FastComments WordPress plugin installation is designed to be easy and minimize any downtime of commenting availability on your site. The plugin will not switch over from the WordPress plugin until the sync is complete.
First, set expectations with your moderators as detailed in the Moderation section below. Let them know they'll soon be moderating from FastComments, not the WordPress dashboard.
Next, install the plugin. You can do this by going to the WordPress plugins dashboard, clicking Add Plugin, and searching for FastComments. The plugin is also available for download here.
The plugin setup will ask you if you are in the EU. If this is the case, your account will reside in the EU on eu.fastcomments.com, otherwise it will be on fastcomments.com.
Next, you can choose whether you already have a FastComments account. Follow the steps thereafter and your comments can optionally be uploaded during the installation process.
Note! Do not close the WordPress plugin page while the setup and sync is in progress.
Comments are uploaded in batches and sorted using existing indexes in your WordPress database to limit load on your site.
Once the sync is complete, the default WordPress commenting system will be replaced by FastComments. We hope you love our platform, but if you don't, reach out to us.
Customization
FastComments is designed to be customized to match your site.
If you'd like to add custom styling, or tweak configuration, Check out our Customization Documentation to learn how.
Moderation
FastComments replaces the default WordPress moderation tools with its own. You can access Comment Moderation here.
Our moderation tools are designed to be fast and easy to use. All moderation actions are done live.
Learn more about the moderation workflow, moderator stats, configuration and more here.
Users, Moderators, and Admins
FastComments and the corresponding WordPress plugin are ready for your moderators and admins to keep working.
You'll most likely want to add your administrators to User & Administrators and your moderators to Comment Moderators.
This is required if you are not using SSO.
Membership-Only Sites (SSO)
FastComments works with members-only sites by using what is called SSO, or single sign-on. Your members sign in to your WordPress site, but don't have to worry about creating an account with FastComments, or logging in with social media, to comment. If your members (including admins) are logged into your WordPress site, they will be able to comment. Your admins and moderators will be able to moderate comments directly from your WordPress blog posts, as well.
(Optional) Remember to also add your administrators to User & Administrators and moderators to Comment Moderators to improve their experience and enable stat tracking for moderators.
SSO can be enabled by going to the plugin dashboard and clicking "SSO Settings".
You will first have to enable the "Anyone can Register" feature of your site.
All user information is seamlessly and securely transferred to FastComments each time a user views a comment thread via HMAC.
There is no initial or continuous sync that needs to be run to copy your members over to FastComments servers. This is automatically done when they view comment threads by opening a blog post.
Names and Avatars
The plugin will automatically update the user's display name and avatar on all their comments within FastComments when they view
any comment thread. Avatars are supported via Gravatar or any avatar management plugin within WordPress as the plugin will call get_avatar_url.
Notifications
Your members will receive the same notifications as any other type of FastComments.com user when they are replied to or mentioned. Learn more.
Custom Themes
While we can't control how themes are implemented, FastComments supports most themes.
Some themes that try to move the comment area into modals or similar layouts may require custom development support from us.
Syncing Back to WordPress
By default, FastComments syncs back to your WordPress site daily. This is purely for backup purposes so you continue to own a copy of the data, and for plugins that may depend on it.
This does not happen immediately with every comment saved because some sites can handle heavy read traffic, but their database deployments are not always able to handle heavy write traffic (hence offloading this work to FastComments).
The sync schedule back to WordPress can be customized by installing a plugin. We recommend WP Crontrol.
Steps:
- Install WP Crontrol
- Go to
Settings -> Cron Schedules. - Go to the
Cron Eventstab. - Search for
fastcomments_cron_hook. - Edit the event. You can configure the hook to run hourly, twice a day, daily (default), or once a week.
The sync back to WordPress can also be performed any time manually by going to the FastComments plugin dashboard and selecting Manually Sync. You will have
the option to sync back to your WP install, or to re-upload your WP comments to FastComments servers.
Comment Counts
The FastComments WordPress plugin will replace the default WordPress count mechanism with a system provided by FastComments. We will make one asynchronous request per page load when there is a list of posts with comment counts to show. If the user has JavaScript disabled, it will fall back to the default WordPress counts so there is no loss of functionality.
WordPress Installation <> FastComment Server Communication
For the plugin to work, a token is saved in your WordPress database and also your FastComments account. When the plugin makes a request to our servers, it provides this token.
You can view all integrations authorized to your FastComments account here.
All communication is done via HTTPS.
All communication is outbound from your WordPress server to FastComments.com, including the sync back to your WordPress installation as it is implemented via polling from a cron setup in your WordPress installation.
Domain Errors
You may get an authorization error, like the following:
This is because FastComments doesn't know it's supposed to allow your account to be used on this domain.
In this case, the fix is simple. You just have to add your site to your FastComments.com account.
Go here to add your site to your account.
Domains are automatically added to your account during the trial period, but this can occur when adding new sites to your FastComments account.
Deactivating vs. Uninstalling the Plugin
Deactivating the plugin will remove your token from your WordPress installation. Your data remains on FastComments servers until you delete your account. If you reactivate the plugin, you will have to perform the initial sync again.
Uninstalling the plugin removes all data related to the plugin on your site, but you would still need to delete your FastComments account to remove the data that remains on FastComments' servers.